11. Social cognition Flashcards
Cognition
Mental processes that cannot be observed directly but which can be inferred from scientific studies
Copying of behavior
Behave towards the same stimulus
Go to where everyone else goes
Copying of known behavior
Copying of new behavior
Copying the intent of the model
Local/stimulus enhancement
An animal directs its behavior and attention towards those parts of the environment that other animals are directing their attention towards
Social facilitation
Social facilitation can describe how the presence of other individuals (often of the same species) influences an animal’s behavior, such as increasing the likelihood of feeding, mating, or other activities. This can be observed when animals perform certain behaviors more readily when they are in the presence of others compared to when they are alone.
Ex) Once one person does something, others will follow
True imitation
The animal learns a new behaviour by imitating the behaviour of a demonstrator
– e.g. termite fishing in chimps (?) (there is some variation in the action, such as the object used for “fishing” which indicates true imitation)
Unlike simple copying, true imitation involves understanding the intention behind the action and replicating the behavior in a way that reflects that understanding. Goal-oriented
Sweet potato story
researchers studying Japanese macaques observed an interesting behavior. One young female monkey, named Imo, discovered that washing sweet potatoes in water made them cleaner and tastier. Initially, she was the only monkey who engaged in this behavior. Over time, other monkeys (especially the young) began to observe Imo washing the sweet potatoes and started to imitate her actions.
It’s a great example of how true imitation and social facilitation can lead to the development of shared cultural practices in animal communities!
Daniel Dennett’s levels of intentionality
0) Reacts blindly to external stimuli
1) Knows that it wants something, has a goal
2) Knows that other individuals have a goal
3) Knows that other individuals know that you have a goal
4) Knows that other individuals know that you know that other
individuals have goals
etc
Self-consciousness
Recognizing oneself in the mirror.
One prood/example is when the animal is put to sleep and a dot is painted on them.
Once they wake up and look in the mirror, if they touch themselves where the dot is, it shows that they are aware that what they are watching in the mirror is themselves.
Seen in monkeys, dolphins, elephants, ect
Povinelli’s experiment
focuses on the social cognition of chimpanzees, specifically their understanding of intentions and perspectives of others in the context of cooperative behavior.
One researcher hid the food in a location, while the other researcher wore a bucket on their head, effectively blocking their view and making them unaware of where the food was hidden.
The question being tested was whether the chimpanzee would choose to approach the researcher who could see where the food was hidden (the one without the bucket) versus the researcher who could not (the one with the bucket on their head).
The chimpanzees in the experiment typically chose to approach the researcher without the bucket, who had knowledge of where the food was hidden. This indicated that the chimpanzees had some awareness of the knowledge state of others—they understood that the researcher with the bucket on their head could not know where the food was, while the researcher without the bucket had that knowledge.
