Workshop Cognition, 24 avril 2015, 9h-13h

Symposium on animal cognition:  Do all animals think?

Objectives

Cognition is the study of animals’ perception and interpretation of their physical and social worlds.  This field of study has long focused on the evolution of human intelligence by studying closely related species like the great apes or monkeys. More recently, some of the cognitive phenomena well studied in primates have been suggested to explain the behavior less closely related species, including in flies or ants. So, can flies think? Can we think without a brain? What is cognition? The aim of this workshop is to bring together French scientists and students to debate these questions, and make each of us re-assess what could be the cognitive determinants of adaptive behaviors in our studied species. This workshop could lead to a publishable note, and we would be pleased to orally present an abstract of this note at an USIAS event.

Program: the workshop will last for three hours and will be introduced by a short presentation of the objectives from the three organizers (30 minutes). Then the debate will take place for 2 hours (guided by the organizers, and with a coffee break) before a debriefing of the main points and agreements/disagreement, in view of a published note (30 minutes).

Organisers: A.S. Darmaillacq, O. Petit & V. Dufour

Contact : V. Dufour

valerie.dufour@iphc.cnrs.fr