What is Cognition?
According to Shettleworth cognition includes all ways in which animals take in information through the senses, process, retain and decide to act on it (Shettleworth 2001) which is not include their consciousness. In other words, cognition can be defined as mechanisms that animals acquire, process, store, and act based on the information they received from environment which include perception, learning, memory, and decision-making.(Shettleworth 2009)
Learning is mostly conflicted with genetic or innate control of behavior. No behavior is either completely learned or entirely instinctive.(Shettleworth 2009)
Cognition related to memory. Memory is practical cognition, evolving intelligent structure and information storage, a search and retrieval operation, and the monitoring and knowledge of this function.(Flavell 1971)
For example Cognition in some avian like Corvids and parrots(Emery and Clayton 2004, Emery 2005, Clayton and Emery 2015) includes the ability to make and use tools(Weir, Chappell et al. 2002, Auersperg, Szabo et al. 2012), solve problems Insightfully(Huber and Gajdon 2006), making inferences (Taylor, Miller et al. 2012), recognizing themselves in the mirror(Prior, Schwarz et al. 2008), discerning what they need in the future and making a plan for it(Raby, Alexis et al. 2007), and anticipate future and manage their behavior (Emery and Clayton 2002). They can also share the rare capacity for vocal learning(Jarvis 2004). In some birds like parrots the ability of learning the words and repeating them plays a critical role (Pepperberg and Pepperberg 2009).
Higher cognition (mental capacity) in Mammalia means ”intelligence”. This is seen in groups like rodents, artiodactyls, carnivores, cetaceans, elephants, and primates. In humans, intelligent is defined as the sum of “higher” mental capacities including abstract thinking, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning and memory formation, action planning, and problem-solving(Roth 2013). In non-humans mental or behavioral flexibility, ability to solve problems occurring in natural and social environment using novel solutions that are not in the usual repertoire behavior of the animals can be defined as intelligent. (Iwaniuk, 2017)
Since the cognitive abilities are key in defining cognition in animals, a great deal of research and experimentation about the affecting factors on the cognitive abilities in various species and radiations have been done.
It is suggested that complexity in cognitive processing is correlated with the evolution of specific brain areas or circuits (Bshary, Gingins et al. 2014),brain size, as well as neural density.