The Mind of a Sea Lion

The mind of a sea lion links sensory information gathered from the surrounding environment to the decision operations, or cognitive processes, that enable behavioral responses based on judgement and experience. Here, we illustrate the sea lion’s impressive capabilities for complex associative learning and highlight some of the unique and essential contributions sea lions have made to our understanding of problem solving, concept formation, and memory in non-human animals. We suggest that the persistence and behavioral flexibility that allow sea lions and fur seals to exploit unpredictable environments make them particularly well suited to performing in the behavioral laboratory, and therefore, highly valuable models for comparative studies of learning and intelligence.