Comparative Psychology: A Perspective Rather than a Discipline. Commentary: A Crisis in Comparative Psychology: Where Have All the Undergraduates Gone?

We criticize two assumptions behind Abramson's emphasis on an academic crisis of comparative psychology: the identification of psychology with the study of behavior; the idea that the study of cognition is based on “suppositions” and “beliefs” (in Abramson’s words). To answer all Tinbergen’s questions, comparative psychology should complement other perspectives and intersect various levels of analysis (neural, genetic, ecological, evolutionary).