IV. To be in time in the right place: representation of space and objects in animal mind

“…Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to walk from here? ”

- “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to”, said the Cat.

– “I don’t much care where-“said Alice.

- “Then it doesn’t matter which way you walk”, said the Cat.

- “So long as I get somewhere, ” Alice added as an explanation.

- “Oh, you’re sure to do that”, said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

Alice in Wonderland

By Lewis Carroll

In Part III we considered animals’ experience of time. Indeed, the separation of “when”, “what” and “where” more often takes place in laboratory than in the real world. In this Part we will concentrate mainly on how animals solve “what” and “where” problems within their timeline.

Many animals possess sophisticated navigation abilities and there is a large number of studies devoted to investigating phenomena and mechanisms of this amazing domain of behaviour (see, for example, Baker, 1984; Healy, 1998). For many species spatial navigation is one of major problems to be solved every day for survival. Indeed, animals spend plenty of time in motion seeking food to eat, free space to settle in, a mate to have sex and offspring with, a tool to use, an enemy to fight and something to have fun. Some species undertake extremely long-distance travels such as the Arctic tern migrating from the North Pole to the South Pole, while others such as some invertebrate species do not move away from their native place further than several centimetres. Distances are noncomparable, but there is one option that can easily be compared in many species, from ants to elephants. The matter concerns feats of intelligence which can be equal in such different creatures. Even if you are not a long-distance explorer it could be difficult to find a right place and to come back not being equipped with something like an Ariadne’s thread or at least with good brains.

It is important to note that animals’ mapping behaviour does not necessarily require cognitive abilities. Even “simple” forms of learning are not always involved in the processes of navigation. At the same time, even “simple” ways of navigation could be included in a process of cognitive mapping that requires ability of “bird’s eye view“of the environment based on sophisticated internal representation.

The hypothesis that animals can construct and use cognitive maps has a long and controversial history. A discussion is still continuing to twist between concrete questions such as “Do insects have cognitive maps? ” (Wehner and Menzel, 1990) and general ones such as “Do animals have cognitive maps? ” (Bennett, 1996), as well as between confession and deny of animals’ capacities for mental representation of their spatial environment.

One of the basic components of intelligence is the understanding that there are invariant physical properties attached to objects in the world. The most commonly discussed aspect of object-concept is object permanence: the notion that an object still exists, even when it is out of sight. Understanding how object permanence develops and works in animals and humans helps to bring together time-bridging capacity and space representation (mapping), the two important aspects of animal intelligence which will be discussed in this part.

11. NAVIGATION STRATEGIES IN ANIMALS