Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://hdl.handle.net/2440/64269
Type: | Conference paper |
Title: | Of parrots and parsimony: reconsidering morgan's canon |
Author: | Welsh, M. |
Citation: | Proceedings of 32rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2010), held in Portland, Oregon USA 11-14 August 2010 / S. Ohlsson and R. Catrambone (eds.): pp.1798-1803 |
Publisher: | Cognitive Science Society |
Publisher Place: | www |
Issue Date: | 2010 |
Conference Name: | Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (32nd : 2010 : Portland, Oregon) |
Editor: | Ohlsson, S. Catrambone, R. |
Statement of Responsibility: | Matthew Brian Welsh |
Abstract: | Morgan’s Canon is a specific restating of Occam’s Razor that dictates that any description of animal behavior should never call upon higher order psychological processes if the behaviour could, fairly, be explained in terms of lower processes. Herein, the Canon is discussed both historically and in light of current research into animal behavior. A reconsideration of the principle of parsimony, taking into account current states of knowledge, is also considered. In short, it is argued that Morgan’s Canon, while a useful guideline, may have been over enthusiastically applied in situations where the state of knowledge about a species would dictate that descriptions of its behavior in terms of higher order processes would be equally or more parsimonious. The potential benefits of reconsidering the Canon are then discussed. |
Keywords: | parsimony animal behavior comparative psychology theory of mind individual differences |
Rights: | © the authors |
Appears in Collections: | Aurora harvest 5 Australian School of Petroleum publications |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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hdl_64269.pdf | Published version | 95.87 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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