Construct to Understand: Learning through Exploration

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Animal Cognition(AC) share a common goal: to study learning and causal understanding. However, the perspectives are completely different: while AC studies intelligent systems present in nature, AI tries to to build them almost from scratch. It is proposed here that both visions are complementary and should interact more to better achieve their ends. Nonetheless, before efficient collaboration can take place, a greater mutual understanding ofeach field is required, beginning with clarifications of their respective terminologies and considering the constraints of the research in each field.