Animal Intelligence

Question 1

Gottfredson’s key points on intelligence?

Answer 1

Reason, plan, solve problems, learn

Overall idea of processing information from our environment and applying this to our course of action

Question 2

What is cognition?

Answer 2

Mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience and senses

Question 3

What indicates intelligence i.e. what can we look for when studying? (5)

Answer 3

Learning
Problem solving
Recognising conspecifics/self
Planning
Use of tools

Question 4

What are the difficulties in measuring intelligence?

Answer 4

Not measured directly
Motivation often needed
Brain size as a proxy - not always true
Criteria varies e.g. intelligent in one aspect and not another

Question 5

What was the problem with Clever Hans?

Answer 5

Horse believed to add/subtract - was instead reading the audience response to know when to stop tapping his hoof

Question 6

What is apparent intelligence?

Answer 6

Where an individual appears to exhibit intelligence e.g. complex nest building when this is instead an innate process

Question 7

Social Brain Hypothesis?

Answer 7

Dunbar - social complexity drives the evolution of intelligence
More complex interactions = greater intelligence to cope

Question 8

Complex interactions required by social groups? (4)

Answer 8

Dominance hierarchies
Resolving conflict
Recognition
Parental care and bonding

Question 9

Evidence for social brain hypothesis?

Answer 9

Neocortex size correlated with group size in primates

Pair-bonded groups within species have greater residual brain volume than other systems

Question 10

Contradicting social brain theory?

Answer 10

Brain size not necessarily linked to group size - diet may play a greater role e.g. fructivores have greater brain volumes, maybe due to spatial knowledge needed for foraging

Question 11

Guilt in dogs?

Answer 11

Example of anthropomising - we assume they are guilty, but this is a highly complex cognition
Experiments found they exhibited the same ‘guilty’ response to scolding regardless of whether or not they ‘deserved’ it

Question 12

Mirror self-recognition experiments?

Answer 12

Habituated animals to a mirror and then marked them - greater self-directed responses indicate that they could self-recognise

Question 13

Which species show self-recognition?

Answer 13

Chimps, apes
Dolphins - even though they do not encounter their reflection in the wild
Asian elephants
Birds

Question 14

How is self-recognition likely to have evolved?

Answer 14

Separately - it is evident in taxonomically distinct groups

Question 15

Self-recognition in magpies?

Answer 15

Gertie and Goldie - both responded strongly when their badges were painted gold

Question 16

Theory of Mind?

Answer 16

Idea that we have some idea what each other are thinking, essential to our cooperative society - can animals do the same?

Question 17

Theory of mind in scrub jays?

Answer 17

Cash acorn and nuts to hide over the winter - if they see other birds in that area, they will move them in secret
However, is this just natural selection?

Question 18

Testing theory of mind in humans

Answer 18

Ernie and Bert puppets - Ernie puts a ball in red box and ‘leaves’
Bert moves it to the blue box
Child asked where Ernie would look - they usually cannot separate their knowledge from the puppet i.e. development occurs later in life

Question 19

Testing theory of mind in animals

Answer 19

Two boxes, animals habituated to know one contains food

One touched intentionally and one accidentally by experimenter - primates select the intentional box

Question 20

When is theory of mind thought to evolve in primates, if they possess it?

Answer 20

More than 40 million years ago, as diverse clades demonstrate it (rhesus monkeys, chimps etc)

Question 21

What did the hand-occupied touch experiment test?

Answer 21

Box touched with elbow with hands occupied or not - animals could detect whether the experimenter had a free hand or not and investigated the boxes touched with hands occupied

Question 22

Language in apes?

Answer 22

Sign language can be taught, but mainly used for requests - no construction of sentences or deeper understanding

Question 23

Washoe sign language?

Answer 23

Ape taught to sign - signed water in response to a duck which seems indicative of complex thought processes, but actually just a coincidence

Question 24

Rational maximiser idea?

Answer 24

Assigned to humans - idea that we are only self-interested. This is argued as unfair, as humans are moral and focused on cooperation rather than competition

Question 25

Animal morality in capuchins

Answer 25

Rejection of unequal pay - if both given reward of cucumber, both capuchins were happy.
If one was then rewarded with grapes, the other was unsatisfied with the cucumber