Thu Nov 12 · 6:30pm
Lectures on Tap — The Science of Animal Consciousness: Smarter Than We Think
Michael Cohen traces how thinking about animal minds moved from philosophical denial, including medieval arguments that animals could not feel pain, to scientific study, then turns to recent findings: cats perceive visual illusions much as humans do, numerous species can do basic arithmetic, and primates and dolphins recognize themselves in mirrors. Cohen is Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at Amherst College and a research scientist at MIT.