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Animal Behaviour > Discrimination and Categorization > Flashcards

Discrimination and Categorization Flashcards

1
Q

What type of learning does discrimination share important features with?

A

Classical conditioning

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2
Q

Define discrimination

A

Telling things apart

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3
Q

Define categorization

A

Grouping things together

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4
Q

How is discrimination of physical stimuli determined?

A

Stimulus generalisation

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5
Q

Why does discrimination/generalisation occur in the wild?

A

Adaptive - identify predator/sexual partner/food/hiding place etc.

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6
Q

Define learning

A

A continuous process mediated by experience with stimuli and reinforcement

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7
Q

What two features will learning of a correct response be dependent upon?

A

S+ - the reinforcement of the correct stimulus

S- - to a LESSER degree, the negative outcome of an incorrect response

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8
Q

What is the strength of a response determined by?

A

Excitation - Inhibition

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9
Q

Who studied pigeon responses to colour stimuli? What were they investigating?

A

Excitatory stimulus generalisation

Spence

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10
Q

What are extinction conditions?

A

Nothing is rewarded, leading to a decrease in the previously rewarded behaviour

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11
Q

What does the training phase of a transposition experiment consist of? Eg.?

A

Eg. Reinforcing one wavelength of colour (grey), ignoring another colour (white) to produce a wavelength curve of most avoidance and most activity .

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12
Q

What does the first test of a transposition experiment consist of?

A

Interference of activation and inhibition curve causing certain probe stimuli to be more likely to elicit a positive response.

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13
Q

Which curve has the greatest magnitude, activation or inhibition?

A

Activation

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14
Q

What determines the stimulus most likely to be responded to? What model is this known as?

A

Greatest difference between activation and inhibition curves
Spence model

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15
Q

What type of stimuli is the Spence model good at predicting outcomes for?

A

One dimensional stimuli eg. colour or sound

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16
Q

What type of model is the Spence model?

A

Associationist/Connectionist

17
Q

What type of model other than associationist may explain discrimination responses?

A

Cognitive - Making a rule eg. “always choose darker”

Requires higher thinking and not seen in simple experiments

18
Q

What is peak shift?

A

If animal is reinforced for responding to S+, maximum response is seen around S+
If animal is negatively reinforced with S-, peak response will no longer be observed at S+ - it will move to avoid S-

19
Q

Reference a study regarding peak shift

A

Dougherty and Lewis, 1991 - peak shift in horses

20
Q

Why does peak shift occur evolutionarily?

A

Animals “play it safe” - more important to avoid danger than get a reward
This means they may not respond optimally in response to rewards

21
Q

How may animals discriminating “time” be otherwise explained?

A

Direct perception of hunger/light/temperature/other environmental cues

22
Q

Give a study potentially showing chickens are able to anticipate the future and exercise self control

A

Abeyesinghe et al 2005 - Will only show self control if the jackpot reward was big enough

23
Q

Discrimination is the bases of categorisation - what physical attributes may be discriminated?

A

Shape, colour, size etc.

24
Q

How is categorisation different from discrimination?

A

Novel stimuli can be inserted which are responded to correctly based on the pre-formed rule of discrimination.

25
Q

What is a probe test?

A

A novel, previously unencountered stimulus that tests the animal’s response based on past experiences

26
Q

What is the associationist theory of categorisation?

A

Simply generalising physical similarity, with no abstraction.

  • Memorise rewarded stimuli individually
  • Learn particular common features (exemplar)
  • Generalise from central tendency (Prototype)
27
Q

How does a concept differ from a category?

A

Requires some level of abstraction - an idea of a class of objects NOT purely based on physical similarity

28
Q

What are the two types of concept?

A

Absolute - eg. this is an animal
Relational - simpler- eg. this is bigger, this is smaller
- complex - eg. same/different

29
Q

What was the name of the parrot with apparent conceptual ability

A

Alex (Owner Irene Pepperberg)

30
Q

Give an example of a study of simple relational concepts

A

Hanggi 2003 Bigger/Smaller in Horses

31
Q

Give 2 examples of ways more complex relational concepts can be investigated

A

Same/Different

  • Delayed match to sample
  • Simultaneous arrays
32
Q

How has it been suggested that same/different arrays are interpreted?

A

Entropy

33
Q

What must be remembered when assigning cognitive models to behaviour?

A

Hard to rule out simpler processes being responsible for apparently complex learning

Animal Behaviour (35 decks)

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