Voudouris, Konstantinos (2025) Analogies And The Associative-Cognitive Distinction In Comparative Psychology. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Hypotheses about how and why animals behave the way they do are frequently labelled as either associative or cognitive. This has been taken as evidence that there is a fundamental distinction between two kinds of behavioural processes. However, there is significant disagreement about how to define this distinction whether it ought to be rejected entirely. Rather than seeking a definition of the associative-cognitive distinction, or advocating for its rejection, I argue that it is an artefact of the way that comparative psychologists generate hypotheses. I suggest that hypotheses for non-human animal behaviour are often generated by analogy with hypotheses drawn from human psychology and associative learning theory, a justifiable strategy since analogies help to establish the pursuit-worthiness of a hypothesis. Any apparent distinction is a misleading characterisation of what is a complex web of hypotheses that explain diverse behavioural phenomena. The analogy view of the distinction has three advantages. It motivates the apparent existence of the distinction based on a common inference strategy in science, analogical reasoning. It accounts for why the distinction has been difficult to articulate, because of the diversity of possible analogies. Finally, it delimits the role of the distinction in downstream inferences about animal behaviour.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Voudouris, Konstantinos kv301@srcf.net 0000-0001-8453-3557
Additional Information:	Accepted for publication in Biology & Philosophy (8th August 2025)
Keywords:	Associative Learning, Comparative Cognition, Associative-Cognitive Distinction, Analogy, Pursuit Worthiness
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Psychology > Comparative Psychology and Ethology General Issues > Experimentation General Issues > Explanation General Issues > Natural Kinds
Depositing User:	Dr Konstantinos Voudouris
Date Deposited:	08 Aug 2025 12:52
Last Modified:	08 Aug 2025 12:52
Item ID:	26165
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Psychology > Comparative Psychology and Ethology General Issues > Experimentation General Issues > Explanation General Issues > Natural Kinds
Date:	August 2025
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/26165

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