Lecture 1

Question 1

What is cognition

Answer 1

Mechanisms that animals use to:
Acquire information
Process information
Store information
Act on information

Question 2

High level cognitive processes

Answer 2

Insight, reasoning and planning

Question 3

Low level cognitive processes

Answer 3

Attention and motivation

Question 4

What is behaviour

Answer 4

The outcome of cognition

The sum of cognitive processes is behaviour

Question 5

What is intelligence?

Answer 5

The ability of a person to use many cognitive traits (not just one or two)

Question 6

What makes something adaptive?

Answer 6

Favoured by natural selection, which operates on phenotypes

Question 7

What are the two criteria for a trait to be favoured by natural selection?

Answer 7

1. There is variation among individuals in expression of the trait
2. The trait is heritable

Question 8

Heritability

Answer 8

Trait variance due to genetics / total variance of traits

Question 9

What was the result of the Stirling et al. (2002) study on the heritability of behaviour?

Answer 9

Heritability of behaviour is as strong as life history or morphological traits

Question 10

Why is the anthropocentric / psychological approach of studying behaviour not used when studying animal behaviour?

Answer 10

Morgan’s Canon (1894)
Cannot interpret an action as the outcome of exercise of a higher psychic faculty (eg. reasoning) if it can be interpreted as the outcome of the exercise of one which stands lower in the psychological scale

Question 11

What is the best way to study behaviour and cognition?

Answer 11

Biological approach

Why does an animal do that?

Question 12

What is ethology?

Answer 12

Biological study of behaviour

Question 13

What are Tinbergen’s four whys?

Answer 13

1963

1. Causation: what is causing animals to behave in a particular way? (Proximate)
2. Development: how did that particular behaviour develop? (Proximate)
3. Adaptation/function: how does the behaviour impact on the survival and reproduction of the organism? (Ultimate)
4. Evolution: is this behaviour also expressed in related species? Why did it evolve like this? (Ultimate)

Question 14

Is causation ultimate or proximate?

Answer 14

Proximate - what is causing a behaviour?

But cognition has adaptive value, and evolutionary history

Question 15

Learned and innate behaviour

Answer 15

No behaviour strictly learned or entirely innate - modified by environment

Question 16

Function of birdsong

Answer 16

1. Species recognition
2. Individual recognition
3. Territorial defences
4. Quality advertisement for mating success

Question 17

Two phase acquisition of bird song

Answer 17

1. Sensory acquisition phase (memorisation from species dog, sensitive period, sometimes age limited)
2. Sensori-motor phase (practiced, refined, need for auditory feedback)