Category Archives: Comparative Psychology

Articles on the scientific study of animal behavior with emphasis on cross-species comparisons, including human-to-animal comparisons.

Monkey See, Monkey Read

In the video above Jonathan Grainger discusses an experiment in which he and his colleagues attempted to teach Guinea baboons to distinguish between real English words and strings of letters which are not English words. The baboons learned to recognize words from nonwords, exhibiting human-like orthographic processing. The results indicate that the baboons were focusing on the location of individual letters in the words in order to identify them. Interestingly, this is similar to the approach taken by human readers.

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Guide to Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs

pet dog with toy

Separation anxiety is a common problem in dogs, especially in certain breeds. Some dogs suffer only minor distress upon separation while others experience severe anxiety. If your dog responds to being left alone by urinating on the carpet, howling, chewing on the furniture, or pacing compulsively, he likely suffers from significant separation anxiety and would benefit from treatment. Continue reading

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World Renowned Psychologists who were probably One Step Shy of Insanity – Part 1

Harry HarlowWhen we think of the term “psychologist” a variety of adjectives usually come to mind – with words such as brilliantcalminsightful, professionalconcerned and helpful likely among them. And when we consider those psychologists who performed groundbreaking research, who contributed most significantly to the human lifestyle and who initiated major positive changes in society, our admiration perhaps grows even more. But things are not always as they seem. They say there is a fine line between genius and insanity. For a few of the most influential men in the field of psychology, the saying probably rings true.

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What is Comparative Psychology?

baby seal

It’s like looking in a mirror

Comparative Psychology is the branch of Psychology which deals with the scientific study of animal behavior and it places emphasis on cross-species comparisons, including human-to-animal comparisons. This method evaluates the similarities and differences across species to better understand the developmental and evolutionary relationships between them. It can also be used to compare contemporary and ancient species. It has been suggested that the term “Comparative Psychology” be discarded as it is not descriptive of the field. However, as a suitable replacement has not been put forward, the term remains in popular use today. Continue reading

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