Cognition Flashcards
knowwledge acquistion forms
teaching imitation emulation local/social stimulation trial and error insight learning stimulus enhancement
what is imitation
copying method to achieve result
what is emulation
copying result, butn ot the method
wolfgang kohler; what he do
1912 experiments on insight learning and the mentality of apes
- did experiments with boxes and primates in max planc institiute
what are individual/asocial forms of learning
conditioning/trial and error
insight
stimulus enhancement
stimulus enhancement
exposure to problem solving situations
types of social learning
teaching
imitation
emulation
social stimulation
what is intelligence
flexibility in novel situations; whereby knowledge if gained through the mechanism of learning
mechanism and function of knowledge acquisition
mechanism; learning
function; adaptability and selection
morgans canon, occcams razor & the principle of parsimony
mogans canon- refers to animal behaviour (simple explanations/less complicated should be used to explain animal behaviour)
inspired by… occams razor; (by French Philosopir William of Occam); refers to ‘simplest explanations should precede complicated ones’
why is occams razor called occams razor
Razor; ‘to slice away the complex jargon and leave a simple explanation’
theory of mind + black box
other minds are black boxes and we cant know what happens in them;
theory of mind is TRYING to place ourselves in the sate of mind of others (individual percieves mental persepctive of another RATHER THAN JUST responding to their behaviour)
how to measure intelligence?
- neocortex ratio (robin dunbar)
- ecological intellience
- social intelligence
morgans canon: example of orangutans in munster zoo
they join 2 sticks wiht a tube sans social learning
explanation 1; trial and error (more simple)
explanation 2: insight
insight learning; example of chimps
Kohlers study:
chimps stack boxes to gain banana on top of the ciellin (problem solving)
capuchin trap-tube test
task: get a peanut in a tube with s stick
challenge= tube is a trap where only one side can be poked without losing the peanut
result= capuchin only uses stick on correct side
shows= perceptual strategy but not cause-effect awareness (as when experimenter turns tube upside down monkey continues to use same approach)
sweet potato washing in japanese macaqus + learning theories
explanation one: imitaiton
explanation two; social stimulation
(as one female did it and then it spread and only old males dont each them)
potatoes washed to get rid of sand and salt water
neocortex ratio
weight/columbe of the neocortex to the rest of the brain (by robin dunbar)
ecological intelligence
ability to mental map fruit patches of frugiviours primates
this equires a good memory
why is ecological intelligence a poor indicator of intelligence
as not all fruit eating primates have a large neocortex ratio
impotance of extractive foraging
matters more than ecological intellligence as entails problem solving + using methods to gain HIDDEN resources
e.g. fishing or nut cracking
social intellience correlation
tight correlation between neocortex ratio and group size
‘social brain’ hypothesis
(byrne - dunbar)
mental abilitilieties were gained in social fields and then transferred to technological/tool use as matieral culture was built on experetise that it was beneficial in complex social fields
hence social origins of intelligence evolved in interaction
machevliean intelligence was suggested by…
nichollo machieavelli 1469
byrne-whitten expanded it in studies
machevliean intelligence
‘it is not neccesary to possess virtious qualities; you just need to appear to have them’
deception as a measure of intteligence
value of deception
while sociality has benefits; consepcitifs are sitll competitiors.
Hence being aable to MAINPULATE your social partner is important for social competence and individual fitness.
daniel dennet 1983 + orders of mental representation
zero-order= conditioning (biological)
first order= conscious desire
third order= mind reading/theory of mind
and so on…
(higher orders of mental represeation and multi-lateral thinkining)
mentalistic ways of differenetiating knowledge (boosters)
understanding reading minds booster cognitivist rich explanation
non mentalistic ways of differentating knowledg (scoffesr)
conditioning reading behaviour learning explanation scoffer behaviourist
false belief test
understanding individuals can conflict with reality;
puppets and children test
mirror test
gordon gallup jr;
understanding whether animals have self-awareness/recognition
to know others= you must know yourself
animals that pass the mirror test/fail
pass= chimps, capuchins, magpies, gibbons, gorrillas, bottlenose dolphins
fail= baboons
where is social intelligence also found and what does it imply
in dolphims, crows and parrots
implies parallel evolution
transfer hypothesis
mental abilities developed in the social field and where then transferred to technogolical tool use as it wevolvd socially
uses of social tools
- to exploit others/things (muscle power; protect group)
2. tactical deception and social intelligence (the more deception the highter the neocortex)
lob der lüge
volker sommer; how deception drives inteliigence in its social origins
the protected threat
in hamadryas baboons; using deception to exploit others by orders of mental represetantion (i.e. hiding behind a rock from a dominant male due to knowledge that the normal activity (sex, eating) would be shut down
what are some ways to cope with cheatres?
- putting little intiial investment + demanding rapid payback (like in grooming)
- mental book keeping and currency
- moralistic aggression and punihsing cheaters
- counter deception
- selecting/preferring HONEST bu t COSTLY signals
- self deception to suppress traitorous signals
robert trivers 2011 and deception
self deception as a tactic; being able to lie to yourself makes you a better lie as it hides signs of lying (sweating, anxiety, etc)
‘fooling yourself to fool others’
example of an honest signal
deer vocalizations
but cheating still ocurrs (chimps PUFF hair to make themselves look better)
einfühlungsvermögen
empathy to sympathy= using theory of mind to undersatnd the feelings of others
empathy
undersatnding anothers emotions
sympathy
sharing feelings with another
transcends species boundaries; no prior experince is needed to support feeleings of other
three ways primate cognittion can be investigated
- probing mechanisms (object manipulation/tasks)
- spatial memory/tool usage
- social undersatnding and relations
value of play in learning
- learning with NO imitation
- experimetanation/exploraiton
- social stimulation/facillitation allows for self-adjugment
value of social facitliation
- increaes interest in an activity
- determines the norms of behaviour and HOW the immitation occurs
primate example: imitation
japanese sweet potato washing
marmosets copy each others behaviour to open food
how are tool traditioned maintained
maintained by local and social traditions through ehvaioural transmission and social tolerance
how does tool use work
manipulating the natural environment to achieve a desired goal
how ecological intelligence works: examples
detecting venemous snakes
rememering and findign resources
knowing when fruits are flowing
requires spatial memory
stone and anvil
brazil bearded capuchins
chmps
theory; who invented tool use
immature or adult females= as more technological caability required
what is behaviour parsing + who came up with it
richard byrne 2003; when complex tasks are broken down into mechanistic elements and copied without understand the cause-effect relationship
DeWaal 1990 relational model
social intelligence needs conflict resolution; large brains need mental epreseantations
hence reconcillation works as its a strong mutual interests for maintain the relationship between two individiaul
tactical deception theory
byrne,whitten 1998:
‘acts from the normal reperotoir of the agent are displayed in such a way that noather individual is likely to misintrepet what the action signififies to the advantage of teh agent’ (machievlian intellience)
examples of tactical deception
- false alarm calls to divert attention
- concealed or manipulate facial expressions/gazing
chimps vs rhesus monkeys in theory of mind
rhesus monkeys; can cooperate to gain food but not switch their roles in the task without learning the task as well
examples of empathy in primates
- yawning
- female capuchins show less anxiety when looking at self in mirror as opposed to act straners
evolutionary trends leading to cognition
- delayed maturation (longer getation/juvenile)= longer brain development
- complex brain and neocortex ratio
- sociality= as croup size increases more cooperation and competition occurs
capuchin monkeys; can they ape?
nope! they failed to learn neccsary actions to get food with the tool just by watching others (experiment)
apes; do they ape?
yes! can learn from others and also figure things out themselves
general patterns of cognition
- non-imitation (understandind cause-efect relationships)
- ecological selection pressures
- social memory
why do fission fusion societies drive cognition
in spider monkeys and chimps; large groups need more ability to ‘understand what others cant see’ and mental mapping and collaobration
what about social memory allows for primates to do what about relationships
make value judgements and social decisious regarding the relationships
what do only great apes have
- concept of self
2. cognititive manipulative and cooperative tactics
byrne-bates: what three componenets are required for social cognition
- concept of self
- awareness that others have self different from self
- ability to cooperatite and manipulate that
what is cognition (revised) studied
studed as informationg processing as opposed to consciousness
humprheys theory of intelligence
social brain idea; group living acted as a selective pressure for social sophisitication
why are herd animals not trully social
inconstant membership and no recognition ability
what do primates recognizie within a group
kin ship
rank
individuals with third party memberships
playback experiment
having knowledge of another individuals ideneity
by seyfarth-cheney
experiment; play sounds of vervet monkeys in distresses
vervety monkeys; more response to infants or high dominant ranking
what doe sinformation sharing in primates imply?
‘eaves droping’ to overherea changes in rank/food to determine stability
this implies they need memory to remember all the social relaionships
in what primate does kinship influence rank
pig-tailed macaques! femaler resident monkeys have support against others
two-tole tasks
undersatnd a role in a food reward experiment when BOTH players have to pull handles to get the food and one one player can see the handles and only one player can see the food
requires cooperation
where is the two tole task ability present
cotton top tamarins
capuchins
chimps
tomasello studied…
theory of mind
how animals learn
enculturared vs wild chimps
accidental vs intentional action experiment
povinelli:
orange juice and the experiment
when spilt ‘accidentally’; chimp would still beg
when spilt ‘deliberately; chimp avoids person
shows= awareness of humans actions in relat to their intention
quiet container experiment
tomasello;
chimps would take food from quiet container and not loud one to avoid being caught stealing when experiment turned away
death and mourning
important part of memory and empathy;
elephants demonstrated it
intellectual challenges of social living
- competition
2. unpreditcitaibility (predator, prey)
single vs multi intelligence debate
expert view: do primates just adapt to their specific environment
nature view; can they be intelligence in any domain
byrnes argument about great apes and cognition
they all shared a common ancestor with basic cognitive skilled related to feeding 10 mya
what is a booster and a scoffer (and who coined the terms)
tomasello:
boosters= thing there is not difference between non human animal/human cognition (believe animals posses theory of mind)
scoffers= radical behaviourists who dont thinks its useful to talk of cognitive processes at all (think non-human animals just respond to behaviour of others)
Gaze Following Experiment
Tomasello 1998:
follow a chimps looking behaviour; if it follows the gaze direction of another chimpanzee/human in the gidrection of food.
- cghimps follow gaze direction of a human to a specific location (target)= specifically seeking target of lookers perceptual activity
- ‘checking back’; when they find nothing they turn back and check the individuals face again (subject expects to find lookers perceptual activity at a target)= after a while this stops
booster interpretation of gaze following experiment
chimps follow the gaze direction of othrs because they want to see what others are seeing
scoffer interpretation of gaze following experiment
individual reslies on biological predispositions and individual learning (expert hypothesis; we are preidsposed to look at where another person looks)
Hare 2000 study
studied subordinate + dominant chimps into a room on opposite sides= shows that food shown to suboradinate that the dominant cant see results in subordinate specifically going for that food.
Periphersal Feeding Hypothesis
Povinelli + Giambrone: stay that in the Hare experiment, suboordinates just want to forage near their barrier as opposed to the ‘open’ where the dominatn can easily see them
Hare response= place food closer to dominant but still away from sight
Evil Eye Hypothesis
To Hare study: belief that subordinates dont eat food dominant has seen as its ‘contaminanted/taboo’
hare response= let dominant see food before hiding it and make suboridante aware of this
Povinelli and Eddy 1996 Study
train chimp to extend hand to human experimenters to request food
–> chimps only ‘begged’ when experimenter could see them/was not blindfolded
Valence Hypothesis (Povinelli/Eddy study)
chimps have a generatl notion of perceptual acces based on body orientation (face/eyes play no role)
Kaminiski 2004
rebutted the valence hypothesis; chimps only had one communicator to choose from= demonstrates chimps are sensitive to where they are looking = sensitivity to face especially
kaiminsi argues= humans body orientation + face orientation are 2 separate things (body= disposition to give subject food, but face= human able to see begging gesture)
what did the kaminsiki and hare find
sensitivity to face disposition in chimps
do chimps really understand about seeing?
- chimps follow gaze of conspecifics/humans past distctators and ‘check back’
- chimps use appropriate gestures depending on visual access of recipeitent
- chimps know when they have seen something and select different foods depending on whether competitor has visual access (differentiate between transparent/split barriers)
Whiten 1994 argument on mind reading
- argues that the ‘principle of parsimony/morgans canon’ suggests that the number of explanations required to support the scoffer explanations is more than the booster explanation
scoffer= many principles of learning to be invoked (evil eye hypothesis, valence hypothesis, learned conditional discrimination, etc)
booster= chimps understand seeting
tit for tat
a strategy in the ‘prissoners’ dilmenna where u follow what the other person does
(cooperate on first move and then copy move of player)
used as an evolutionary stable strategy (ESS) im primates when decideing whether to be altruistic/selfish
- –> increased by kinship/viscocity
- -> need for predictaiblity and ritual to maintian mutual trust
– >payoffs must follow rank order (Both sides must see mutual cooperation as favourable)
viscocity
tendence of individuals to continue living close to the place they were born
Santos, Nissen and Ferrugia 2005 studied…
Rhesus monkeys and cognition in Cayo Santiago istlands: explored whether they could tell the difference between hearing + knowing
results= monkeys prefer taking food (grade) from SILENT conditions (silent container as opposed to noisy) only when silence is relevant to obtaineing food undetected
strategic deception account + HQ food
monkeys withold food calls in presence of high quality food= to increase access to it themselves (Whiten= Byrne)
rhesus monkeys in the wild and deception
withold vocal signals around high quality food to consume more themselves
tactical deception+ HQ food
monkey flexible decides how to proceed when encountering food (whether cooperation/rank, etc)
intentional deception
theory of mind (whiten-byrne); animals understand individuals have mental states (beliefs/knowledge/intentions) other than their own so intentially without food calls because recognize food call would attract others
are chimps alone in tactical deception?
nope! rhesus monkeys also choose from that is hidden from gaze of human competitiors
what do Santos et al study show
- rhesus monkeys can reason about unaobservable perceptive state (hearing) of others
- monkeys can put together information about what competitor can hear + can see and act on that
- monkeys recognize different between seeing/not seeing AND ALSO hearing/not hearing
tomasello= how do animals learn
- social learnign
- stimulus enhancment
- emulation
emulation learning
social learning where subjects attempt to reproduce observed end result without copying behavioural methods of demosntrater (tomasello)
conventionalization
a communicatory signal created by two organisms who shape each others behaviour in repeated instances of social interaction
Tomasello et al 1993 study
studiedd differences between ‘enculturated’ and ‘wild’ chimps to see if mother-reared chimps produce novel actions of language
result= enculturated chimps/human children imitate HUMAN novel actions whereas wild chimps dont= shows species variation not as strong but environmental one is
= ingroup vs outgroup learning
three characteristics (tomasello) of human societies
- alll traditions practiced by all in a society for group membership (universality)
- methods of differen tpeople are similar (uniformity)
- shared cultural history of culture that resulted in this ratchet effect (history)
Boesch 19993 study findings
- –> Tai forest+
1. leap clipping is a noise-making gesture to indicate target location of movile group
- for other gorp members= its used when RESTING
shows= behaviour varies among individuals
