The Question of Animal Consciousness

Conscious awareness of some cognitive processes is a central and important part of human behavior. It may be possible to assess these experiences through introspection and common verbal and nonverbal labels, allowing them to be related to overt behavior and electrophysiological activity in the nervous system. Conscious awareness in other animals is a closed world about which we can do no more than speculate. Empirical investigations should be limited to questions about the extent and nature of mental representations.