The concept of sentience, how it is characterised and which non-human animals possess it have long been of contention in academic and intellectual debates. Many have argued that there is no way to empirically know that animals have conscious experiences. Yet others argue that consciousness, awareness and sentience in non-human animals can be quite obvious, and can indeed be measured empirically. Most modern declarations of animal sentience from official organisations and governments now include all vertebrate animals as sentient beings, including reptiles and fish. Some declarations also include some invertebrate species. This conceptual, ethical and scientific review first focuses on conceptual components and definitions of consciousness, awareness and sentience. It then specifically discusses how cognitive, neurobiological, ethological and comparative psychological research in non-avian reptiles over the last century has evidenced many capacities that historically were denied to this class of animals. Non-avian reptiles do indeed possess all of the necessary capacities to be declared as sentient beings, at least in the small proportion of reptile species that have actually been empirically investigated so far. It is suggested that much innovative future research will continue to uncover evidence of capabilities linked to sentience within a wide range of species, including non-avian reptiles, fish and invertebrates.

中文翻译：

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非鸟类爬行动物的感知问题，以及为什么它对它们“重要”：概念、伦理和科学评论。


感知力的概念、感知力的特征以及哪些非人类动物拥有感知力，长期以来一直是学术和知识争论的焦点。许多人认为，没有办法凭经验知道动物是否有意识体验。然而其他人则认为，非人类动物的意识、意识和知觉可能是相当明显的，并且确实可以通过经验来测量。现在，官方组织和政府对动物感知的大多数现代声明都将所有脊椎动物视为有感知的生物，包括爬行动物和鱼类。有些声明还包括一些无脊椎动物物种。这一概念、伦理和科学审查首先关注意识、意识和知觉的概念成分和定义。然后，它具体讨论了上个世纪对非鸟类爬行动物的认知、神经生物学、行为学和比较心理学研究如何证明了历史上此类动物被否认的许多能力。非鸟类爬行动物确实拥有被宣布为有感知生物的所有必要能力，至少在迄今为止实际进行过实证研究的爬行动物物种中的一小部分是这样。有人建议，未来的许多创新研究将继续发现与多种物种的感知能力相关的证据，包括非鸟类爬行动物、鱼类和无脊椎动物。