Conditions for minimal intelligence across eukaryota: a cognitive science perspective

Abstract

What is minimal intelligence? Generally speaking, our understanding of intelligence has to do with sets of biological functions of organisms that exhibit a degree of flexibility against contingencies in their environment-induced behavioral repertoire. In principle, sensory perception, sensory-motor coordination, basic forms of learning and memory, decision-making and problem solving, are all marks of minimal intelligence subject to scrutiny with the toolkit of the cognitive sciences. The bottom line is that an appraisal of the behavioral repertoire of eukaryotes, and of the organizational features that sustain it, resists an interpretation in reactive, non-cognitive, terms.