Animal Cog 3 & 4 Flashcards
Attention
is a mental process that allows us to select which
Information will be processed in a world that is full of both relevant
And irrelevant stimuli.
*Attention is difficult to quantify
Tended to be ignored in early S - R learning promoted by behaviourists.
many Psychologists recognized that attention likely
Had important implication for many cognitive processes, particularly
memory.
*With the rise of cognitive psychology, greater interest in attention Occurred.
Selective Attention
- Selective attention is the ability to attend to a limited range of sensory information while actively inhibiting competing input.
*A well known example the “cocktail party effect”
*Eye Tracking Experiments show Adaptive importance of selective attention
— ability to focus on eyes(rather than whole face) allows one to recognize anger, fear, or friendliness very quickly.
- Tinbergen(1960) proposed the idea of a search image — a mental representation of a target formed by foraging animals.
Sustained Attention
*Sustained Attention allows animals to focus on one aspect of their
Surroundings for an extended period of time.
- Measured in both humans and animals using a vigilance task.
Subjects are required to monitor a particular location and toindicate when a target stimulus has been presented.
Both humans and animals show wide variability in sustained attention.
Important implications in the wild for vigilance/watching out for predators
(easier for animals in social groups).
Divided Attention
- Divided attention is the ability to process sensory information from more than one source simultaneously.
- Allows us to do more than one task at once, although usually one or both tasks will suffer.
*Dukas & Kamil (2000): Blue Jays locate prey better when they can focus onone target, rather than dividing attention between two targets.
- Feeding guppies are slower to react to predators than resting guppies (Krause &Godin,1996)
Animals need to pay attention to what animals are threats or what actually matters.
Procedural memory: memory habits we have without thinking about it; we just know how to do it.
“Cocktail party effect” If my name comes up over here, i can tune into it still.
-Mere cats are sentinel and need sustained attention
Divided Attention: multitasking
30% : 70% The more we try to do multiple tasks, the more each task suffers
Reference Memory
*Long-term retention of information necessary for the successful use of incoming and recently acquired information.
- Usually involves learning over repeated trials.
- Ex: Remembering what ingredients go in a stew.
Working Memory
*Is operative when information has to be retained only long enough to complete a particular task, after which the information is best discarded because it is no longer needed or because it may interfere with successful completion of the next task.
- Ex: Remembering which ingredients you have already added in a recipe for stew.
- All successfulworking memory require sappropriate reference memories.
- Like RAM on a computer
Declarative Memory: Semantic Memory
*Tulving(1972) was the first to suggest that declarative memory should be divided into knowledge of facts and knowledge of episodes.
*Knowledge of facts is known as semantic memory. It describes general knowledge of the world that is not tagged to a particular event.
- Includes knowledge of words and their meanings as well as Concepts (ex: gravity)
Declarative Memory: Episodic Memory
- Knowledge of episodes is known as Episodic Memory. It involves Knowledge for events in a personal past.
- This autobiographical information is unique to each individual as it Is associated with a particular time, place, and event.
*Has been a highly contentious topic in animal cognition!
Episodic-like memory in animals
Episodic memories are very rich in detail…they tell us what, where, and when something happened.
*Also involves a phenomenological component…the conscious awareness (or autonoetic consciousness) that an event was in the past and that you are now remembering It (Tulving,1983).
-Used to be considered only a human trait
*Unlikely to be able to determine whether or not non - human animals have the conscious awareness component of episodic memory… but we CAN study the what, when and where components of episodic memory.
- We refer to this “episodic - like” memory. Food caching/recovery is an ideal
Way to study episodic - like memory, as we can easily manipulate the what/where/when components of memory.
Clayton & Dickenson (1999)
Do birds remember what they stored and when, based on retrieval timing?
🔹 Experiment:
Birds cached peanuts & mealworms in ice cube trays.
Retention intervals: 4 hours vs. 124 hours.
🔹 Findings:
After 4 hours → Birds preferred mealworms (still fresh).
After 124 hours → Birds preferred peanuts (worms decayed).
🔹 Control Group (Replenished Worms):
Fresh mealworms were always available after 124 hours.
These birds always searched for worms, showing they adjusted based on food availability.
🔹 Conclusion:
Birds remembered the perishability of food and adjusted retrieval accordingly!
Directed forgetting
If they won’t be tested, they wont be remembering unless there’s reason to
Be Taught to forget instead of failing to retrieve information.
Cognitive Maps
Spatial memory is important for remembering locations of objects, playing a crucial role in survival
Typically studied using radial maze
Radial Maze Example
Rats were most likely using a mental map or representation of how the maze is arranged. Once they have made this mental map, they refer to this cognitive map in their memory to navigate the maze.
They utilized beacon, landmarks and geometric ques
Mental representation of the environment to navigate where they’re going
Proactive Retroactive Interefernce
Proactive Interference occurs when memory is disrupted by exposure to stimuli before the event is remembered
past knowledge “interferes” with new learning.
E.g. trying to learn Spanish but keep recalling your first language (French)
Retroactive Interference occurs when memory is disrupted by exposure to stimuli following the event to be remembered
new memories make it harder to remember old information
E.g. learning Spanish overrides your first language (french)
Delayed Matching
A cognitive task involves showing a stimulus and introducing a delay before asking them to match - both within humans and animals
Requires both reference (long-term) and working(short-term) memory for successful completion
Declarative Memory vs Non Declarative Memory
Declarative Memory - a type of long-term memory that allows us to consciously recall facts, events, and experiences. It is also known as explicit memory because it involves intentional information retrieval.
Includes semantic memory, episodic memory
E.g
Non-declarative memory - a type of long-term memory that does not require conscious thought. It involves automatic, unconscious skills, habits, and learned behaviors.
Classical (Pavlovian) Conditioning
Learning Through Associations
🔹 Definition:
The simplest mechanism by which organisms learn relationships between events, allowing them to predict and adapt to their environment.
🔹 Example:
Your car won’t run unless the ignition is turned on.
A dog salivates at the sound of a bell, anticipating food.
🔹 Classical Conditioning Paradigm:
Component Example
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) Tone/Bell
Unconditioned Stimulus (US) Food
Conditioned Response (CR) Salivation (to bell)
Unconditioned Response (UR) Salivation (to food)
🔹 Reflexes in Conditioning:
Unconditioned Reflex: US automatically elicits UR.
Conditioned Reflex: CS is paired with US → CR is elicited by CS.
Fear Conditioning / Conditioned Suppression
Watson & Rayner’s Experiment (1920) – “What Not to Do”
Studied how emotions are learned (not just natural).
Little Albert Experiment: A baby was trained to fear a white rat.
How? Every time Albert saw the rat, they made a loud scary noise.
Result? Albert started fearing not just the rat, but other white fluffy objects (generalization).
Key Ideas:
Genetic Determination → Behavior comes from genes.
Cultural Determination → Behavior develops naturally (not just from genes).
Fear Conditioning in Animals
Unconditioned Stimulus (US) → A painful shock.
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) → A sound or light that is paired with the shock.
Response? The animal “freezes” (fear response).
Conditioned Suppression (Fear Stops Behavior)
Lick Suppression → If a sound (CS) is played, an animal will stop licking water.
Bar Press Suppression → Rats trained to press a lever for food stop pressing when a sound/light (CS) is paired with shock.
🔹 Summary: Fear can be learned by associating a neutral thing (like a rat or a sound) with something bad (like a loud noise or shock). This fear response can also stop normal behavior (like licking water or pressing a lever for food).
Sign Tracking vs Goal Tracking
Sign Tracking (A.K.A autoshaping) is a form of learning in which an animal interacts with a stimulus that signals a reward, even when the stimulus itself is not necessary to obtain the reward.
Ie - Making contact with a lever to release food *conditioned stimulus) rather than direct contact with food
Animals make contact with the CS
Goal Tracking is a response where an animal or individual directs their attention towards the goal
Ie - Making direct contact with food (unconditioned stimulus) rather than making contact with a lever to release food (conditioned stimulus)
Animals make contact with the US
Learned Taste Aversion
Classical Conditioning
When to eat, the sight, taste and smell of food are experienced before the food is swallowed/digested
E.g. blue jays get very sick from eating monarch butterflies as a result they will eat once in their lives (get sick) and never eat one again.
Long-delay Taste aversion:
Taste aversions can still occur even if illness reaction occurs several hours later
E.g get sick from something hours after eating it
Taste aversion:
Avoided of a particular food or drink associated with illness
One trail - eat once and never eat again
Animals without ability to throw up and clear their system are more careful of unfamiliar food
Rats will not jump right in and eat unfamiliar food without any investigation as they are not able to clear their systems, if they get sick.
Dietary generalist - Consume a wide variety of food to whatever is available to them
E.g racoons can eat anything (garbage, ect..)
Specialist - have highly specific diet often rely on one or a few food sources
E.g vampier bats can only consume blood
Short delay conditioning = best conditioning (close together)
Latent Inhibition
If an animal has been repeatedly exposed to a (conditioned) stimulus without any consequence (unconditioned stimulus) it will have a harder time learning an association with that stimulus and an important event
Ex - Low Latent Inhibition (fast learning) - a new sound the dog has never heard before is paired with food. The dog can quickly learn the association.
High Latent Inhibition (slow learning) - a familiar sound they always hear (tv) has been ignored so the dog cannot quickly and easily associate it with food.
Blocking Effect
The blocking effect - a phenomenon in which a previously learned association prevents, (or “blocks”) the learning of a new association with the same outcome
When the first stimulus is already strongly associated with the outcome and adding a second stimulus (CS2) does not lead to learning about the new stimulus
Operant (Instrumental) Conditioning
Operant Conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. It encourages the subject to associate desirable or undesirable outcomes with certain behaviours
Focus on their goal-directed or instrumental behaviour
Free Operant Procedure
are procedures in which an organism can freely perform a behavior multiple times without external interference and without being removed from the experimental apparatus until the experimental session is complete.
Ex - Skinner Box : the subject could press the lever or peck at the key as much as they want with the
Reinforcement of the food being provided each time
freedom to response - the animal is free to press the lever or peck at the key as much as they want
measurement - the lever or keys pressed
Extinction
Extinction
*In classical conditioning, extinction involves repeated presentations of
The CS without the US.
*In operant conditioning, extinction involves no longer providing reinforcement when the operant response occurs.
*In both cases, conditioned behaviour will decline until it disappears. It Therefore appears to be the reverse of acquistion…but its not!
*Association is never “erased” or lost, however… a CR will reappear after extinction if there is a delay. This is known as spontaneous recovery.
*If a novel stimulus is introduced during extinction, animal will be distracted and start responding to new stimulus. This is disinhibition.
*Ex: Dog with salivation CR to bell CS is given extinction training. Bell then presented with without food, and salivation declines. When bell is presented with new light stimulus, salivation recovers.
*Extinction trials are context specific—if extinction trials are conducted in a new context, response declines but will re- emerge when CS is presented in original context. This is Response Renewal.
*Renewal typically occurs as follows:
*Acquistion training conducted in presence of contextual cue A
*Participant then moved to context B for extinction training
*When participants are moved back to context A, conditioned responding returns.
-extiniction is not forgetting its a decrease in operant conditioning animals without treat dont work for nothing
