Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

What is Conservation Biology?

What is Conservation Biology?

Conservation biology is a scientific field that focuses on the preservation of biodiversity in order to protect ecosystems while meeting the needs of the human population. Humans require properly functioning ecosystems to maintain our supply of natural resources, including food, medicines, and building materials.

Cognitivism

Cognitivism

Cognitive psychology emerged as a significant field in the mid-20th century. It focused on understanding humans' internal mental processes. This approach emphasizes how people perceive, remember, think, and solve problems—elements critical to human cognition.
Previously dominated by behaviorism, which prioritized observable behaviors and largely ignored mental processes, psychology transformed in the 1950s. Cognitive psychologists argue that understanding how we think and process...

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight learning.
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...

Conservation of Small Populations

Conservation of Small Populations

Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less...

Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive psychology is the field of psychology dedicated to examining how people think. It attempts to explain how and why we think the way we do by studying the interactions among human thinking, emotion, creativity, language, and problem-solving, as well as other cognitive processes. Cognitive psychology studies how information is processed and manipulated in remembering, thinking, and knowing.
This field emerged in the mid-20th century, following a period dominated by behaviorism, which...

Naturalistic Observations

Naturalistic Observations

If you want to understand how behavior occurs, one of the best ways to gain information is to simply observe the behavior in its natural context. However, people might change their behavior in unexpected ways if they know they are being observed. How do researchers obtain accurate information when people tend to hide their natural behavior? As an example, imagine that your professor asks everyone in your class to raise their hand if they always wash their hands after using the restroom. Chances...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Time in mind: a multidisciplinary review on temporal perception, cognition, and memory.

Frontiers in cognition·2026

Same author

The Cognitive Foundations of Teaching.

Evolutionary anthropology·2026

Same author

Socially learnt predator recognition in nestling jackdaws.

Biology letters·2026

Same author

Social information about others' affective states in a human-altered world.

The Journal of animal ecology·2026

Same author

Wild jackdaws recognise the contact calls of their mate.

Animal cognition·2025

Same author

Social Interactions Are Related to Cognitive Development in Western Australian Magpie Fledglings.

Ecology and evolution·2025

Same journal

Can habitat modification in the native range promote invasion?

Trends in ecology & evolution·2026

Same journal

The host-microbiome dimension of ecological regime shifts.

Trends in ecology & evolution·2026

Same journal

The emerging field of wild animal welfare science.

Trends in ecology & evolution·2026

Same journal

Integrating nutritional mutualists into the evolution of defense.

Trends in ecology & evolution·2026

Same journal

Formation of three great Asian plateaus, climate change, and biodiversity: (Trends Ecol. Evol. 40, 970-982; 2025).

Trends in ecology & evolution·2026

Same journal

Digital twins as a tool for ecosystem research.

Trends in ecology & evolution·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 26, 2026

Using Pharmacological Manipulation and High-precision Radio Telemetry to Study the Spatial Cognition in Free-ranging Animals

Using Pharmacological Manipulation and High-precision Radio Telemetry to Study the Spatial Cognition in Free-ranging Animals

Published on: November 6, 2016

Comparative cognition for conservationists.

Alison L Greggor¹, Nicola S Clayton¹, Ben Phalan²

¹Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

|July 22, 2014

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Understanding animal cognition, including perception and learning, can improve conservation strategies. By applying cognitive theory, we can shape animal behavior to reduce maladaptive responses in changing environments.

Keywords:

animal conservation aversive conditioning cognition imprinting learning perception

More Related Videos

The Innovation Arena: A Method for Comparing Innovative Problem-Solving Across Groups

The Innovation Arena: A Method for Comparing Innovative Problem-Solving Across Groups

Published on: May 13, 2022

Assessment of Mouse Judgment Bias through an Olfactory Digging Task

Assessment of Mouse Judgment Bias through an Olfactory Digging Task

Published on: March 4, 2022

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Apr 26, 2026

Using Pharmacological Manipulation and High-precision Radio Telemetry to Study the Spatial Cognition in Free-ranging Animals

Using Pharmacological Manipulation and High-precision Radio Telemetry to Study the Spatial Cognition in Free-ranging Animals

Published on: November 6, 2016

The Innovation Arena: A Method for Comparing Innovative Problem-Solving Across Groups

The Innovation Arena: A Method for Comparing Innovative Problem-Solving Across Groups

Published on: May 13, 2022

Assessment of Mouse Judgment Bias through an Olfactory Digging Task

Assessment of Mouse Judgment Bias through an Olfactory Digging Task

Published on: March 4, 2022

Area of Science:

Ethology
Cognitive Ecology
Conservation Biology

Background:

Animal behavior is shaped by individual cognitive worlds, influenced by sensory capacities and biases.
Human-induced environmental changes impact animal reactions through cognitive processes.
Current conservation efforts often overlook the potential of cognitive theory.

Purpose of the Study:

To explore the underutilization of cognitive theory in conservation practice.
To bridge the disciplines of animal cognition and conservation biology.
To provide a framework for applying cognitive principles to conservation challenges.

Main Methods:

Reviewing principles of animal perception and learning.
Analyzing the interaction between cognitive worlds and environmental factors.
Developing a systematic approach to integrate cognitive insights into conservation.

Main Results:

Cognitive processes significantly influence how animals respond to environmental alterations.
Harnessing perceptual biases and learning can effectively modify animal behavior.
A structured method for applying cognitive theory to conservation issues is proposed.

Conclusions:

Integrating animal cognition into conservation can enhance strategies for managing behavior.
Understanding an animal's cognitive world is crucial for effective environmental management.
This approach offers novel solutions for reducing maladaptive behaviors in wildlife conservation.