About CCS

Founded in 1999, the Comparative Cognition Society (CCS) is a scientific society of approximately 200 members, dedicated to gaining a broad scientific understanding of the nature and evolution of cognition in human and nonhuman animals. The Comparative Cognition Society is a nonprofit scientific society with no doctrine or philosophy, except the scientific method as it is commonly understood in all natural sciences. Anyone who studies perception, learning, memory, or any other cognitive or representational process in animals is welcome. Our members include faculty members, animal behavior professionals, and students in psychology, biology, anthropology, applied animal behavior science, and related fields.

A primary activity of CCS is sponsorship of the annual International Conference on Comparative Cognition (CO3), which has been held annually each March in Melbourne, Florida since 1994. Both Faculty/Professional Scientist members and Student members of CCS receive a discount on CO3 conference fees.

Membership in the society supports the following activities:

CCS has been a leader in electronic publishing and in an effort to provide the products of our science to scientists, students, and the general public at no cost and in a format that allows dynamic illustrations of animal behavior and analyses of that behavior. The current portfolio of electronic publications supported by members of the society includes:
- Comparative Cognition and Behavior Reviews - The first two volumes of this annual journal of reviews are available. Volume 3 will appear soon.
- Two cyberbooks have been published in cooperation with the society
  - Avian Visual Cognition (Edited by R.G. Cook, 2001)
  - Animal Spatial Cognition: Comparative, Neural, and Computational Approaches (Edited by M.F. Brown & R.G. Cook, 2006)
- Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Comparative Cognition - conference proceedings include some full-text Power Point™ presentations
To promote student interest in comparative cognition student CO3 conference fees are kept at a minimum.
CCS initiated efforts involving advocacy of our science by partnering with the Psychonomic Society in 2007 to send a representative to a workshop sponsored by the Center for Scientific Review of the U.S. National Institutes of Health and to meet with congressional staffers. We hope to continue efforts like this in the future.

We hope that you will choose to support these current activities of the society and our ability to take on future activities by becoming a member of the Comparative Cognition Society. Annual membership for 2008 is $50 for faculty members and professional scientists and $20 for students, post-doctoral researchers, and retired faculty members.

Click here to join the society or renew your membership (fees may be paid by check, credit card, or electronic bank transfer)

President: Michael Brown
Secretary/Conference Organizers: Jon Crystal, Jeff Katz
Treasurer: Ron Weisman
President-Elect: Marcia Spetch
Past Presidents: Ron Weisman, Ed Wasserman, Robert Cook, Suzanne MacDonald, Tom Zentall