Animal Cognition Flashcards

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1
Q

Can dogs understand us?

A
  • No they respond to conditioning.

- Stimulus - Reward - Response.

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2
Q

Explain Operant Conditioning.

A
  • Skinner - operant conditioning with pigeons - learned response sign rewarded with food - shaped and controlled by their environment.
  • Pigeons were kept at 2/3 of their body weight so were constantly hungry.
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3
Q

What is gambling an example of?

A
  • Schedules or reinforcement.
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4
Q

Why do we believe in free will?

A
  • We believe in free will because we know about our behaviour not about the cause.
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5
Q

Explain the concept of the Thorndike Puzzle box.

A
  • Boxes cats can escape from via a latch.
  • Problem solving.
  • Believed that animals do not understand the consequences of their actions - no flashes of insight.
  • Success is reached by trial and error - a well practiced cat remembers that a certain action will bring a reward and this is stamped into their mind.
  • Behaviour changes due to the consequence.
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6
Q

What is the chain explaining learned behaviour in animals?

A

Conditioned stimulus - Conditioned response.

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7
Q

How do animals navigate?

A
  • Spatial memory - thought to be due to the hippocampus, however even animals without this can navigate (tortoise).
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8
Q

What are the two opposing views on animal testing?

A
  1. Anti experimentation: animals feel pain, sometimes with no benefit (e.g. thalidomide babies), scientists don’t care about animals.
  2. Pro experimentation: animals are not human, we eat them and experimentation is justified by the benefits.
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9
Q

Explain the Thalidomide failure of animal testing.

A
  • Late 1950s early 60s - 10, 000 birth defects and thousands of fatal deaths.
  • Even though testing on a huge range of animals.
  • Testing failed - not even that successful.
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10
Q

What is the truth about animal testing?

A
  • We need to understand animal testing - make advancements but also look into the impacts on the wildlife, improve welfare with regulations.
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11
Q

How does the media portray animals?

A
  • Presented in an anthropomorphic manner - children books - provoke sentimentality.
  • Animals can learn complex tasks.
  • Animal experience - useful for psychology and vice versa.
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