Evolutionary Psychology - Lecture 1: Animal Minds

Question 1

Romantics

Answer 1

language
tool manufacture
causal reasoning
insight
theory of mind
mental time travel
empathy
cooperation
“episodic like” memory

Question 2

Killjoys

Answer 2

Principles of associative learning will suffice

Question 3

Why study animal minds?

Answer 3

We are related to every single living thing on this planet

Question 4

Homology

Answer 4

Shared inherited structures due to descent e.g. vertebrate limb, frontal lobe
-> morphological homology - human arms and cat legs similar due to vertebrate ancestor

Question 5

Two perspectives to humans

Answer 5

Special and unique from animals e.g. metaconscious - ability to be self-aware
Genealogical connection with other animals/living things

Question 6

How do comparative psychologists test hypotheses and what is the best way to actually do this?

Answer 6

Natural history
Observations/anecdotes
But really need to do experiment to tease apart different possibilities

Question 7

Genealogical connection

Answer 7

Share genes in common with things we are related to on the planet e.g. humans and chimps share 99% of genes

Question 8

Give an example of a basic division of the brain shared by humans with chimps, baboons etc

Answer 8

Cerebellum

Question 9

What forms can homology take?

Answer 9

Behaviour and structural/anatomical

Question 10

What had been a long-held belief about tool-makers determined by Louis Leakey and later discovered?

Answer 10

Only humans were tool-makers, but discovered by cambridge graduate Jane Goodall who studied chimps that other primates were also tool-manufacturers as e.g. chimps used sticks to fish for termites

Question 11

How was it determined that primates were tool-manufacturers?

Answer 11

Because they used sophisticated cognition - planning and understanding forces along with gathering right equipment in right place

Question 12

What was the experiment that tested if birds can plan?

Answer 12

Wild birds were trained to do various tasks but never trained to do all these tasks altogether

Question 13

Convergent evolution

Answer 13

The independent evolution of same structure where natural selection has favoured the same outcome from different ancestors
-> natural selection worked on the brain

Question 14

Example of how convergent evolution occurred

Answer 14

Cognition/behaviour independently evolved in New Caledonian crows and primates

Question 15

What is biological diversity shaped by?

Answer 15

Natural selection

Question 16

4 things needed for natural selection

Answer 16

Variation 
Heritable (mutation) - passed onto offspring/future generations
Design differences - some variations are better than others
Competition - better variants are more competitive and lead to higher fitness -> more offspring with this type of variant(s)

Question 17

Is language unique to humans?

Answer 17

Yes, but do see lots of complex communication in other animals

Question 18

What does language require?

Answer 18

Arbitrary symbols -> no direct correspondence

Grammar/syntax

Question 19

How was Nim Chimpsky bought up and was the result of the experiment with him?

Answer 19

Was bought up like a child to see if he adopted human mannerisms
1.Just drill
2.No grammar
3.Action/object
“Nim eat Nim eat”“Me gum me gum”“Banana me me me eat”

Question 20

Why did Nim Chimpsky never use language like humans?

Answer 20

Language was all a consequence of drill
Did not functionally put “words” together to say new and different things -> never grasped functionality of language/used it as a social tool like humans did

Question 21

Terence et al 1979 quote

Answer 21

“Apes can learn many isolated symbols (as can dogs, horses, and other nonhuman species), but they show no unequivocal mastering of the conversational, semantic, or syntactic organisation of language.”

Question 22

Kanzi

Answer 22

Bonobo or pygmy chimp
Careful testing
Lexigrams & speech synthesiser
Truly symbolic 
100 words
No conversation
Action/object
Reactive, not grasp functionality of language -> not using spontaneously like humans - although did have symbolic understanding

Question 23

Two types of intelligence?

Answer 23

Domain specific and domain general

Question 24

Domain specific intelligence

Answer 24

Specific to a particular domain e.g. perhaps there are specific modules for language, vision, social cognition

Question 25

Domain general (two senses)

Answer 25

a. applies across a range of contexts e.g. classical and operant conditioning
b. integrates information across different domains
- -> in broad sense - only in creatures with language, integrating social and physical cognition
e. g. Road Sign - first think of physical harm then lead to though in social cognition context

Question 26

Vygotsky’s view: Is language needed for domain general thought?

Answer 26

language plays a major role in shaping thought: as we develop we internalise our speech which then allows us to develop complex thought

Question 27

Piaget’s view: Is language needed for domain general thought?

Answer 27

language provides labels for experiences but is not central to the development of thought

Question 28

Probabilistic reasoning

Answer 28

Probabilistic reasoning involves making predictions about the likelihood of different event outcomes.

Question 29

Kea example - How can we use tests of probabilistic reasoning to see if animals are capable of domain general thought?

Answer 29

Kea learned the value of two token types led to different rewards: black token swapped for reward and orange swapped for nothing

Question 30

What did Kea use to predict which hand will contain a black token?

Answer 30

Kea predict which hand will contain a black token using the relative frequency of objects in jars, showing they reason about probability

Question 31

What do Kea show 3 domains of?

Answer 31

3 signatures of domain general statistical inference

Question 32

Broader Implications

Answer 32

How do we treat minds of other creatures?
Welfare?
Extinction?
–> The above are informed by whether we think humans are different or similar mentally, to other creatures

Question 33

What do comparative psychologists want to do?

Answer 33

Test hypotheses about minds of other creatures

Question 34

Two tool types that New Caledonian crows manufacture

Answer 34

Sticks -> carve out hook used to extract insects

Barbed edges of pardemia leaves