Lecture 1 - Tool Use Flashcards
Why study animals?
Curiosity - understand where our own mental behaviours come from
Human Welfare - unethical to carry some research out on humans
Animal Welfare - avoid harm and understand what they consider harmful
Challenging - expensive, inferences, lack of communication
What sets humans and animals apart in tool use?
The manipulation of the tools
- humans have ability to modify
- animals used prefabricated objetcs
Observation of stone tools and anvils
No evidence for modification
Use stones for stabilisation - combining objects
Observation of weapon use
Chimps use spears to kill prey
- most common in adolescent females who perhaps have to compete with others males
Kohler’s observation of a chimp
hung bananas from the ceiling and left boxes around the room
No definite knowledge of what to do with the tools
came across the solution by accident
Tool Modification in Crows
Were successful at tool use
naturalistic behaviours
Only one crow successfully bent the wire immediately
What does the tube task suggest about tool use?
had to modify sticks to push the food
most struggled with the H stick
Learning though trial and error
The trap tube task - Povinelli (2000)
push food away from trap to get it
Only 1 chimp reliably solved this
Inverted the tube - still pushed the same way - lack of folk physics
Aesop’s Fable Task
distinguishing between two materials was successful
U-tube - the connection was not visible, had to look in two places at once
What are the differences between tool use in humans and chimpanzees?
human tools often more complex
human tools have greater range of functions - multiple in one tool
faster social learning of uses in humans so the tools spread faster
does tool use separate humans from other animals?
Probably - more we look the more evidence of tool use, modification and understanding we find
Still limited and simpler
Congitive capacity?
