Evolutionary Psychology - Lecture 1: Animal Minds Flashcards
Romantics
language tool manufacture causal reasoning insight theory of mind mental time travel empathy cooperation “episodic like” memory
Killjoys
Principles of associative learning will suffice
Why study animal minds?
We are related to every single living thing on this planet
Homology
Shared inherited structures due to descent e.g. vertebrate limb, frontal lobe
-> morphological homology - human arms and cat legs similar due to vertebrate ancestor
Two perspectives to humans
Special and unique from animals e.g. metaconscious - ability to be self-aware
Genealogical connection with other animals/living things
How do comparative psychologists test hypotheses and what is the best way to actually do this?
Natural history
Observations/anecdotes
But really need to do experiment to tease apart different possibilities
Genealogical connection
Share genes in common with things we are related to on the planet e.g. humans and chimps share 99% of genes
Give an example of a basic division of the brain shared by humans with chimps, baboons etc
Cerebellum
What forms can homology take?
Behaviour and structural/anatomical
What had been a long-held belief about tool-makers determined by Louis Leakey and later discovered?
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
How was it determined that primates were tool-manufacturers?
Because they used sophisticated cognition - planning and understanding forces along with gathering right equipment in right place
What was the experiment that tested if birds can plan?
Wild birds were trained to do various tasks but never trained to do all these tasks altogether
Convergent evolution
The independent evolution of same structure where natural selection has favoured the same outcome from different ancestors
-> natural selection worked on the brain
Example of how convergent evolution occurred
Cognition/behaviour independently evolved in New Caledonian crows and primates
What is biological diversity shaped by?
Natural selection
4 things needed for natural selection
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)
Is language unique to humans?
Yes, but do see lots of complex communication in other animals
What does language require?
Arbitrary symbols -> no direct correspondence
Grammar/syntax
How was Nim Chimpsky bought up and was the result of the experiment with him?
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”
Why did Nim Chimpsky never use language like humans?
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
Terence et al 1979 quote
“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.”
Kanzi
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
Two types of intelligence?
Domain specific and domain general
Domain specific intelligence
Specific to a particular domain e.g. perhaps there are specific modules for language, vision, social cognition
Domain general (two senses)
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
Vygotsky’s view: Is language needed for domain general thought?
language plays a major role in shaping thought: as we develop we internalise our speech which then allows us to develop complex thought
Piaget’s view: Is language needed for domain general thought?
language provides labels for experiences but is not central to the development of thought
Probabilistic reasoning
Probabilistic reasoning involves making predictions about the likelihood of different event outcomes.
Kea example - How can we use tests of probabilistic reasoning to see if animals are capable of domain general thought?
Kea learned the value of two token types led to different rewards: black token swapped for reward and orange swapped for nothing
What did Kea use to predict which hand will contain a black token?
Kea predict which hand will contain a black token using the relative frequency of objects in jars, showing they reason about probability
What do Kea show 3 domains of?
3 signatures of domain general statistical inference
Broader Implications
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
What do comparative psychologists want to do?
Test hypotheses about minds of other creatures
Two tool types that New Caledonian crows manufacture
Sticks -> carve out hook used to extract insects
Barbed edges of pardemia leaves
