Animal Intelligence & Problem Solving Flashcards
Who was Clever Hans
a horse that showed counting when asked addition
why was clever hans not actually a genius
When you give him the problem, he starts tapping. When he gets to the correct number, he looks at the audiences reaction and uses that to know when to stop tapping.
what did Kohler say about Thorndikes experiements
“If essential portions of the experimental apparatus cannot be seen by the animals, how can they use their intelligence faculties in tackling the situation?” • Gestalt psychology • Perception of relations • no physical activity involved • if too difficult: trial-and-error
what did Kohler say about the monkeys reaching bananas?
Chimpanzee did the activity after a period of reflection and then did it in one go
what did Epstein investigate
pigeons seeing a plastic banana where, if they peck it, they get a grape.
they place a box under it so that they can reach.
this took a lot of training (months)
what did Skinner argue about Epsteins pigeons
Skinner- monkeys had the boxes in their habitat for a long time so were more familiar than the pigeons were. This could explain why they learnt the behaviour quicker.
what did Poucet find
Poucet (1983): Cats – transparent vs opaque barriers. Some animals are able to solve the problem by moving away from the food to take the optimal route to the goal.
what did povinelli find
Found that if chimpanzee wants food, it can push it through the tube. Povinelli wanted to see how quickly this happens. Diagram used displayed below.
Give them a tool (stick). It is 50/50 which way they go through first. They will either push it into the trap or push it out for eating.
Now the chimpanzee understands the problem, the test begins. The food is now on the other side of the trap. They mostly get it wrong after the first go.
what did Chappell & Kacelnik show
crows can select the most efficient tool
what did Weir, Chappell & Kacelnik (2002) show
When given a straight piece of wire, the crow learns to bend the wire to form a hook.
what did Mackintosh 1974 find
The result? On later reversals the animal makes less errors in acquiring the discrimination. In extreme cases it makes only 1 error! Evidence for the use of a “win - stay / lose - shift” rule?
If it pecks the yellow one, it wins. If it picks blue it loses. The yellow circle can come up on either side. Train the pigeon on this until it gets 9/10 trials correct. At this point, you reverse it. It now has to peck the blue one. On the first few trials it will continue doing yellow, then 50/50 and then blue. Once it gets to 90% on the blue, the experiment reverses to the yellow again.
Eventually, it will keep going with the correct colour, then once it switches, it will make one mistake and then focus on the other colour.
what did harlow 1949 create
learning sets
what did harlow 1949 find
On later problems the animal makes less errors in acquiring the discrimination. In extreme cases it makes only 1 error! Evidence for the use of a “win - stay / lose - shift” rule?
who showed evidence of transitive inference in animals
McGonigle and Chalmers (1977, 1992
what did McGonigle and Chalmers (1977, 1992) find
When B and C occur together, if they pick B, C has nothing there. If C and D occur together, C has food but D has nothing.
So, A>B, B>C, C>D, D>E.
Between B and D, B should be chosen if consistent with transitive inference.
