International Journal of Comparative Psychology

Animal behavior studies of the 19th century were characterized by an appeal to anthropomorphic attitudes, which were resolutely challenged beginning with the start of the 20th century, particularly by the forerunners of what became the behaviorist school. The ethological school founded by Tinbergen and Lorenz also rejected appeals to human-like cognitive abilities. In the l970s, under the leadership of the physiologist, Donald Griffin, animal cognition was again admitted into “respectable” ethological company, leading to a strong critique by another eminent physiologist, John Kennedy. (The influence of Tolman had previously made many comparative psychologists receptive to this possibility). Recent studies based upon developments on direct recordings of brain activity now suggest that Tolman and Griffin’s prescience will carry the day.