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Animal navigation without mental representation.

Bas van Woerkum1

  • 1Centre for Cognition, Culture and Language, Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences
|March 30, 2026
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Animals may not need complex internal maps to navigate. Instead, they might use environmental structures and sensory information, challenging traditional views on animal wayfinding and cognition.

Keywords:
AffordancesAnimal navigationCognitive mapEcological psychologyVistaWayfinding

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Area of Science:

  • Animal behavior
  • Cognitive science
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Debate exists on whether animals require internal representations like cognitive maps for navigation.
  • Some argue sensory information is insufficient for complex wayfinding.
  • James J. Gibson's theories offer an alternative perspective on navigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore alternative theories to internal cognitive maps for animal navigation.
  • To investigate the role of environmental structure detection in wayfinding.
  • To understand how species-specific evolutionary histories influence navigation.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing theories on animal navigation, including cognitive maps.
  • Analysis of James J. Gibson's ecological psychology concepts (vistas, transitions).
  • Conceptual framework for investigating species-relative environmental structures.

Main Results:

  • Gibson's ecological approach suggests wayfinding relies on detecting environmental structure over time.
  • Concepts like "vistas" and "transitions" highlight the importance of stable environmental features.
  • Sensory information, when coupled with environmental structure detection, may suffice for navigation.

Conclusions:

  • Animal navigation may not solely depend on rich internal representations.
  • Exploiting stable environmental structures is crucial for effective wayfinding.
  • Studying species-relative environmental structures offers insights into diverse animal navigational abilities.