Cognitive Approaches to Animal Learning Flashcards
Define cognition
The mechanisms by which animals acquire, store and act on information from the environment
Define cognitivism or the cognitive approach
A way of thinking about and studying the mechanisms by which animals acquire, store and act on information from the environment
What is the cognitive approach a response to?
Behaviourism, in turn a response to anthropomorphism
What did Romanes 1890s think about dogs?
“Dogs understand that the chord of the circle is shorter than the arc” Because of the way they hinted rabbits - this is not true
What is behaviourism concerned with?
Watson - Pyschology as the behaviourist views it is a purl objective experimental branch of natural science. It’s theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behaviour. Introspection forms NO essential part of its methods.
Who was a famous investigator if behaviourism?
Skinner. Assumed that as mental events cannot be studied they should not be thought about - study stimulus and response only “Observable parameters only must be analysed”
Describe the cognitive approach
Internal representations are made (eg. this stimulus is aversive) during learning. Internal processing can be studied by logical analysis of behaviour
Are neural correlates of most cognitive processes known?
NO
Are changes in internal representations (at the neural level) during learning he same as consciousness?
NO
What are the two general questions we attempt to answer by studying cognitive approaches to learning?
How is information represented?
What kind of information is represented?
What theories are concerned with how information is represented?
Classical and operant conditioning - forms of associative learning
What are the two forms of information representation (from operant/classical conditioning)?
Procedural (Behaviourist, knowing HOW) eg. when tone sounds approach the feeder
Declarative (Cognitive, knowing THAT) eg. tone predicts food
How are declarative and procedural representations suggested to be different in humans?
Declarative are conscious, procedural quickly become habitual and are not conscious
Which form of representation is commonly accepted in animal welfare and behaviour?
Declarative
In which cases is declarative thinking not accepted?
When no evidence of integration is observed, pointing to an underlying procedural representation
