Exam 3 Flashcards
What was Nim’s average utterance length?
~1 word
Ake the Dolphin lea ned a se ies of gestures that communicated commands and objects. What else did she lea n?
strict grammar
Dianna monkey males have two alarm calls. One for leopards, and one for what else?
eagles
how many words did chaser learn?
1000
chaser’s vocabulary growth was more similar to which animal?
a human child
true or false: most animals have an unbounded signal set for communication
false
alarm calls are a potential example of which aspect of language?
functional reference
A dolphin has a non-irritating ink mark placed around its eye. What task is this a part of?
mirror self-recognition
In meerkats, adults teach young pups how to hunt. What is an example of modifying what is taught to match skill level?
removing stingers from scorpions
what does the bee waggle dance convey?
distance and direction of food
how do chickadees modify their alarm call to convey info about predators?
vary the number of “dee” notes
specificity of alarm calls evolves against what?
variety of responses to threats
which of our language trained animals uttered this phrase: :”give orange me give eat orange…..”
nim
specific mutations in the Foxp2 gene are associated with what?
speaking
which animal reached 100% on trial 2 of the learning set procedure fastest?
dunnarts
what is yerkish?
fake, symbolic language created for animals at yerkes
detecting the patterns in this sentence “Jill remembered the time James said that I like cats that catch mice” to derive meaning is an example of what?
recursion
cephalization index
- Measure of brain size after accounting for body mass (k value)
- Higher K values means a larger brain than average
- Comparing brain size or K values would not account for differences in brain development for non-cognitive functions
what is a learning set study?
- series of extremely simple discriminations
- one choice is rewarded, other is not
how does a learning set study work?
- On the first trial for each pair, you don’t know which is correct
- So you have to guess
But after that you theoretically have all the information you need -> you know that only one option is correct for each pair, and that never changes
referential communication
ability to provide and understand specific info
limited signal set
some animals utilize only a few signals with varying intensities and context
unbound signal set
human language is unbound -> combining signals to create other signal
recursion
patterns with patterns
e.g. “Jill remembered the time that James said that I like cats that catch mice”
what his controversial about recursion?
not universally accepted -> may be limited to some languages/cultures
functional reference
signals that indicate what will happen next
alarm call specificity and independence
specificity: signal specific for purpose
independence: receiver responds regardless of whether they can see references object
situational displacement
In human language, discussion about food or danger does not require that stimulus be present
animal examples of situational displacement?
- bee waggle dance
- caching birds
intention
generally use language with the intent of informing
e.g. teaching
what did Lana learn when communicating with the machine?
If the machine requires specific input for reward
Is she learning to construct sentences?
Or, is she learning that a series of button presses = reward?
Nim vs child vocab growth
nim’s didn’t grow while child’s did
ASL studies
didn’t really work
- animals had to be molded and couldn’t spontaneously utilize
kanzi vs child (alia) sentence comprehension
performed similarly
caveats to kanzi study
1) argue his correct responses were wildly over interpreted
2) some say only grammatically correct 30% of the time
ake the dolphin study
- trained to learn 50 gestures
- displaced reference tests: given command to find specific object out of view -> rewarded for finding it
- learned strict grammatical structure
- 83% correct out of 193 novel sentences
- also ignored grammatically correct but semantically nonsense commands
What is conscious awareness?
being self aware and other aware
What is a sense of self?
We perceive ourselves as unique and distinct from others
what animals have passed the mirror self recognition test?
- Humans, Chimps, Orangutans show they know that their own behavior is the source of the behavior in the mirror
- dolphins and elephants less accepted as passing
why is the mirror self-recognition test so popular?
Limited evidence of other animals supports idea of human (and great ape) intelligence being above other animals
Why is it important for animals to be aware of the attentional state of others?
May not want others watching you
E.g. food caching - don’t want others to watch where you store your food
Theory of Mind
ability to understand the contents and knowledge state of another individual
Theory of Mind experiments
- guesser/knower experiments (baited cups)
- begging studies
- competitor tasks
- object choice tasks
rescue behaviors in dogs
- About 1/3 of dogs tested opened the box during owner distress
- Dogs also showed different levels of stress in the owner distress condition
rescue behaviors in ants
- Ants are very precise in their rescuing -> Injured ants must be physically active
- Exclusively focused towards nest mates
rescue behaviors in rats
- Rats appear to rescue other rats trapped in a tube
Earlier studies allowed the trapped rat, upon being freed, to enter the room with the free rat:
- This leads to two interpretations
1) empathy
2) free rat is rewarded with social contact
what is the perception action model?
Rescuer shares the emotional experience of the distressed individual
Sufficient levels of distress prompt action in the rescuer
prosocial behavior in rats
- Rats will open the cage even when the trapped rat is released to the other side
- When given the choice between a trapped rat and chocolate, they will open both but typically share the chocolate
altruism
- assistance behaviors towards others without immediate benefit for the individual
- considered a higher-level emotion
inclusive fitness
help/assist kin
reciprocal altruism
Assisting another with the assumption that individual will return the favor in the future
what is learned in social learning?
1) Contingencies
2) Specific behaviors
3) Points of interest
social facilitation
Behavior modified in the presence of others
no new learning
social facilitation examples
1) shared vigilance
2) dilution effect
stimulus enhancement
an animal is more likely to do something when another animal draws its attention to a stimulus
local enhancement
an animal is more likely to move to a location after seeing a conspecific in that location
how does the UK bird example illustrate stimulus enhancement?
Birds saw each other interacting with the foil cap, and then had attention drawn to the cap -> figured out how to open them separately
observational learning
changes in behavior of an observer following observation of a model
vicarious observational learning example
you see someone eat something and get sick so now you find that food revolting
correspondence problem
What I observe appears different when I replicate
imitation vs emulation
imitation: Observer’s form becomes like the model’s
emulation: observer attempts to achieve a goal after the demonstrator does so (not doing the exact same behavior tho)
imitation vs observational learning
observational learning can be imitation but not always
dolphin do as I do
- Can be trained to imitate vocal and motor behaviors
- One dolphin even trained to imitate behaviors blindfolded
what is over imitation?
the tendency to copy all of a model’s actions, even components that are clearly irrelevant for the task at hand
children do this
What would lead animals to emulate or over-imitate?
more likely to emulate other they have social relationships with
teaching example: cats
1) mother catches prey and bring it to kittens
2) at first its dead then she starts to bring it alive -> shows kids how to kill it
4) finally accompanies them out to hunt after getting good at killing the prey she brings back
teaching example: meerkats
1) present dead scorpions to pups
2) then move to scorpions with stingers removed
multistep approach seems to improve learning
is the bee waggle dance teaching or communication?
communication
