Animal intelligence as encephalization
Abstract
There is no consensus on the nature of animal intelligence despite a century of research, though recent work on cognitive capacities of dolphins and great apes seems to be on one right track. The most precise quantitative analyses have been of relative brain size, or structural encephalization, undertaken to find biological correlates of mind in animals. Encephalization and its evolution are remarkably orderly, and if the idea of intelligence were unknown it would have to be invented to explain encephalization. The scientific question is: what behaviour or dimensions of behaviour evolved when encephalization evolved? The answer: the relatively unusual behaviours that require increased neural information processing capacity, beyond that attributable to differences among species in body size. In this perspective, the different behaviours that depend on augmented processing capacity in different species are evidence of different intelligences (in the plural) that have evolved.
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Among mammals, species with the largest brains, such as cetaceans and primates, have a greater range and versatility of behavior than those with the smallest brains, such as insectivores.
“Among mammals, those species with the largest brains, such as cetaceans and primates, have a greater range and versatility of behavior than those with the smallest brains, such as insectivores (Jerison, 1985; Marino, 2002).”
From The human brain in numbers: a linearly scaled-up primate brain (2009) · cites this paper as Jerison, 1985
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- Authors
- Jerison, H. J.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Corresponding author
- Jerison, H. J.
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 1985-02-13
- Volume
- 308
- Issue
- 1135
- Pages
- 21-35
- ISSN
- 0080-4622 (ISSN-L)
- 2054-0280
- OpenAlex
- W1976382404
- Cited by
- 234
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 11 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 7.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Keywords
- animal intelligence, encephalization, relative brain size, cognitive ability, dolphins, great apes, evolution of intelligence, comparative cognition
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Biological, Anatomy, Comparative, Animals, Animal Communication, Brain, Cognition, Communication, Biological Evolution, Humans, Intelligence, Language, Organ Size
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