Animal cognition

Question 1

what do crows behaviour show us?

Answer 1

• are crows smarter than us
• crows in Arne RSPB nature reserve using rocks to crack open oyster shells
• what is the reinforcing event
• what behaviours are reinforced
• what stimuli guide behaviour
• what is Morgan’s cannon
  - “In no case is an animal activity to be interpreted in terms of higher psychological processes if it can be fairly interpreted in terms of processes which stand lower in the scale of psychological evolution and development.”

Question 2

what are learnt behaviours?

Answer 2

• sometimes behaviour is controlled by stimuli
  - pavlovian conditioning
• birds see water change -> flies to beach (eventually gets rewards)
  - S-S* S-R-S*
• sometimes behaviour is elicited voluntarily
  - instrumental conditioning
• bird flies high, drops whelk -> gets reward
  - R-S*

Question 3

what’s the difference between pavlovian and instrumental conditioning?

Answer 3

• all learnt behaviours are dirven by stimuli in the environment and responses for meaningful consequences
  - a child crying and getting parents attention
  - an addict taking drugs to get high
• in the lab they can be separated to examine aspects of behaviour

Question 4

where does the complex behaviour start?

Answer 4

• birds don’t often drop food from great heights
• rats don’t press levers naturally
• the final behaviours can often look remarkable
• we need to consider its origin

Question 5

what is shaping?

Answer 5

• successive reinforcement of relevant behaviours (teaching)
• reinforce behaviour approaching the target behaviour
• in the natural world there is no teacher

Question 6

what is the stimulus control of behaviour?

Answer 6

• the stimuli play a key role in controlling behaviour
• pigeon stimulus discrimination
• pigeons have an incredible memory
• ~800+ images (Cook et al., 2005)
• benefits of categorisation

Question 7

what is discrimination?

Answer 7

• this elaborate demonstration shows a powerful ability
• stimuli have come to control behaviour
  - learning what is a predator and what is not
  - learning where food might be found
  - learning the call of a potential mate
• it’s important this behaviour isn’t too rigid
  - only eating one type of seed
  - only fearing one type of pred

Question 8

what is generalisation?

Answer 8

• new instances are responded to in a manner similar to old instances
• this occurs because they share properties (stimulus features)

Question 9

what is category representation?

Answer 9

• theories are similar to those explaining human categorisation
  - exemplar theory
  - prototype theory
• like humans animals use past knowledge to generalise to novel situations

Question 10

what are adaptive learners?

Answer 10

• so animals can learn remarkable behaviours finely tuned for their benefit
• sometimes generalisations needs to be broad
  - shape and size of seeds
  - shape of the fields in which they forage
• sometimes highly tuned
  - a mates call
  - discriminate predator eyes from prey eyes

Question 11

what is voluntary action?

Answer 11

• skinner was one of the first to effectively study action-outcome learning in the lab
• discovering how powerful reinforcement was
• behaviour reoccurs if reinforced

Question 12

what are the schedules of reinforcement?

Answer 12

• reinforcement doesn’t always occur
  - if the addict gets a bad batch their habit is maintained
  - the gambler only wins so often
• sometimes we see partial reinforcement
  - e.g., gambler wins every 10
• how does affect conditioning

Question 13

what is pavlovian instrumental transfer?

Answer 13

• procedure demonstrates how learnt actions can be cued by stimuli
• the presence of relevant stimuli can have a dramatic effect on responding
• recent work looks at devaluation of the outcomes (making them less appealing)
• some evidence to suggest cues can reinstate a response (that’s bad for curing addiction)

Question 14

what are the ethical concerns?

Answer 14

• studying animal cognition involves the housing, testing and often the sacrifice of animals for scientific benefit
• animal research requires licences from the HO ensuring rigorous protocols are maintained to ensure the welfare of animals
• funding for research on animals is extremely competitive
• must have clinical relevance and/or lead to ground-breaking theoretical developments

Question 15

what is comparative cognition?

Answer 15

• humans are a particular case of animals
• cognition is central for survival
• mental processes cannot be obseved

Question 16

why do we misunderstand animal behaviour?

Answer 16

• anthropomorphism
• anthropocentrism
• anecdotal evidence
• cognition needs to be understood in its context
• evolution is not a scale its a tree

Question 17

what is causation?

Answer 17

• Physiology plays a great role
  - Sensory systems
  - Musculoskeletal system
  - Nervous system
  - Endocrine system
• Cognition is equally important
  - Perception and attention
  - Learning
  - Memory

Question 18

what is ontogeny?

Answer 18

• Innate behaviour?
• There’s not a direct, one-to-one effect of genes in behaviour
• But there is an effect
  
  • Predispositions
  • Sensitive periods
• Circular reaction:
  
  • Starts with innate sensory-motor coordinations
• New experiences lead to new adaptive behaviours
• This achievements are integrated in complex systems and transform how the organism faces reality

Question 19

what is survival value

Answer 19

• The problem with the idea of fitness:
  
  • Natural selection as “the designer”
  • Disregard to the individual’s life
• Selection is performed by intelligent beings
• Organisms adapt their behaviour
• Cultural transmission and selection of structures that favour certain behaviours

Question 20

what is evolution?

Answer 20

• Evolution can be inferred by natural observation
• Comparing different species give us insight on how behaviours and cognitive processes evolve
• An example from evolution of conciousness

Question 21

why do we study animal cognition?

Answer 21

Human cognition is a particular case of animal cognition

It can benefit humans
Pest control
Domestication
Animal training

Animal welfare and ethics

Conservation