Exam 3 Flashcards
1
Q
RESEARCH PAPER: Define translational tools. What properties should they have?
A
- indices that can be utilized across species and context
- The tools properties should not require modifying existing definitions of emotions, emotion-related processes, affect for each species or having to anthropomorphize.
2
Q
“A young sow approaches a site on the boundary between forest and open field where she found some tasty roots the previous day. She is poised to start rooting the ground when she notices one of her group-mates, a large dominant female, approaching. Instead of digging for the roots, she turns away and continues along the forest boundary”
What are the questions to consider concerning the sow’s behavior?
A
- How does the sow remember where the food source was located?
- visual cues or other senses?
- > like a clump of trees and food
- complete mental representation of the area? - Why didn’t she feed in the presence of the dominant sow?
- Was she protecting a rich source of food by keeping it hidden?
- Does this indicate that the sow had learned what to “expect” if she exposed a feed source to the dominant sow?
- the ability to predict future events?
3
Q
Reference, or Long Term Memory
A
- describes the storage of information for days, months, and years
- has a virtually unlimited capacity
- it is associated with molecular and cellular events in areas of the brain such as the hippocampus, amygdala, and medial temporal lobes
- these can be conceptualized as the laying down of a “memory trace”
- > “memory trace” conceptualization
4
Q
Episodic Memory
A
- term used in humans for vivid conscious recall of events that happened to them in the past
- What-where-when in animals:
- > not clear if this fully exists
- > but reasonably certain that it does exist
- whether memories are consciously experienced in animals like they are in humans is still unknown
- > do animals have episodic memories like humans?
5
Q
Pavlovian vs Instrumental Conditioning BIGGEST difference
A
- In pavlovian conditioning the animal gains the ability to predict the future, whereas in instrumental conditioning the animal gains the ability to predict the future AND control the delivery and timing of its own reward
6
Q
Mutualist Behavior
A
- (+/+) situation
- both the actor and recipients of the behavior benefit
- best for all
7
Q
Social Behavior
A
- the glue that enables interactions among animals and with us
- it happens anytime animals interact
- > crows fighting over picnic scraps, cats cuddling, cow licking a new born calf, dogs playing with us, other people, or with other dogs, etc
8
Q
Hysteresis
A
- a type of delayed negative feedback
- > takes a period of time for negative feedback to start reducing motivation
- tied to a history of the system before feedback
- > failure to fully return to baseline before next behavioral bout
- stops dithering/indecisiveness between behaviors and adds stability to behavioral bouts
9
Q
Give examples of appetitive behavior
A
- food search
- mate search
- nesting-site search
10
Q
Example when appetitive behavior takes on consummatory characteristics
A
- pigeons trained to peck a key for a reinforcement of water learn to “suck” the key with a closed bill as if they were consuming water
11
Q
Discrimination
A
- allows distinctions to be drawn between objects or stimuli that differ in particular features
- enable animals to fine tune their behavior in response to environmental cues
12
Q
RESEARCH PAPER: What is the advantage of emotions for a species/individual when shared socially?
A
- When shared socially, emotions would allow groups to understand evolutionary challenges without having to
experience them directly potentially subserving the
development of the large groups that are characteristic
of human societies - support living in large groups
13
Q
Polygyny Mating
A
- males mate with many females
- female only mates with one male
- female cares for the young
- often seen in herd animals
- males may gain mating opportunities through controlling resources
- > Resource Defence Polygyny
- > Nesting Sites
- > Harems
14
Q
Social Cognition (learning)
A
- social environments can be very complex and changeable
- social learning aids the acquisition of new behaviors for an individual
- learning occurs for a naive animal (the observer) from the behavior of an experienced conspecific (the demonstrator)
- results in faster learning and reduced costs
- > less trial and error
- two learning paradigms
1. Unnoticed Stimulus
2. Imitation and Emulation
15
Q
How do different authors define cognition?
A
- For some authors, the study of cognition seeks to understand how information is represented and manipulated in the mind
- For other authors, they use the term in a broader sense to refer to all processes by which animals acquire, process, store, and act on information from the environment
16
Q
Categorization examples
A
- Foal Example of “category formation”
- foals learn to select feed buckets from positional, or visual cues
- > visual cues included solidly black markings on the buckets
- they learn to use positional cues as a discrimination cue far more rapidly than they learn to use visual cues - Abstract Principles example
- primates, parrots, honey bees, and pigeons can form such relational categories
- > there is limited information about whether domestic animals can do so
17
Q
Communication in Social Behavior
A
- most all social behavior involves communication
- signals (callers) can effect receiver behavior through their communication
-> when a calf is separated, its bleating will cause the cow to respond and move in their direction - can occur through a range of modalities
-> such as sound (calf bleating), smell, visual or tactile - communication occurs contextually
-> some animals vocalize when they are injured and others do not
Examples:
-> young benefit from attracting a parent when in pain
-> an adult may only alert a predator which is not beneficial - communication is thought to have been shaped by natural selection
18
Q
WD Hamilton’s explanation for kin selected altruism; example
A
- altruism occurs when the reproductive cost to an individual (C) is less than the recipients reproductive benefit (B) multiplied that the probability (r) that the recipient carries the gene for the altruistic trait
- > B(r) > (C)
- Example:
- > male honey bees share 75% of their genes with their sisters
19
Q
Polyandry Mating
A
- females mates with many males over a season
- Example: some fish species
20
Q
Altruistic Behavior
A
- (-/+) situation
- actor bears a cost and the recipient benefits
- reduces reproductive success of the individual
- Two common ways in which these behaviors can be selected for:
1. kin selection
2. reciprocation
21
Q
Flycatcher Experiment (Lars von Haartman)
A
- showed the power of the begging calls of young for food
- he studied flycatchers that were raising their young in a specially designed nesting box containing a hidden compartment where there was a second flock of hungry nestlings
- > The hidden nest begging calls caused parents to continue to bring food to those in the nest located in the compartment
22
Q
Two Phases of Motivated Behavior
A
- Appetitive
2. Consummatory
23
Q
Social influence on rewards and punishment; example included
A
Example
- dogs taught to give paw to handler for a food reward will continue this behavior even when food is omitted
- BUT, if their food reward is withheld and another dog is giving paw and receiving a food reward in their presence the dog will STOP giving paw
- > suggests a degree of sensitivity to the fairness of outcomes within a social setting
- rewards may be deemed context specific
- complex rewards such as social contact, or social justice may be important in guiding learned behavior, BUT they are difficult, or even impossible to implement in practical training
24
Q
Competition in Social Behavior Questions and Types
A
- Why do animals defend select resources?
- Why don’t animals defend some resources?
- Two Types of Competition - Deference Competition
- Aggressive Competition
25
Q
Procedural Representation Examples
A
- when the light is turned on, crouch
2. if you smell a predator, hide
26
Q
Consummatory Behavior
A
- follows appetitive behavior
- typically more stereotyped, not learned, species-typical and motivational-typical
- movements comprising behavior may have a distinct sequence
- all phases of behavior seem to be driven by a single motivational state
- generally occurs in a discrete bout of defined length
EX:
1. Specific movements used in foraging - cows and giraffes tongue twirl
- sheep and goats bite
2. Drinking Examples - cats and dogs lap water
- pigs and humans suck in water
3. Mating Example - Thrusting by males
- Lordosis by female quadrupeds
27
Q
Reciprocation in Altruistic Behavior
A
- altruism between non-related individuals when reciprocation may, or can occur
- an individual will incur a cost to help others, but will later be paid back at a later time when these individuals come to their aid
- possible cheating restricts this type of altruism to social networks that are stable and that individuals encounter each other frequently
- > Example: Vampire Bats
28
Q
Avoiding Predation Social Learning Example
A
- alarm calling behavior of cockerels, or young roosters
- there are different calls for aerial versus ground predators approaching
- calling modulated for the audience that may be listening
- > they will call more in the presence of novel females, than familiar ones
- Bantam males and broody females adjust their calls based on the size of the aerial predator in relation to their own chicks
29
Q
Concept Formation
A
- an entirely abstract category
- the stimuli stand for the same idea, but they are not physically related
- it is currently theoretical in animals
- coming up with viable methodologies to study it are a problem
30
Q
Habitual Behavior
A
- “model-free” behavior
- > typical in over training
- devaluation of an outcome can not be incorporated into a decision model
- the animal continues to perform the behavior in an inflexible manner
- > continues to acquire food that previously made it sick
- alters slowly with repetitive experiences to change the model
- computationally cheaper than goal-directed model-based learning, so it is advantageous
31
Q
Example of Pavlovian Conditioning
A
- sounding a bell just prior to food arrival will cause a salivation response in dogs
- Unconditioned stimulus is the food
- unconditioned response is salivation
- conditioned stimulus is the sound of the bell
- conditioned response is salivation due to the sound of the bell in anticipation of food arriving
32
Q
Sow Example Parent-Offspring Interactions
A
- Sow gives birth to a large number of fragile offspring
- She will separate herself from her herd mates the day, or so before birthing
- Builds a nest
- protection from the cold
- keeps piglets close for protection from predators - Lays still during birthing and a short period after for the piglets to find the teats
- also limits the chance of squashing her piglets - The sow learns to discriminate her own by pigs by day 2, or later
- hence, it is relatively easy to foster piglets in the first 2 days
33
Q
Switching cost example
A
- doves switch less between drinking and eating if a barrier is placed between the sources
34
Q
Selfish behavior
A
- (+/-) situation
- the actor benefits, but the recipient bears a cost
- natural selection is powerful at the individual level
35
Q
Ewe Example Parent-Offspring Interactions
A
- give birth to one, or two offspring
- will usually move away from the flock
- lambs are exposed to the ewes bleats while in utero
- > so they already know its moms voice
- lambs when born are licked
- > ewe can tell own lambs from immediately after birth
- > makes fostering very difficult
- lambs are very mobile, but the lamb and ewe generally remain together
- Interestingly, ewe may try to steal another lamb before she births
36
Q
Feed-Forward Processes examples
A
- Sequences of behavior are adaptive (feed-forward behaviors)
- one behavior typically follows another
- eating motivates drinking even before food alters osmolality of the blood
- grooming follows eating in cats
- preening follows water bathing in birds - Some feed forward effects are a result of learning and past experiences
- when animals are exposed to hot temperatures they will drink water before dehydration occurs
37
Q
Switching costs
A
- cost of switching to a different behavior may delay the switch if the cost is high in:
1. Time
2. Energy
3. Exposure to predator - switching to another behavior will not occur until the threshold for the other behavior is met
38
Q
Smell Advantages in Domestic Animals; Example
A
- humans have a poorly developed sense of smell in comparison to domestic animals
- dogs are 100 million times more sensitive to some smells than humans
- many species use chemical scents for communication of territorial boundaries or reproductive status
- some mammals have vomeronasal organs
- > used to detect chemical signals and triggers the flehman response
39
Q
Importance of Social Play
A
- Psychologist Harry Harlow conducted an experiment involving monkeys
- monkeys were raised without social contact
- they soon showed signs of:
- > emotional disturbance and dysfunctional social behavior
- > they circled in their cages and sat rocking repetitively
- found that 20 minutes a day of play alleviated the issues
40
Q
Reinforcement vs Punishment
A
- Reinforcement
- increases/maintains behavior of interest - Punishment
- decreases the behavior of interest
41
Q
How is Habitual Behavior learning advantageous to Goal-Directed Behavior?
A
- habitual behavior is computationally cheaper than goal-directed response learning
42
Q
Unconditioned Stimuli Characteristics
A
- may be referred to as rewards (reinforcers), or punishers
- rewards and punishers may be context, or animal specific
- > it is impossible to predict fully which stimuli or situations will be rewarding, or aversive for any given individual
- Important for animal welfare
- > establishing which stimuli are rewards and punishers is important for animal welfare
43
Q
Positive vs Negative
A
- Positive
- presentation of an unconditioned stimulus - Negative
- removal of an unconditioned stimulus
44
Q
Animal Welfare and Cognition; Examples
A
- welfare may influence an animals cognitive abilities, or have a direct impact on their welfare
- Examples:
- > pigs raised in enriched environments demonstrate improvement in learning spatial tasks
- > cannibalism in chickens is facilitated by prior observations of the demonstrator
45
Q
Example when consummatory behavior can take on appetitive behavior
A
- guppy reproduction
- male courtship is appetitive for mating, and yet clearly as stereotyped and species typical as many consummatory responses
46
Q
Decision Making Components
A
- Discrimination
- Generalization
- Categorization
- Concept Formation
47
Q
Consummatory Behavior as a fixed action pattern
A
- movements comprising consummatory behavior themselves have a distinct sequence
-> with all of the phases within the sequence appearing to be motivated by a single state
EX: dust baths in chickens
48
Q
Four Common Social Behaviors
A
- Competition
- Sexual Behavior
- Parent-Offspring Interactions
- Play
49
Q
Monogamy Mating
A
- one male and female that bond for a period of time
- both parents often participate in raising their young
- Ex: Wolves
