Cognition

Question 1

What is cognition?

Answer 1

The mechanism by which animals acquire, process, store and act on information from the environment.

Question 2

Animal cognition

Answer 2

Describes the mental capacities of non-human animals and the study of those capacities.
Looks at the ability of the animal to be placed in a room and figure out where and what everything is.

Question 3

Common husbandry practices and cognition

Answer 3

Require considerable physiological and behavioural adaptation by the animal. Failure to adjust to the environmental changes can result in a welfare problem.

Question 4

Cognitive research

Answer 4

Used to determine potential mismatches between husbandry practices and adaptive abilities of livestock

ex. adaptation to facilities and feed bunks

Question 5

Cognitive domains

Answer 5

Physical cognition

Social cognition

Question 6

Physical cognition

Answer 6

An organisms understanding of objects and their various spatial and causal relationships

ex. understanding where there food and water is

Question 7

Different traits of physical cognition

Answer 7

• Categorization
• Numerical ability
• Object permanence
• Reasoning/ inferences
• Tool use

Question 8

Categorization

Answer 8

Ability to group items based on common features

Will help predict potential stressors. Ex. can an animal categorize all different types of food bowls as a food bowl

Question 9

Numerical ability

Answer 9

Discrimination and judgement of distinct quantities

Can help determine the perceived predictability of environment and adaptation to stressors. Ex. understanding number of peers

Question 10

Object Permanence

Answer 10

The notion that objects continue to exist when they move out of the visual field.

Implication: perceived predictability of environment (housing)

Question 11

Reasoning/Inferences

Answer 11

Establishment of an association between a visible and an imagined event.

Implication: perceived predictability of environment (housing); complexity of cognitive enrichment

Question 12

Tool Use

Answer 12

Manipulation of objects to reach goal.

Implication: Complexity of cognitive enrichment

Question 13

Different aspects of social cognition

Answer 13

• Discrimination and recognition of conspecifics- effects group cohesion
• Discrimination of recognition of humans- effects stockmanship
• Communication with humans- effects management and stockmanship during handling and transport
• Social learning- effects learning, access to resources, and avoidance of harm
• Prosocial behaviour- has ethical implications

-Fairness- ethical implications

Question 14

Social cognition

Answer 14

Discrimination and recall of conspecifics, either as the individual or group level. Also the ability to infer motivations and desires of others.

Question 15

Learning

Answer 15

The change in behaviour resulted from information from outside the brain

Question 16

Classical conditioning

Answer 16

A form of associated learning. A stimulus (unconditioned stimulus) that normally produces an involuntary response is paired with an arbitrary stimulus (conditioned stimulus) until the later alone elicits the same response. Ex. dog, food and bell

Question 17

Predisposition to learn

Answer 17

There are certain cues that animals will more easily associate with different situations than others

Ex. taste easily associated with nausea, sound easily associated with shock… but difficult to switch them

Question 18

Operant Conditioning

Answer 18

Another form of associative learning, where the individual changes the form, intensity, or frequency of a behaviour based on the consequences it produces.

ex. mouse presses button to get food and avoid electric shock

Question 19

Animal Training

Answer 19

Often linked to operant conditioning. Rewards or punishment immediately after behaviour to either acquire or extinct behaviour.

Positive or negative
Reinforcement or punishment

Question 20

Reinforcement

Answer 20

Positive= give reward
Negative= animal avoids situation and is relieved

Question 21

Punishment

Answer 21

Positive= threaten/punish
Negative= take away something they like

Question 22

Superstitious learning

Answer 22

Part of operant conditioning

If an animal is doing a behaviour when something happens, they will then assume that the action was what caused the something to happen

Question 23

Non-associative learning

Answer 23

A form of learning where an animal will alter their response based on a single event. Will not involve a stimulus or pairing

Question 24

Habituation

Answer 24

An example of non-associative learning.

The waning of a response to a repeated stimulus. Ex. train going by sheep… over time will begin to ignore it

Question 25

Sensitization

Answer 25

An example of non-associative learning.

The repeated presentation of a stimulus lowers the threshold for the elicitation of a response

Question 26

Animal intelligence

Answer 26

A group of skills that enable learning, problem solving, and higher-order cognition.

Question 27

Hebb-Williams Closed field test

Answer 27

Changing the walls of a maze. Look at how many errors individuals make and give them a score.

Testing the animal intelligence

Question 28

Motivation

Answer 28

The strength of the given behaviour, taking into account internal and external factors

Question 29

Motivational state of an animal

Answer 29

A combination of the levels of all causal factors (genes, physiology, and experience/learning/memory.

Question 30

Motivational control systems

Answer 30

• Feedback control- A displacement from an initial state within the tolerable range occurs. This change is monitored and some corrective action is taken that restores the state to the former condition
• Feedforward control- A change in state is predicted and corrective action taken before it can occur so that the state changes little from its former condition

Question 31

Measuring motivation using operant conditioning

Answer 31

Once animals have learned to perform an operant task to obtain access to a resource, the work that is required for each access can be increased therefore determining the level of motivation

Question 32

Moral behaviours in animals

Answer 32

Reciprocity and Empathy Ex. chimps working together to pull box and get food
One chimp although fed will help the other in case he wants the favour returned one day