Lecture 2 - Animal Cognition 1 Flashcards
How does Shettleworth define cognition
The mechanisms by which animals acquire, process, store and act on information from the environment
Why should we study animals
James 1980 - Psychology is science of mental life
Helps us understand humans - particularly evolutionary
Animal welfare
What is the cycle of Charles Darwin evolution
Variation - many offspring which are variable
Selection - some offspring survive to reproduce
Outcome animals adaption to suitability to environment
Outline Darwin’s Evolution
Behaviour and psychology
Commonalities between species
Comparative psychology
Successful characteristics inherited
Outline George Romanes
Animal intelligence 1882 - collection anecdotes about intelligent behaviour
Animals differ in intelligence. No one type more intelligent
What is Anthropomorhism
Attributing human characteristics to animals
What is Anthropocentrism
Viewing animals from our own human perspective
What is Nakajima, Arimitsu and Latakia 2002s perception of intelligence
Study American and Japanese University students perceptions of animal intelligence
Perceptions generally correspond to phylogenetic scale
What is Macpails 1987 definition of intelligence
General problem solving
Although he is against providing particular definition
What is Eysencks 1987 definition of intelligence
Cannot use intelligence when talking about animals
Need correlation of tests (psychometrics)
Hodos 1987 definition of intelligence
Abandon “general intelligence” and concentrate on specific abilities
(Decision making, concept formation, rule learning, tool use)
Outline Shettleworth 1987 definition of intelligence
It is anthropocentric to think about intelligence
How can we compare intelligence?
Brain size
What does Brain Size tell us about intelligence
Cephalozation Index
Size brain relative body size
Higher values mean larger than average brain for body size
Humans larger brain size than average for body size .89
How can learning be measured
Simple instrumental conditioning task
Respond —> reward
Measure how many rewards needed before criterion reached
Tara and humans took quite a while
How can learning: concepts be measured by Wynne and Udell 2013
2 shapes. 1 lead nothing. 1 to food. Idea is underlying concept learnt so receive new set shapes quickly understand.
Monkeys learn fast
Rats and squirrels never above chance
What is the criticism of Wynne and Udell 2013
Results may depend on lifestyle Dunnarta reach 90% after 12 problems
They forage in open areas and need quickly learn about signals in their environment
Other issues of Wynne and Udell 2013
Learning with some stimuli seems easier than with other stimuli e.g. easy for rat to learn to press lever for food, it not to press lever avoid shock
Contextual factors - Bitterman 1965 - sensory, motivational and motor processes
Bitterman’s solution to Wynne and Udell’s 2013 issues
Systematic variation
Training on task across range conditions
After testing hundreds times of still not learnt down to animal not being able to understand contextual factors
Outline Lloyd Morgan’s Canon 1900
Tony (his dog) could open a gate
Performance improved over time via trial and error learning
Outline Lloyd Morgan’s Canon 1894
Find simplest explanation
BUT: what do we mean by higher level? What do we mean by psychological scale?
Outline Thorndike 1898, 1911
Experimental methods used in studies of animals
Outline Cognitive, Behaviourist and Ethology
Cognitive: look at interesting/complex aspects of behaviour
Behaviourist: experimental method
Ethology: behaviour is something that helps survival. Interest of researchers in Europe in field work
Outline Tinbergen 1963 4 questions
- Function - adaptive purpose of behaviour
- Phylogeny (evolution) - how behaviour vary among more/less related species
- Ontology (development) - behaviour across lifetime and learning
- Mechanism - how it occurs in brain and how caused by ability to learn
