Key issues in animal cognition & communication and language Flashcards
1
Q
cognition
A
the mechanisms by which animals acquire, process, store & act on info from the environment
shettleworth (2010)
2
Q
why study animals?
A
- Psych is the science of mental life (James, 1890)
- Helps us to understand humans (learn more about our own psych)
- Animal welfare - If we know about their mental life, give them a good life
3
Q
anthropomorphism
A
attributing human characteristics to animals
4
Q
antropocentrism
A
viewing animals from our own, human, perspective
5
Q
darwin
A
- natural selection, variaiton
- Outcome is adaptation (animal’s suitability to environment) - Psych & physical traits
- Beh & psych also subject to evolution
- Darwin observed commonalities between species’ mental characteristics
6
Q
george romanes
A
- book on animal intelligence
- collection of anecdotes about intelligent behaviour
- criticised by those who favoured experimental approach
7
Q
conway llyod morgan
A
- Performance improved over time = trial & error learning
- Arguing for better explanation & study of animal intelligence
- Not intelligent beh by the animal but trial & error learning
8
Q
morgan’s canon
A
- Use the simplest explanation
- Explaining beh by simple processes
- Questionable what higher & lower scale means
- Like Occam’s razor
9
Q
tinbergen
A
- things need to look at if we want a complete explanation of beh
- function
- phylogeny
- ontology
- mechanism
10
Q
how can we compare cog abilities between animals
A
- brain size
- learning speed
- learning concepts
11
Q
brain size
comparing cog abilities
A
- cephalization index (K)
- size of brian relative to body size
- higher value = larger than avergage brain for body size
- low values: rats, primates
- high value: dolphin, humans
12
Q
learning speed
comparing cognitive abilities
A
- Simple instrumental conditioning task
- Diff for diff species e.g. rats=lever, fish=push rod
- Respond –> reward
- Measure how many rewards needed before criterion reached
- K and rewards to criterion don’t seem to fit together
- Rats with small K & humans with larger K have roughly the same rewards to criterion
pearce (2008)
13
Q
learning concepts
comparing cog abilities
A
- look at learning on trial 2 (when discrimination is solvable) after a num of problems
- most animals improve with more tasks done
- but may depend on lifestyle - dunnarts reach 90% after 12 problems, need to quickly learn about signals in environment
wynne & udell (2013)
14
Q
little hans effect
A
picking up on unintentional cues
15
Q
perceptual diffs between animals
A
- vary between species
- world experienced due to processing ability of brain & nervous system (needing correct receptors)
- important when researching animal beh - need to be aware of what it can discriminate
