When I saw What are the effects of implanting electrodes into the brains of monkeys? that raised the question, are questions about animal cognitive science / the function of animal brains on topic?

Where do we draw the line between biology and cognitive science? (Which is already a related Meta question)

I have a question about how hibernation or lack thereof affects the mind / behavior of animals, but feel that may be off-topic.

Thoughts? Discuss!

  • 1
    I'd say you question is on topic because of the phrase "affects the mind / behavior".
    – zergylord
    Jan 19 '12 at 21:56

From wikipedia:

Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on intelligence and behavior, especially focusing on how information is represented, processed, and transformed (in faculties such as perception, language, memory, reasoning, and emotion) within nervous systems (human or other animal) and machines (e.g. computers).

Animals have minds don't they? So I see no reason not to include questions about animals. I don't know of any other site on the network where it would be better on topic.

  • 2
    Completely agreed, it's impossible to even perform many kinds of cognitive research without animals and all fields of cog sci have benefited greatly from animal research.
    – Ben Brocka
    Jan 19 '12 at 19:31

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