Animal study methods

Question 1

What is ‘cognitive bias testing’?

Answer 1

How emotional states effect cognitive processes
Glass half-full, half-empty paradigm
Animals with good welfare make more optimistic judgements
Measures valence

Question 2

Strengths of studying animal cognition in the wild:

Answer 2

Provides context in behaviours
Allows study of cultural learning
Can study spatial learning more easily due to space
Allows to study diet choice more easily
Can be cheaper when studying species expensive to keep in captivity such as great apes (and more ethical)
Can extend the range of species studied
Can extend on and confirm hypothesis made in the lab

Question 3

What is ‘Neophilic’?

Answer 3

Enjoyment of novelty

Question 4

Weaknesses of studying animal cognition in the wild:

Answer 4

Lack of control of variables
No history of individual animals
Can be very expensive and time consuming
logistical difficulties
Unreliable access to individual animals

Question 5

What is behaviourism?

Answer 5

A study of behaviour focused on conditioned response, lead by BF. Skinner, that was not concerned with the internal or affective states of animals as they were thought to be unreliable and unnecessary.

Avoidance of affect states due to focus of science to be able to completely accept or reject an idea.

Dominant in the 1930’s and 40’s.

Question 6

Strengths of studying cognition in the laboratory:

Answer 6

Better control of confounding variables
Reliable access to animals
More robust conclusions
Often cheaper than field studies
Accurate history on individual subjects

Question 7

Weaknesses of studying cognition in the laboratory

Answer 7

Keeping species such as great apes can be unethical
Many species not suitable to lab research such as cetaceans
Potential welfare concerns
Many tests are not suited to the lab particularly those regarding spatial learning and memory.
Some behaviours may not appear in captivity

Question 8

The 4 approaches to studying tradition in free-living animals?

Answer 8

1. Observations
2. Lab experiments
3. Armchair analysis - other scientists critiquing studies
4. Field experiments

Question 9

What does ‘allopatric’ mean?

Answer 9

Animals of the same species appearing in non-overlapping locations

Question 10

The percieved hierarchy of animal abilities

Answer 10

1. Reflexes (no consciousness needed)
2. Learn behaviours
3. Cognitive representations such as insight learning and theory of mind.

Question 11

What is the Morris Water Maze

Answer 11

a large circular pool of water, where the subject is required to escape from water onto a hidden platform whose location can normally be identified only using spatial memory