Animal Cognition & Learning Flashcards
What are the origins of the study of animal behaviour?
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection.
Gave evidence of evolutionary continuity between animals and humans.
Who was the first psychologist to study animals and what were their methods/conclusions?
George Romanes in the 1880s; he relied on anecdotes to make his conclusions on animals being rational, empathetic, reasoning creatures with intellectual capabilities.
Who was the first scientist to conduct experiments on animal intelligence?
Edward Thorndike.
What is the Law of Effect?
Thorndike’s Law of Effect states that ‘If a response leads to a satisfying outcome, it will be strengthened’.
Who are some other early scientists that supported the study of animal behaviour?
In the 1890s, Lloyd Morgan argued against Romane’s anthropomorphic speculations and instead called for more careful interpretations of animal behaviour.
John Watson supported the study of human behaviour through animals’ behaviour, rather than emotions, as those are subjective experiences.
Who was B.F. Skinner?
A psychologist who conducted experiments on rats and pigeons to test animal behaviour, he is known for creating the ‘Conditioning Chamber’ that allowed continuous testing and is still used today.
What is Instrumental Conditioning?
Also known as Operant Conditioning, it is the response shaping method of learning discovered by Skinner.
Similar to Law of Effect.
Animal was trained to perform a behaviour and gain a reward.
Further developed to feature scheduled reinforcement on a ratio (reinforcer after certain number of responses) or interval (reinforcer after certain amount of time) basis.
The schedules can be fixed or variable.
Who was Ivan Pavlov?
A physiologist that famously studied dogs and their salivary action in response to food; he altered his whole research lab to study conditional learning.
What is Pavlovian Conditioning?
Also known as Classical Conditioning, it is a learning method which involves conditioning an animal to associate a neutral stimulus with an unconditional stimulus to produce a conditional response.
What are the stages to Pavlovian Conditioning?
Acquisition stage- Maximum conditioned response, asymptote reached
Extinction stage- Conditioned responding drops to zero
Spontaneous Recovery stage- After 24 hour rest, the CS alone is able to produce CR.
Explain the Generalisation Decrement phenomenon.
The conditioned response is sensitive to the properties of the conditioned stimulus, such that the more the deviation of from the CS, the lower the responding rate. Also known as Stimulus Generalisation.
What is the ‘Scala Naturae’?
Great Chain of Being, Aristotle
Believed in an orderly sequence of complexity of intelligence in animals
What was Romanes’ theory about animal intelligence?
He thought that animal intelligence could be ordered in a linear progression via natural selection; however, it is impossible to rank mammals higher than birds when they both share evolutionary history.
What is the Cephalisation Index and what is its purpose?
A ratio of brain size to body weight, it is meant to control this correlation to determine the role of brain size in animal intelligence.
Animals with higher CI are ranked higher on intelligence.
What was the alternate theory proposed by Anaxagoras and Macphail?
Anaxagoras proposed that all animals are equally intelligent, but some are just better at expressing their intelligence. Macphail’s review of studies contended that all differences in animal intelligence could be explained by factors like motivation, perception etc.
