animal learning and cognition Flashcards
when did the modern study of animal behaviour begin?
Darwin’s theory of evolution bu means of natural selection
who pioneered the study of animal psychology?
George Romanes in the 1880s
how did George Romanes study animal psychology & what did he conclude?
anecdotes of animal behaviour
concluded animals are rational, empathetic, & reasoning creatures
saw a simple progression in intellectual capabilities based on the animal’s position on what he saw as an evolutionary scale
what was Lloyd Morgan’s view on animal psychology?
1890s- disagreed with Romanes anthropomorphism
believed we shouldn’t interpret the outcome of an exercise of a higher psychical faculty if it could be interpreted as the outcome of one which stands lower in the psychological scale
what is anthropomorphism?
the tendency to view animals as people or to have the same capabilities, motivations, & desires as humans
when was Lloyd Morgan’s Canon?
1894
who first conducted experiments of animal intelligence?
Edward Thorndike
what experiments did Thorndike do?
studied cats’ ability to escape from puzzle-boxes.
cats were quicker to escape the more trials they had done.
there was no sudden decrease in escape times (as would be expected by using reasoning)
therefore, the cats learned by trial-and-error
what was Thorndike’s law of effect?
if a response leads to a satisfying outcome, it will be strengthened
what was Watson’s view on studying behaviour?
behaviourism- advocated for using animals in psychology as their behaviour can be measured
what experiments did Skinner conduct?
used response shaping to train animals to perform a behaviour to get a reward.
there were schedules for presenting the reinforcer
the experiments took place in a skinners box and lead to the idea of operant (instrumental) learning
what is operant learning?
the strength of a behaviour is modified by reinforcement or punishment.
what were the schedules in Skinner’s experiments?
Interval- present the reinforcer after an amount of time
ratio- present the reinforcer after a certain amount of responses
fixed - this is a set amount of time/responses
variable- the amount of time/responses between them is varied
what experiments did Pavlov conduct?
studied dogs salivary action.
presented a US with a CS to lead to a UR. the CS would then produce the CR after a number of pairings
this is called classical conditioning
what are the stages of the CS-US pairing?
acquisition - amount of CR increases up to a max number (asymptote).
extinction - when CS is presented alone, the CR drops to almost nothing
spontaneous recovery- after a 24hr rest, the re-presentation of the CS alone produces the CR
is the conditioned response sensitive to properties of the conditioned stimulus?
yes- Pavlov found the CR was sensitive to the tone presented as a CS.
the further the tone presented (after the CS-US pairing’s established) is from the original tone, the less of a response there is.
when graphed, this causes a generalisation gradient as a result of stimulus generalisation
this is known as the generalisation decrement
how the general population rank intelligence in animals
Banks & Flora, 1977- asked students to rank the intelligence of animals
there was a linear progression from fish to apes
what is the ‘scala naturale’?
Aristotle- a great chain of being with an orderly sequence of complexity & therefore intelligence
how did Jerison view animal intelligence?
1973- ratio of brain weight to body weight (cephalisation index)
what was Anaxogras’s view on animal intelligence?
all animals are equally intelligent, but some are better able to express it than others
What was Macphils idea about why studies found animals differed in intelligence?
the results can be explained by differences in factors like…
motivation
perception
motor skills
can speed of learning be used to measure animal intelligence?
no- there are unexpected between-species differences
Skard, 1950- rats were as quick to learn to navigate a maze as humans
Angermeier- fish were quickest to reach criterion to get a food reward
what can explain unexpected differences between species when looking at the speed of learning?
it’s difficult to equate the perceptual demands of the test
it’s difficult to equate the emotional demands of the test
these are contextual variables
sometimes there’s within-species differences
directs attention away from other important intellectual capacities
who came up with a solution to contextual variables?
Bitterman- conduct experiments in which all the perceptual & motivational demands of the task are systematically varied
this isn’t practical, though
what study did Garcia & Koelling conduct?
1966- rats were given saline & a footshock/illness at the same time
the group that received the illness avoided the saline, whereas the other group didn’t
the opposite result was found when it was a light/clicker presented with the footshock/illness with the saline
this is because some cues are more biologically relevant
what is memory?
when current behaviour is under the influence of past experience
Clark’s nutcracker memory capacity
Wall, 1982- can store 30,000 seeds in up to 4000 locations (caches).
they rely on memory to relocate these caches
Vaughan & Greene’s study on aminal memory
1984- pigeons required to peck on key in response to some stimuli, and withhold their response for others
were able to discriminate 320 pics
what is periodic timing?
the ability of animals to respond at a particular time
e.g. mice show enhanced activity once every 24hrs
what is interval timing?
the ability of animals to respond on the basis of specific durations
studies demonstrating animals can use interval timing
Chuch & Deluty (1977)- rats received a reward in the interval between 2 tones was 2-4 secs long by pressing on the left lever & a reward if the interval was 16 secs & they pressed the right lever
Church & Gibbon (1982)- exposed rats to different periods of the lights being turned off. only being off for 4 secs led to rewards when the lever was pressed
Clever Hans
end of 19thC- famous for ability to solve maths problems
Pfungst (1908)- showed Hans couldn’t answer if the questioner wasn’t visible/if they didn’t know the answer
Meck & Church study on rats remembering numbers
1983 - 4 tones = reward for pressing left lever & 16 times = reward for pressing right lever, even if timing was made equal (had learnt the number)
Brannon & Terrace study on monkeys remembering numbers
2000- trained them to touch squares with a different number of dots on them in numerical order
controlled for confounding factors (e.g. different brightness of stimuli or template matching)
Rugani et al. study on chicks remembering numbers
2007- 5-day old chicks could remember the position of baited food (in a row of 9 other unbaited wells)
not just spatial location - would rotate the row 90 degrees & test from a new starting position
Alex the African grey parrot’s numerical ability
could name the number of coloured blocks in front of him
may not be counting, but a perceptual ability to recognise the number of items (could only count up to 7/8)
Hernstein et al.’s study into if pigeons can learn information about categories
1976- shows 80 pics with or without trees in them.
pecks at a response key were rewarded only when the pictures had trees
pigeons could even respond correctly when shown novel photographs
pigeons can acquire concepts/categorise information
Cerella’s study into if pigeons can categorise information
1979- could categorise silhouettes of oak leaves from non-oak leaves
what are the possible explanations for how categorisation’s achieved?
innate categories
exemplar learning
feature learning
exemplar learning with stimulus generalisation
what is the innate categories explanation for how categorisation’s achieved?
categories involve no learning & are innate
implausible with some examples, though
what is the exemplar learning explanation for how categorisation’s achieved?
animals remember every instance/exemplar of a category
implausible as pigeons could learn to respond to novel items
what is the feature learning explanation for how categorisation’s achieved?
animals learn about the features that items have in common to categorise them
however, pigeons performance isn’t as good with novel photos as learnt photos
what is the exemplar learning with stimulus generalisation explanation for how categorisation’s achieved?
stimulus generalisation = show strong conditioned response to items similar to the trained stimulus, but as similarity decreases, responses drop off
how to determine if an animal has retained information about a previously presented stimulus
recognition test- if a subject’s behaviour to a stimulus changes after being exposed to it, it may be due to their memory of the initial exposure
why might an animals behaviour change after being previously exposed to it?
habituation- become used to the stimulus (reduction in responsiveness to a stimulus as a result of it’s repeated presentation)
conditioning- signals a biologically important event
Whitlow’s study into habituation in rabbits
1975- presented loud tone to rabit & measured blood flow to ears
weaker response to 2nd tone (60sec delay)
Wagner’s addition to Whitlow’s study
1976- if the interval was increased to 150sec, the 2nd response was just as high as the 1st
therefore, the offset of S1 leads to a decaying representation of itself.
Simpler explanations for Wagner’s data
effector fatigue
receptor fatigue
Wagner’s memory model of habituation
the representation can be in A1 state (centre of attention, A2 state (periphery of attention), or inactive state (can then move back into A1)
If S2 is presented before decay to A2 is complete, it matches the representation of S1 & habituation’s observed
effector fatigue as an explanation for Wagner & Whitlow’s results
if the system responsible for overt behaviour’s fatigued, it won’t be able to respond to any stimulus within the period of fatigue
Whitlow- changed properties of tone of S1 & S2 & no habituation occurred in 60secs
effector fatigue can therefore be ruled out as an explanation
receptor fatigue as an explanation for Wagner & Whitlow’s results
cells responsible for reception of S1 are fatigued & less sensitive at presentation of S2. if the tones are different, then different receptors are involved.
Whitlow- presented same tone at S1 & S2 with a 60sec delay. mid-way through the delay, there was a 2 sec distractor. this disrupted habituation (dishabituation) & S2 had same effect as S1
therefore receptor fatigue can be ruled out as an explanation
what is the radial arm maze?
animal can visit 4 of 8 arms on a maze (each have a food reward at the end). the animal then returns to the central hub
when removed for a retention interval & placed back in, they avoid the previously visited arms (STM)
don’t follow a stereotyped route
memory’s more resilient to retroactive interference than habituation in this task
how many arms for rats to complete the radial arm maze task?
8-12
struggle with 17
Radial arm maze task study
Beatty & Shavalia (1980)
1 hour delay after 1st task & were then trained to complete a 2nd radial maze task (had no effect on memory)
Roberts findings on radial arm maze task
1981- retroactive interference only occurred when there were 3 distractor radial maze tasks in the interval
memory was short lived- only remembered arms previously visited for 4hrs
LTM in African Claw-Toed frog
Miller & Berk (1977) - animal undergoes metamorphis over 35 days (tadpole to frog)
trained tadpoles to move from black to white compartment to avoid electric shock - they remembered to avoid the black compartment after turning into a frog
why study animal memory?
could lead to understanding the neural processes that subserve the acquisition/storage of knowledge
long-term retention of information
consolidation, retention, & retrieval
animal forms memory trace, stores information, & acts on the memory
what are the consolidation theories of long-term retention of information?
emphasises the 1st 2 phases
forgetting is due to an inadequate trace being laid down/ the passing of time
what are the retrieval theories of long-term retention of information?
the formation of a memory trace is instantaneous & once formed remains intact
forgetting is due to the animal’s inability to retrieve the information
Hebb’s view on consolidation theories
1949- long-term changes in the nervous system must occur for long-term retention of information
memory depends on the virtually permanent formation of circuits of interconnected neurons
consolidation & rehearsal needed to complete these connections
support for Hebb’s view on consolidation theories
Duncan (1949)- studied rats w/ electroconvulsive shock (ECS)
rats moved from 1 end of a box to another to avoid a shock when a light came on
ECS immediately after a trial impaired the rat’s ability to remember the significance of the light
ECS prevented the consolidation of learning
support for retrieval theories of long-term retention of information
Deweer et al. (1980)- trained rats to run through maze with 6 points in it
took 300secs at the beginning & 30 secs by the end of training
given 25-day delay & took 150secs to run the maze again
if they were shown the maze beforehand for 90 secs, they took only 40secs
how does CS cause US?
mental experience of remembering the US or
Holland- CS activates perceptual mechanisms normally activated by the US
distinct characteristics of the US
specific- things that make the US unique (e.g. flavour)
affective- characteristics that the US has in common with other USs (e.g. food)
what is an aversive US?
unpleasant stimuli the animal will want to avoid
what is stimulus substitution?
Konorski- when the CS activates a representation of the specific qualities of the US, we can expect the CR to mimic the UR
what is autoshaping?
a form of conditioning in which a subject that has been given reinforcement following a stimulus, regardless of its response to that stimulus, consistently performs an irrelevant behaviour.
evidence for stimulus substitution
autoshaping - pigeon responds to CS, even though it doesn’t help them gain a reward
if CS signals US of food, the CR = pecking like it would at grains
when the CS activates a representation of the affective properties of the US, we can expect a preparatory response
examples of a preparatory response to an affective US
freezing at sound that signals a footshock
freezing behaviour is corresponded to a reducting in the number of lever presses made by the rat during the CS (conditioned suppression)
what is a compensatory response?
an automatic response that is opposite to the effect of alcohol or drug usage.
animal studies on compensatory response
Siegel- rats were given morphine, and then either saline injections or a rest. in the final stage.
the drug had a greater effect on the group who were injected with saline - the CS-US pairing of injection-drug was broken & compensatory CR goes into extinction
what is contiguity (as a condition for learning)?
if events occur close together in time/space, they will be readily associated
what is eye-blink conditioning?
pairing an auditory or visual stimulus with an eyeblink-eliciting unconditioned stimulus.
Only successful if there’s a contiguous relationship between the CS & US
evidence that contiguity isn’t the only factor in whether learning will occur
Smith & Roll (1967)- rats can learn relationship between food flavour and illness, even when the events take place 6hrs apart
Garcia & Koelling (1966)- rats will learn that a light & clicker signal a footshock, but not that they signal illness
Rescorla (1967)- truly random control. unless there’s a clear predictive relationship (contingency), no learning will occur
Kamin’s findings for conditioning
1969- US has to be surprising
in stage 1, a group of rats (blocking group) learnt a noise signalled a footshock. in stage 2, a light & noise were presented in compound. they showed a low response to just the light when (compared to the group always trained with the compund signal).
learning about the significance of the light was blocked by the previously learned relationship. this didn’t occur when the rat had a more intense footshock in stage 2.
Model of associative learning
Rescorla-Wagner (1972)- behaviour can be modified or learned based on a stimulus and a response. This means that behaviour can be learned or unlearned based on the response it generates.
the procedure of latent inhibition
light presented in stage 1 that signals no outcome
in stage 2, the light becomes a signal for the delivery of food
slower to learn about the relationship than a group that had the light signal food in stage 1 & 2
what is Wagner’s theory of learning based on attention?
attention is high to novel stimuli & low to familiar stimuli
what is Mackintosh’s theory of learning based on attention?
attention will be high to novel stimuli & high to signals for important events (low for irrelevant stimuli)
What is Pearce-Hall’s theory of learning based on attention?
attention’s highest when learning about a stimulus is ongoing, but low once learning’s complete
distinction between controlled & automatic processing (controlled = deliberate attention, but once learned, processing becomes automatic)
Kayne & Pearce’s study on learning based on attention
1984
Group none- light signalled no outcome
group continuous- light always signalled delivery of food
group partial- light signalled food 50% of time
measured orientating response (how often they looked at light when it was on)
OR dropped off for group none & continuous, but remained high for partial (can’t learn what light signals)
what is reasoning?
the ability to combine 2+ pieces of information to draw a novel conclusion
what is deductive reasoning?
occurs when the conclusion is necessitated by the premises
what is inductive reasoning?
the conclusion is likely from the premises (conclusion follows with some degree of probability)
study into animals ability to navigate (dead reckoning)
Wehner & Srinivasan (1981)
looked at desert ant ‘cataglyphis’ that needed to return home quickly to avoid heat
ant used dead reckoning to navigate
ants found food a fixed distance away & were then moved 600m away
they searched as if they hadn’t been displaced
what is dead reckoning/path integration?
calculating one’s position by estimating the direction and distance travelled rather than by using landmarks or astronomical observations.
study into animals ability to navigate (using landmarks)
Collett et al.- trained gerbils to find food a fixed distance & direction from a landmark
landmark & goal were moved so they couldn’t use path integration to find the goal.
what is piloting in navigation?
the ability to plot a course to a hidden goal using landmarks
what happens if animals have a cognitive map for landmarks?
can select a noel route/shortcut
make a detour around an obstacle that blocks a previously taken path
study into cognitive maps in animals
Morris (1981)- trained rats to locate a hidden platform in a circular pool of water. trained to find the platform in the same location & always released from the same point.
in test, they were released from a new point - found the platform quickly, but nearly all started their path in the wrong direction.
may have needed to explore pool/cross path they had previously crossed (not good evidence)
evidence for inductive reasoning in chimpanzees
Kohler- chimpanzees could use poles & boxes to get closer to fruit out of their reach.
however, the chimps weren’t naive to interacting with boxes/poles
study into how prior experience influences novel behaviour
Epstein et al. (1984)- some pigeons trained to push a box to get a food reward & then to stand on a box to get food.
test trial- box moved so it wasn’t underneath the banana. birds with prior experience were quicker to move the box
evidence of insight, but without prior experience, they weren’t able to complete the task efficiently
example if insightful behaviour in the New Caledonian Crow
Betty given a straight wire to use to retrieve a bucket containing food from the bottom of a cylinder.
After some experience, she spontaneously bent the wire to make a hook to lift the bucket
However, she had experience of the wire & was wild-caught
what is reasoning by analogy?
based on the idea that because two or more things are similar in some respects, they are probably also similar in some further respect.
study into animals reasoning by analogy
Gillan & Premack- trained chimpanzee Sarah to use language by pointing to symbols on a board.
learned 1 symbol meant ‘same as’ & was given a symbolic reasoning task
understood by analogy the correct answer
possible the experiments inadvertently cued Sarah to give the correct answer
what is communication?
where 1 organism transmits a signal to another organism that is capable of responding appropriately
communication in the honey-bee
Von Frisch
can transmit the location of food they’ve discovered when they return to the hive using 2 dances
round dance- food source is less than 100m from hive - encourages random search
waggle dance- when food is more than 100m from hive
distance is revealed by the length of the straight run & is proportional to the number of waggles
direction’s revealed by the angle created by the vertical floor and the direction of the straight run (angle’s the same as between the sun’s position & the food source)
communication in the Veret monkey
Seyfarth & Cheney
3 alarm calls for predators
seeing snake causes others to look on ground,
leopard causes members to run to the trees,
eagle causes them to look to the sky
not innate- the calls are learned in childhood
can animals acquire language?
Chomsky- all language conforms to rules of grammar, so humans must have a language acquisition device in their minds that’s not found in animals
Macphail- no evidence for difference in intelligence between species, & the difference seen is due to our ability to use language
criteria for communication to be a language
Hockett: discrete units arbitrary units semanticity displacement & productivity through syntax
what is an arbitrary unit?
relative unit of measurement to show the ratio of amount of substance, intensity, or other quantities, to a predetermined reference measurement.
what is a discrete unit?
a separate part of something larger.
what is displacement through syntax?
capability of language to communicate about things that are not immediately present
what is productivity through syntax?
the degree to which native speakers use a particular grammatical process, especially in word formation.
what is syntax?
the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.
training monkeys to acquire language
Furness & Hayes & Hayes- tried to train an orang-utan & chimp to speak (limited success)
Gardener & Gardener- train chimpanzee Washoe to use ASL. 4yrs of training- could produce 132 words. Washoe adopted chimp who learned 22 words from interactions with Washoe
Premack et al.- trained chimp Sarah to use symbols on cards. learnt 130 cards
Savage-Rumbaugh et al.- trained apes, chimp, & Kanzi the bonobo to press symbols on a lexigram
what did Washoe sign that could be seen as syntax?
‘waterbird’ when she saw a swan
could just be signing 2 things she saw, though
success in Premack’s study with chimp Sarah
asked what colour chocolate was & she replied brown - shows semanticity & displacement (knew the meaning of the symbol & chocolate wasn’t present)
Terrace’s review of ape studies
simpler mechanisms could account for instances of productivity through syntax
e.g. learning through trial & error
chimp Nim acquiring language
Terrace - recorder 19,000+ multiword utterances (of 5235 types) over 18-month period
concluded there was no grammatical structure (position habits could make words look grammatical correct & would alter sentences copied from his trainer)
did not elaborate on his sentences- length didn’t increase
