3) Animal Reasoning Flashcards
The action of thinking about something in a logical, sensible way and the process of thinking about something in order to make a decision is known as what definition?
Forming conclusions that go beyond what is immediately available
To gain insight and understanding of physical properties, and causal relationships.
Rules
Problem-solving
Is it uniquely human?
Reasoning
Reasoning by analogy: Question
Dog is to puppy as cat is to KITTEN
-What we do is recognise the relationship in the first part of the sentence and apply it to the second half = solve the sentence
What is Reasoning by analogy?
A relationship between two objects can imply the same relationship between other objects
Reasoning by analogy:
Monkey Sarah: household objects test which requires memory
High amount correct 15/18 correct
Crows: match-to-sample (Relational match to sample)
shape stimuli: colour stimuli
identitiy match: relational match
What were the results?
Results high pass
77.78% correct relational matching
72.69% identity matching
However, criticisms of methodology:
No control over the presence of the stimuli
May smell/ hear meal worms in cups
No inter-observer reliability checks
Amazons Parrots: match-to-sample
Showed High Relational matching: 80.56% and High Identity matching: 74.54% but?
But they had been given a lot of training prior to the study on colour matching which could influence performance
Reasoning by analogy:
Sarah the Monkey
Forced choice task= high pass scores
Sarah chose correctly on 45/60 trials
Same/different: 26/36
Has to choose one to indicate a relationship
Researchers noticed you can solve these perceptually, do not need to know an underlying relationship between the objects.
When looking at animals performing on reasoning tasks, what factor is important to look at?
Any history of the animals training prior to task
Pepperberg (2021) looked at if we can study animals’ ability to look at differences and similarities at the same time.
Objects can have multiple features:
colour, material (matter), shape
Alex the parrot could vocalize features of objects, when asked “what’s same?” or “what’s different?” about two objects, he could respond (80% accuracy [chance 33%]).
What about on novel objects?
On novel objects he was correct 85% of the time on the first trial.
However ISSUES:
The test always referred to a single feature
To check he was responding to the question and not just vocalizing the singular feature that was different:
in other tests he was asked questions where there were two possible answers (~90% accuracy [chance = 66%])
Still High pass
True of False, Parrots have a representation of the concept of the same and different, and not just based on what the object looks like?
True
What is the main comparison between developmental psychology and animal psychology?
Both children (d) and animals (a) cannot vocalise answers to questions, thus we have infer through their behavioural responses
Are monkeys logical: McGonigle & Chalmers (1977)
Squirrel monkeys
Does this methodology design account for Clever Hans Effects?
Yes, because the researcher is behind a one-way mirror
The animal cannot see the researcher thus no cues are given or demand characteristics
A type of inference that enables individuals to make logical deductions about novel relationships between items based on their existing relationships with other items is known as?
Also known as inferring relationships from the available info.
Transitive inference
Are monkeys logical: McGonigle & Chalmers (1977)
Can Squirrel monkeys do transitive inference problems?
Evidence suggests yes
What is a possible explanation for animals’ high performance in transitive inference tasks?
Value Transfer (associative learning explanation)
-Reinforcement history of stimuli that matters
A has high value (always rewarded)
E has low value (never rewarded)
This could transfer to B and D leading to
B > D
Supporting evidence from Pigeons shows Value Transformation that underlies the reasoning task, so stimulus can acquire value indirectly from stimuli that they have previously been paired with.
Why might animals such as Pinyon jay birds need Value Transformation (being able to problem-solve something out from just minimal information?
To learn about social rank without having to learn about every individual member (live in large groups)
Researchers studied this with a contest over peanuts (food)
Paz-y-Miño et al. (2004) Pinyon jays
Social groups of birds: Letter group (A > B), Number group (1 > 2).
Experimental condition: observes member of own group losing/ winning
Control condition: observes member of other group losing
Test observer (3) against member of other group
Experimental group: show more submissive behaviour than control group
Results showed which group was more submissive?
Found:
Those Jays who saw the experimental condition were more submissive than the ones who watched the control condition (the opposition being submissive)
