Behavioural Methods to Study Cognitive Capacities of Animals

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past 20 years, the scientific community has witnessed a growing interest in the comparative study of mental capabilities. Animal cognition has become an independent field of inter-disciplinary investigation, featuring specialized methodologies and paradigms tailored on diverse animal models. Recently, new approaches have emerged, offering access to large amounts of highly reliable data and to an enhanced explicatory power, at the cost of over-simplifying the behavioral response. On one hand are the automated and observer-independent techniques, which allow the collection of vast sets of data but may incur the risk of denaturing the meaning and richness of natural behaviors; on the other hand is the study of the neurobiological correlates of mental processes, which requires reference to standardized paradigms, posing constraints on the complexity and ecological validity of behavior. In contrast to these approaches, more traditional behavioral methods are firmly grounded on species’ ethology, considered crucial to grasp the distinctive qualitative features of the behavioral repertoire.

The present Topical Collection aims at offering a collection of contributions employing behavioral methods to investigate the mental abilities of animals or any other behaving organism. Studies focusing on species’ natural behavior or comparing behavioral methods with other methodologies are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Lucia Regolin
Dr. Maria Loconsole
Collection Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the collection website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.