Animal Cognition 3

Question 1

What are the three assets of social learning?

Answer 1

1. The behavior must be learned
2. Must be learned through social transmission ‘
3. Must continue After the original individual is gone

Question 2

What is social transmission?

Answer 2

Social transmission is when usually an individual views another conspecific of their species to a task and the original individual learns how to do the task as a form of visual learning

Question 3

What does peristance in the absense of the demonstrator refer to?

Answer 3

It refers to the fact that in order for social learning to occur the behavior must be continued after the teacher leaves.

Question 4

What is social facillition?

Answer 4

It is the increase in a specific behavior in the presense of other conspecifics
( not social learning)

Question 5

What is a human example of social facillition?

Answer 5

When you see one person looking up at the sky and then you look up at the sky ( it is not a lerned behavior because for most indviduals it is not a new experience and does not persist beyond the specific interaction)

Question 6

What is an animal example of social facillitation?

Answer 6

When one elk starts running the rest follow ( this is not social learning because it applies to a specific circumstance as a response to a predetor, while it is necessary for their survival as a prey response it is not an example of social learning)

Question 7

What is the dilution effect?

Answer 7

The dilution effect is that if there are more individuals engaging in a beavior it is less likely to find someone who is not (ex: the predetor chasing the elk is less likely to catch a single elk because they are all running together)

Question 8

How is lekking an example of social facillitation?

Answer 8

Frog lekking is an example of social facillitation as it is a behavior that is mimicked in a group setting. When a male frog hears another male call making a mating call they will also join in to try and have the loudest call out of them all. (even when a recording is played they will all still chorus)

Question 9

How is Vince’s Bobwhite Quail study an example of social facilitation?

Answer 9

Because in Vinces experience where younger eggs where put in with larger eggs that have started pipping ( cracking slightly before hatching) the younger eggs would also pip despite being un-ready to hatch therefore an example of social facillitation

Question 10

What is local enhancement?

Answer 10

It is when a group behavior is enchanced because mutiple conspecifics are in the same area?

Question 11

What is stimulus enhancement?

Answer 11

Stimulus enhancement is when an individual of a species is more likely to notice a stimulus in an area (ex: a stick) because the conspecific in the area is interacting with it ( ex: the chimp is using the stick to fish termites from the hill)

Question 12

What is behavioral synchronization?

Answer 12

It is when an mutiple members of a species do the same behavior at the same time (fostering stronger social bonds)

Question 13

What is temporal synchronization?

Answer 13

Temporal synchronization is when two or more conspecifics switch behaviors at the same time ( ex: both chaning from a walk to a run to keep pace with the other)

Question 14

What is activity synchronization

Answer 14

It is when two or more conspecifics are doing the same activty at the same time (ex: both fishing for termites from the hill)

Question 15

What is Local synchronization?

Answer 15

Local synchronization is when two or more members of the same species are in the same space at the same time

Question 16

What is the difference between hetereospecifc and conspecifc synchronization?

Answer 16

Conspecific refers to two memebers of the same species performing the same behavior while hetereospecific refers to a member from two different species engaging in the same behavior ( this is more rare but a good example is people and dogs)

Question 17

What is Marshell-Pescini’s loose string paradigm study?

Answer 17

Duranton and Gaunet’s study has two groupes of of wolves and the other of wild raised dogs perform a teamwork task ( pulling a rope at the same time to slide a tray of chicken through a fence) The wolves are able to work together to preform the task, while the dogs where not (even after training which the wolves engagement went up to 40-60 percent the dogs stayed near 0)

Question 18

What is Doronton and Gaunet’s dog synchronization study?

Answer 18

This study had the experimentor follow instructions of walk, jog, or stop and see if the dogs would mimic the behavior (they do) In a follow up study by the same experimentors they did the same test with pet dogs and shelter dogs (the pet dogs portrayed more synchronistic behavior (however the shelter dogs still preformed above chance)
( additionally there was a test in which the experimentor preformed synchronistically with the dog, and an alternate where they walked the other direction and in that conditon the dog was asked to chose between the two and the dog went to the individual who portrayed synchronistic behavior therefore proving a strenghtening of bonds.

Question 19

What is Wrenn’s Cinnamon and Coccoa Mice study?

Answer 19

In Wrenn’s study they first had one mouse try either the cinnamon or coccoa food, before being placed back in the cage with the other mice where they are muzzle sniffed. Then the other mice are presented with the both food options to see which they will choose (they are more likely to choose the option which they have smelled on the other mouse (because they had not died and therefore the food is safe prooving a form of social learning)

Question 20

How is the Japanese Macaque’s sweet potato washing a potential form of social learning?

Answer 20

This is a potntial form of social learning because the experimentors explain it as one macaque washing a potato before eating it which is than observed by the other conspecifics and the behavior persists (however this has been discredited because it is more likely they each individually learned this behavior rather than socially learned it)

Question 21

What is social immitation

Answer 21

Social immitation is two or more conspecifics engaging in the same behavior at the same time and performing said behavior with matched topological patterns

Question 22

What is Matched Topology?

Answer 22

Matched topology is when two or more conspecifcs engage in the same behavior with the same movements in the same order (this is a form of social learning because the social learner does not yet know that some of these actions are not necessary to do the task)

Question 23

What is an example of true social immatation

Answer 23

Octopus are able to immitate each other, this is seen when one octopus is shown to a second octopus opening a three way jar to get and eat a crab. The second octopus is the sheilded and performs the same beahvior in the same way. ( this is social immitation because the octopus always opens the same lid to the container despite the other two being viable options because that is what they witnessed in the original demonstration)

Question 24

What is the Bidirectoral task?

Answer 24

The bidirectoral task was first performed with rats which the demonstrator was taught to either press a joystick left or right for a treat (either direction warrented a reward and through habituation they grew a preference) Then the observer rat from from the other side of the box was tested and they too pressed the joystick the same way as the demonstrator (proof of imitation)

Question 25

What is the two action procedure

Answer 25

Similar to the bidirectional task the two action procedure had Japanese quail one a demonstrator and the other an observer press a pedel in some way to get a treat (they would either step on or peck at the platform+ these quail where only rewarded some of the time) Then the observing quail was tasked with immitating the behavior (which they did only if they observed the behavior being rewarded) (proving imitation is based on reward not just because the behavior is novel)

Question 26

What is the artificial fruit study?

Answer 26

This study had chimps and children (2-4 years old) open and observe the opening of a box with fruit inside. The box had begs that could either be pushed or pulled out and the behavior was measure as to which behavior was immitated. The the data collection process there was an estimator which guess which behavior the chimps and humans would immitate. The chimps data was spread across the board with (mild immittion) while there is a developmental gap in the childrens data (they got better at immitation as they got older)

Question 27

What are the three altruistic behaviors of teaching?

Answer 27

1. The teacher must slow down and modify the behavior for the learner (so it is easier to grasp)
2. The teacher must not have any instantaneous reward from doing said behavior
3. The learner must learn the behavior at a rate faster than trial and error

Question 28

What is an example of teaching in the natural world

Answer 28

An example of teeching is shown with meercats teaching their young to hunt for scorpians. They start by bringing them dead scorpians with their tails cut off, and as they develop bring them live scorpians with the tails off and then eventually bring them along hunting ( gradually teaching them to hunt on their own) (this is an example of teaching because it gradually introduces the young to the process and does not have an instantenous gain for the adults, plus if they understand the task they will likely survive. )

Question 29

Why is the stentor’s memory important?

Answer 29

Back in 1906 the stentor was studied as a single cell organism because it is easy to see the physical impact which learning has on the creature. Through habituation the stentor’s reaction to the noxious fumes decreased until there was no longer an adverse reaction showing learning (and by extent a memory prcocess)

Question 30

What components make up the human memory tree?

Answer 30

1. Short term
2. Long term
3. Explicit
4. Implicit
5. Episodic
6. Semantic

Question 31

What is Short-term memory?

Answer 31

Short term memory is the immediate memory storage system for the constant input of stimulus and information ( in humans it can range from 5-9 fragments of information which can be retained for 20 to 60 seconds if they are not reviewed or encoded into long term memory)

Question 32

What does 7+/-2 refer to ?

Answer 32

It is the theory possited in a paper that the human mind has relatively seven memory slots in their short term memory ( can vary by 2 either 5 to 9) and can be expanded upon by techniques to compact similar bits of information together.

Question 33

What is the radial arm maze?

Answer 33

The radial arm maze refers to a test of animal stm which has usually rats or mice placed in the maze to see how long they can go before they double back and go down the same route again (the largets being 24 pathes long) (the rats end up being good at this task proving a sense of short term memory)

Question 34

What is the Roberts radial arm maze experiment?

Answer 34

Rats or mice are placed into a radial arm test which Roberts made increasingly more complex (the most complex sucessful task having 24 arms) And when the rats where put into the test with more simplistic design there seemed to be no stratagy to their orientation through the maze but as they became more complex they got increasingly more pattern oriented in their behavior (ex all right turns after exiting each arm of the maze)

Question 35

What is Morris’s water maze?

Answer 35

Morris’s water maze is a similar maze test to the radial arm test. Which has the rats submurged in opaque millky water with a path in it (unable to be seen) and throughout the tests the rats are gauged based on how quickly they find the pat, how quickly after entereing they go to the path and for how long they spend in each (coordinate quadrent of the maze ) (the rats become faster at this task as they are exposed to the maze more frequently) (this can also be used to test ltm by lengthening the amount of time until they are exposed to the pool a second time)

Question 36

What is the delayed match sample test?

Answer 36

This test has the speices interact with one type of stimulus before waiting a certain amount of time where they are shown two similar stimulus and are rewarded for choosing the one they had already seem (ex: shown a green light and then later shown a red and green light, rewarded for interacting with the green)
This test can also be abstracted to other speicies because the premise is simple and not interently reliant on visual stimuli

Question 37

What is the delayed non-match to sample task

Answer 37

Similar to the delayed match to sample task, the non-match task exposes the speices to a stimulus and then after a period of time they are exposed to two stimuli one is the same and the second different ( they are rewarded for chosing the different one) (this is reliant on short term memory because it relies on the speices remembering the similar stimulus and learning to chose the aliternative)

Question 38

What is the Brown Peterson task?

Answer 38

This human task has people shown a string of three numbers once before being asked to count back in threes from a three diget number in tune with a metranone ( usually for a minute) ( this proves that the duration of human memory does not usually last beyond 20 seconds and is usually half the information is gone within the first six)

Question 39

What is Zhang’s honey bee short term memory experiment?

Answer 39

This experiment has bee’s perform a delayed match sample task. They are put in a tunnel with nector at the end (which they can sense) and halfway through the tunnel they are exposed to a stimulus (colored light) and at the end of the tunnel they are exposed to the choice of two differnet color circles (they are rewarded for matching them) (they also follow a similar exponential graph as the human memory loss althought the bee’s is within a shorter time from of complete loss by 12 seconds and half loss at 5 seconds)

Question 40

What is Smeele’s Seal study?

Answer 40

Smeele’s study had captative harbor seals, grey seals and sea lions learn to preform a myriad of tasks ( raise flipper, sing etc) along with a “repeat” task which was unique as it required the seals to recall whatever task they had just done . (The three varieties of seals where able to do this proving the existance of a short term memory which starts to fade around 12 seconds and can last up to 18)

Question 41

What is serial positioning?

Answer 41

Serial positioning refers to a short term memory test where the participant is given a sequence which they are more likely to remember the beginning or end of the sequence ( primary and recency)

Question 42

What does Primary refer to ?

Answer 42

“Primary” refers to the beginning of a list which the participant is more likely to remember the information of?

Question 43

What does Recency refer to ?

Answer 43

Recency refers to the ability for participants to remember items at the end of a list better because they heard them most recently.

Question 44

What is Castro and Larsen’s Rheus monkey serial positioning study?

Answer 44

This study hoped to test the stm of Rheus monkies using the serial positioning test, which they where given two buttons to press ( one meaning same and the other meaning different) In the first part of the task they where given single images and asked if they where same or different as the last, and then once they got the hang of that where moved up to doing the same but with a sequence of images ( which they could alter where the first occurance of the match was) ( this test proved stm in rheus monkies and showed that they follow a similar pattern to humans in the serial positioning task)

Question 45

Why are Jenny and Shirley the Elephants important to the study of long term memory?

Answer 45

These two elephants are important because they had a uncharacteritically positive response to meeting each other at a zoo ( it is believed that they remembered their time together as circus preforrmers which is an argument for ltm in elephants but is still inconclusive)

Question 46

What is the Cowie, Krebb and Sherry Radioactive seed experiment?

Answer 46

This is a ltm experiment with bush tits ( they made the seeds radioactive so they could find the birds cache’s with a geiger counter) They had the bush tits cache these seeds within a confined area and then waited a long time to see if they would find their seeds again along with fake cache’s 10 cm away and 100 cm away ( they found that the birds found their own cache’s the most quickly and then following the 10 cm away and then 100 cm away ) ( proving ltm in these bush tits)

Question 47

What is Sherry, Cowie and Krebb’s Eyepatch study

Answer 47

In this study they put eye patches on birds to see if they could remember where they cached their food ( this is because birds have low lateralization of the brain and the hemisphers of the brain work mostly seperate of each other) The first test they had the eye patch on one eye and had the birds cache their food, and then later either switched eyes, stayed the same or removed it entierly ( the birds did better in the no eye patch, or same eye patch test as they where more likely to remeber and navigate using the same hemisphere of their brain)

Question 48

What is Vanderwall’s Clark’s Nutcracker study?

Answer 48

Similar to the radioactive seed study they had these nutcracker birds cache within a confined area ( following which the researchers moved the chache’s 10 cm further left only on the left side of the cage) Then when the birds where sent back out to find their cache the ride side of the enclosure’s birds found their cache find but the left side where unable to find it ( proving that they do use ltm to find their food cache)

Question 49

What was Miller and Berk’s African Clawed toad study?

Answer 49

This was to see if ltm exstended beyond a metamorphosis. They did this by testing these toads as tadpoles by putting them in a colored and textured enclosure ( one side smooth and white the other rought and black ) creating a learned bias for one or the other by shocking them on the alternate side of the tank. ( When retested as toads they showed memory of the bias proving ltm in these toads and that metaorphosis is not a rebirth but an act of physiological growth)

Question 50

Who is Endel Tulving?

Answer 50

Endel Tulving is the person to name episodic memory and defined it as a process of being able to recall the past and predict the future ( it is also developed around age 4-5 and deteriotates at an older age faster than other forms of memory) ( also believed it was only capable in humans)

Question 51

What is Autonoetic Conciousness?

Answer 51

It is Endel Tulving’s term for metnal time travel and the process of being able to vividly remember the past and contemplate the future)

Question 52

What is temporal myopia?

Answer 52

Temporal myopia is the inability to forsee the future (ex cebus monkeys throwing food out of their cage because they are only concerned about the food they need in the now)

Question 53

What is Sillberg’s Longtail Macaque study?

Answer 53

This study is a test of episodic memory in the macaque ( what where when memory) by having them choose between one to three banana’s and then 5 or 10 banana’s (they preform well when the numbers are smaller and randomly when the numbers are bigger) this argues that the macaques do not have www memory because they are unable to plan for the future.

Question 54

What is the Clayton and Dickinson WWW scrubjay study

Answer 54

This study uses scrubjays to introduce the idea of where what when memory. They do this by having two groups, one is given worms and the other is given peanuts (they have a preference for worms) they them wait 120 hours before giving the jays the other treat to cache in an alternative spot another four hours passes and they are made to choose which food they want ( the group who first cached worms chose peanuts while the other chose worms which argues that they are able to think back to when they cached the worms, where their food is and what is stored. ( this is also argued as the closest we can get to episodic memories in other species)

Question 55

What was the Hampton, Hampstead and Murry Rheus monkey study?

Answer 55

This study attemped to study www in Rheus monkies half with damaged hipocampi and half with them intact. (this should mean that the damaged hipocami group should preform worse) they where tested with three caching locations in a contained area and where given the choice of a banana or peanuts, a day later they where given the choice again (with the banana thouroughly rotted. (the ideal findings would show that the monkey was able to chose the peants over banana’s in future trials however in actuality the pattern of both groups showed that they had a favortism towards the banana ( proving that they could find the what and where but where unable to interact with the when)

Question 56

What is Suddendorf’s critque of What, Where, When memory?

Answer 56

Suddendorf criticized clayton by saying that www is not the same as episodic memory because episodic memory is more than informational recall, because it requires the ability to mentally time travel not just remmeber what someone told you

Question 57

What are reasons animals communicate?

Answer 57

recognition of conspecifics
emotion
mate attraction/courtship
maintain pair bonds & other connections
agonistic interactions
alarm warnings re. Predators
communication about resources (e.g., food)
claim/defend territory

Question 58

What is interspefic communication?

Answer 58

Innterspecifc communication is cross species communication it shows up as aggressive mimicry and aposmatism

Question 59

What is aggressive mimicry?

Answer 59

Agressive mimicry is when a predetor communicates with it’s pray by attempting to lure them in by mimicing their food, or something else less hostile
(ex: snapping turtle wiggling it’s tongue to mimic a worm)

Question 60

What is aposematism?

Answer 60

Aposematism is a form of visual communication between speices that states that the more colorful something is the more likely it is to be poisionus (or rather do not eat me) (prey to predetor)

Question 61

What is intraspecies communication?

Answer 61

Intraspecies communication is the process of communicating the conspecifcs of a species

Question 62

How does Halfwerk’s tungara frog study display the risks of communication between species

Answer 62

This is a risk in communication because it has both a postive and negative outcome the positive displated is that a larger chuck ripples the water more and scares off rivals while also creating a more clear signal to their predetors the bats on the frogs location ( therefore communication is complex across all species because it is not in a vaccum)

Question 63

What is the researcher hamilitons definiton of Altruism?

Answer 63

Altruism is defined as a form of communication that has a negative consequence for the signaler but a positve outcome for the recevor ( ex the bird who fends off predetors from their babies by drawing attention to themselves instead)

Question 64

What is the researcher Hamilton’s idea on mutualism?

Answer 64

Mutualism is defined as a form of communication which both the signaler and reciver are impacted postively ( ex honey guider bird who leads humans to bee hives and they both get a meal out of it)

Question 65

What is the researcher Hamilton’s definition of selfishness?

Answer 65

Selfishness is defined as a form of communication which the singnaler’s outcome is positve and the recipiants outcome is negative ( ex frog whose chuck is so strong it scares off their rivals, vs the rivals who have been scared off)

Question 66

What is the researcher Hamilton’s definition of spite?

Answer 66

Spite is defined as a form of communication where both the signaler and recipiant’s outcomes are negative. For example the elephent who deficate in their watering hole to prevent rivaling heards from drinking from it, but in turn ruining the watersource for themselves too.

Question 67

What are honest signals?

Answer 67

Honest signals are signals that acurratly portray the message the species is trying to send.
Ex: male peacocks tail feathers are so heavy anf vibrant that they are an honest signal of whether the bird is doing well and is capable of providing for it mate.

Question 68

What is a dishonest signal?

Answer 68

A dishonest signal is when the presented signal does not advertise what is actually being communicated.
ex: fireflys a different variation of firefly species female will signal to a male like she wants to mate in order to take the needed vitamins it needs and will eat the male ( a form of deception)

Question 69

What is Von Frisch’s bee study?

Answer 69

Von Frisch figured out that bee’s communicate by dance to help other bee’s relocate nectar sources. Von Frisch studied this by setting out pannels around in a circle and placing nectar on one of them and observed where the bee’s would go and how they communicated with each other.

Question 70

What is the Round dance?

Answer 70

The bee round dance signals other bee’s that there is nectar under a thousand meters away (is a more vauge dance which states roughly how far but not which way) it also gets more agressive the more nutrient rich the flowers are

Question 71

What is the waggle dance?

Answer 71

The waggle dance is a more detailed commnicative dance where the bee goes around in a figure eight like shape and is used to communicate food over a 1000 meters away (the longer the center of the figure 8 the further it is) additionally based on the angle of the bee it tells the other bee’s what degree from the sun to head in which direction

Question 72

What is Michelson’s robot bee study?

Answer 72

Michelson used a robot bee to see if the other bee’s would recive the waggle dance and whether or not they would head off it the direct as instructed. They seemed to do this and regardless of where they where relased all seemed to follow in the same direction towards the same location (the closer the more likely they where all able to reach the desitination)

Question 73

What is Riley’s Bee monitor study

Answer 73

Riley also testing Von Frisch’s claim was able to monitor the bee flight patterns in which they all seem to go in the same direction towards the same location ( proving the waggle dance is an effective form of food based communication)

Question 74

What are Evans and Marley’s chicken alarm studies

Answer 74

Over the couse of two studies Evans and Marley where able to prove that alarm call’s are a flexible chicken behavior (dependent on others present ) this was proved through first a test of whether a hen or a quail present would impact how often they sent an alarm call ( more frequently with a hen, only occasionally with a quail and rarely by themself) In the second study they tested to see if the breed of chicken was important to the call ( and overall the differenciation was not statistically evident enough to show any meaningful difference.

Question 75

What was evans and marley’s chicken food signal study
(Semantically referntial)

Answer 75

An additional study by Evans and Marley showed that there is a specific relevence to the chickens food call that is saying “look food” rather than just look etc ( they proved this by showing that while chickens do frequently look at the ground the tend to do it more often when they are being signaled to look for food)

Question 76

What is a Oscine bird song?

Answer 76

An oscine bird song refers to the bird song of a bird who must learn their song by hearing it
ex: Zebra finches must learn their birdsong over the first 60 days of their life

Question 77

What are the three fazes of Oscine bird song?

Answer 77

Memerization: (till around day 20-35) juvinile birds listen to the songs of their father
Practice= ( day 35-60) which the bird begins to prefrom it’s song and fine tune it ( subphases go sub songs ( aka random noises)
plastic phase= forming song ( sounds off)
crystalized ( fully formed song
Crystalization= (60+) song is fully formed and will not change

Question 78

What is a subscine bird song?

Answer 78

A subscine bird song is a variety of bird song which specific birds are born with and do not be learned

Question 79

What was Spencers European Starling study?

Answer 79

This study had two groups of european starlings, the first with a steady supply of food and the second with an irregular supply of food. This was tested to indicate the importance of welloffness to number of songs aquired (they found the more stable food source group had more time to develop songs, which is an honest signal of the male starlings mating potential as it is able to readily provide for itself.

Question 80

What does the Baboon grunt signify?

Answer 80

The grunt signifies a positive interaction ( and that the dominant female baboon is not threatening their subordinate)

Question 81

What do baboon screams imply?

Answer 81

Baboon screams are an active agressive form of communication ( from a dominant baboon to a subordinate)

Question 82

What does a supplant refer to?

Answer 82

A supplant is an unvoiced action by a dominant baboon in which they state their dominance by taking what they please.

Question 83

What type of society to baboon’s live in?

Answer 83

Baboon females in a linear, matriarchal, dominance hierarchy. (Which males are free agents which travel between groups to mate)

Question 84

What is the first Cheny and Seyfarth baboon experiment?

Answer 84

The first experiment is a playback experiment looking at the agressive communication system baboons have. The experimentors tracked a pair confrontational baboons and waited for the dominant baboon to leave and waited 10-30 minutes later to play a recorder version of the dominants call ( in the condition where the dominant is not present and they have not made up) The measured variable of this experiment is amount of eye contact and vigilence. (which they found that the subordinate baboons where more vigilent after hearing the calls and are able to differenciate between calls and track social latters)

Question 85

What is Cheny and Seyfarth’s second baboon experiment?

Answer 85

This experiment also tested agressive communication techniques this time seeing the difference between inner family conflit and cross family conflict. (two categories are dominant to suborniate agression ( normal) vs subordinate to dominant (abnormal) within the family and cross family conflict variables) they found that when a subordinate initiates conflict with a dominant from a different family it is a serious threat. (again proving that the baboon’s not only track their own personal conflicts but also track the conflicts between other members of the social hierarchy. )

Question 86

How are baboons social communications a precursor to language?

Answer 86

Social communications are a precursor to language based on 3 categories
1. Knowledge is representation ( lots of semantic knowledge behind grunts and scremes based on the hieratchical structurr)
2. Knowledge based on properties with discreate values ( sex, individual social status, familial social status)
3. Knowledge is rule goverend and open-ended (there is a grammar to this system and the communication network is partially based on situational context)