I Too have a Purpose: New Evidence of Animal Consciousness

Rhesus monkey passing the mirror tests for self-recognition © Dr. Neng Gon

There are many studies that show there is no evidence of animal consciousness and the process of consciousness is limited to human brains. The fact that non-human consciousness exists and can influence animal’s cognition seemed impossible to many behavioral scientists because of the lack of objective evidence. However, Donald R. Griffin and Gayle B. Speck reviewed evidence that shows the increased probability that animals experience some level of consciousness or at least simple levels of consciousness.

In this study, they have reviewed three different categories of evidence that showed how animals experience some sort of consciousness. Previous studies have measured the probability of awareness of an animal (PA) and they concluded that if the animal has a particular conscious then their PA would be greater than zero. If they do not then their PA would be zero. Griffin and Speck have reviewed three general categories of evidence that showed animals PA being above 0.5 for examples, that animals have neural processes which lead to consciousness, versatility which is adjustment of behavior in response to challenges, and when the animal was communicating with other animals which helped to inform receivers about the conscious experiences of the sender.

For the neural process, they have looked at studies that have tested for the complexity of the human brain and it’s size while also studying the brain of a honeybee, which is a lot smaller than humans. They have concluded that despite the brain being small it is still complex and capable of neural processes lead to consciousness.They have looked at versatility by reviewing studies that test behavioral change of animals when they encountered a challenge. One of the studies looks at classical conditioning and how the animals were aware of the task they were doing. They finally looked at how animals are conscious when they are communicating. They looked at three different examples of communication that are useful evidence of conscious experiences. For example, the fact that some studies have shown that apes are able to learn simple levels of human speech which can’t be done if the animal is not aware. In this review, they concluded that based on the numerous research that has been done on animal cognition animals have basic levels of consciousness.

References

Griffin, D. R., & Speck, G. B. (2004). New evidence of animal consciousness. Animal Cognition, 7(1), 5-18.