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Communication and Cognition: Is Information the Connection?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2023

Colin Allen  and
Marc Hauser
Colin Allen
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University, Harvard University
Marc Hauser
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University, Harvard University
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Extract

Among cognitive ethologists, communication is widely supposed to be a good area for comparing animal minds (e.g., Cheney & Seyfarth 1990; Griffin 1991, and other contributions to Ristau 1991). There is, however, considerable controversy about how to define or characterize communication. We will not survey these attempts in this paper (see Philips & Austad 1990). Rather, we focus on conceptions of communication as transfer of informationfrom signaler to receiver. In conjunction with descriptions of human cognition in information processing terms, this conception encourages the idea that communication provides a “window” on animal thoughts’ (Griffin 1991, p.3). The first step in getting beyond this metaphor is to identify possible relationships between information and cognition. This paper attempts that first step.

Type
Part IV: Cognitive Ethology
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1992 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1992 , 1993 , pp. 80 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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