Historical Introduction to Comparative Psychology

Question 1

Who was the first person to propose the concept of evolutionary change?

Answer 1

Prof. Lamarck

Question 2

What are the steps of Lamarckian Inheritance?

Answer 2

1. Environmental change can produce new habits
2. Law of Use and Disuse - new habits produce physical changes
3. Inheritance of acquired physical characteristics

Question 3

Which key essay made Darwin think of his evolutionary theory and what did it say?

Answer 3

‘An Essay on the Principle of Populations’ by Thomas Malthus.
It argued that in nature, plants and animals overproduce, which results in more offspring than can survive.

Question 4

What did Thomas Malthus’ Essay help Darwin realise?

Answer 4

That competition for scarce resources would favour the individuals with advantageous attributes.

Question 5

What was the main aspects of Darwin’s theory of evolution?

Answer 5

1. There is variation among individual animals belonging to the same species
2. Many individuals are born that cannot survive past maturity
3. Variations that favour survival are more likely to survive and pass on beneficial characteristics

Question 6

Who was George Romanes?

Answer 6

He was into the same evolutionary research as Darwin.
Darwin handed over his animal behaviour research to Romanes in 1874, and he expanded on Darwin’s anecdotal evidence, adding experimental results.

Question 7

What did Romanes book “Animal Intelligence” (1884) state?

Answer 7

It was about the linear progression of evolution. Romanes suggested that Lamarckian inheritance played some role in mental evolution.

Question 8

What was Romanes’ Criteria of the Mind?

Answer 8

1. The organism must have a nervous system

2. Organism’s behaviour must be sensitive to past experience (have learning and memory)

Question 9

What is Romanes’ Hierarchy for Emotions?

Answer 9

1. Emotions -> pleasure and pain
2. Pleasure and pain -> surprise and fear
3. Surprise and fear -> parental affection
4. Parental affection -> jealousy
5. Jealousy -> sympathy -> revenge -> shame
   Arrows -> means that factor results in the associated emotion

Question 10

What is Romanes’ Hierarchy for Intellect?

Answer 10

Memory -> association by contiguity
Association by contiguity -> communicating ideas
Communicating ideas -> recognising pictures
Recognising pictures -> understanding -> use of tools

Question 11

What was Lloyd Morgan’s arguments against Romanes?

Answer 11

1) He ignored previous opportunities for an animal to learn a behaviour
2) He confused testable and non-testable conclusions from the association of behaviour to mental events
3) He used too complex terms to explain behaviour

Question 12

What did Morgan’s “An Introduction to Comparative Psychology” (1894) state about animal observation?

Answer 12

Brief observation is not enough to understand animal minds; further study would be needed (trial and error learning).

Question 13

How did Edward Thorndike experiment trial-and-error learning in animals?

Answer 13

He used a puzzle box for cats and dogs, in which the animals had to pull a chain to lift the gate, getting food in the process.
Thorndike measured the time between placing animals in the chamber, and when they managed to make it out of the cage.

Question 14

What were the results of Thorndike’s Trial-and-Error experiment on dogs and cats?

Answer 14

There were no differences between performance of dogs and cats, and no evidence of learning by imitation or forgetting from animals.

Question 15

What is the Law of Effect and which aspect of Instrumental conditioning reduces it, according to Thorndike?

Answer 15

When stimulus and response are followed by a reward this creates mental connections between both factors.
It was assumed by Thorndike that punishment reduces these connections, however this is a wrong assumption.

Question 16

Why was John Watson so against introspection and psychology of the mind?

Answer 16

He believed introspection was irrelevant to everyday problems, and psychology should instead focus on behaviour rather than the mind.

Question 17

What is the Pavlovian concept of Extinction?

Answer 17

Gradual decline in a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus.

Question 18

What is an example of External Inhibition in Pavlov’s Dog Experiment?

Answer 18

Loss of salivation when sound is combined with a novel stimuli.

Question 19

What is an example of Disinhibition in Pavlov’s Dog Experiment?

Answer 19

Finding out that the extinguished salivation reappears when sound is combined with light.

Question 20

What is an example of Spontaneous Recovery in Pavlov’s Dog Experiment?

Answer 20

Salivation reoccurs days or weeks after it reappears in the Disinhibition stage.

Question 21

What was B.F. Skinner’s experiment, and what did it allow him to do?

Answer 21

Arranged for rats to press a bar to gain access to food, which allowed automatic scheduling of events and allowed him to record their responses.

Question 22

Provide an example of voluntary learning and what the comparison is to involuntary learning.

Answer 22

Voluntary learning is where animals are voluntarily aware that a response such as pressing a lever procures a stimulus such as food.

On the other hand, involuntary learning is considered a natural and automatic response to an unconditioned stimulus, such as dogs salivating to the bell when researchers bring food.

Question 23

Which is more effective: Occasionally reinforcing a response OR constantly maintaining a response.

Answer 23

Occasionally reinforcing a response wherein you do not reinforce at every occurence; the reinforcement is randomly generated.