Machiavellian Intelligence & Embedded Attention Flashcards
What is Machiavellian intelligence?
Primates adapted for social manipulation
What is connoted with Machiavellian intelligence?
Deviousness, plotting, exploitation, etc.
What is deception?
Exploits others ability to read your behavior in ways that promote misinterpretation
Give an example of hard wired deception.
Eyespots on butterflies
What about deception suggests cognitive skill?
When it is flexibly used
What interactions have led to MI model of primate cognitive evolution?
Social tool use and deception
How are evolution and MI related?
May select for counter deception, selects for better deception, etc.
I.e. Evolutionary arms race or ratchet that selects for more complex cognition
What are some examples of tactile deception in primates?
- move out of sight of dominant that might interfere before mating, eating, etc.
- look/move away from object of interest “feign” indifference poss to distract/move competitor away
- during aggression, sub gives (false) predator alarm call that shifts everyone’s priorities/actions
What sort of primates is tactile research compiled most on?
Old World Primates
What is funny/unique about cases of social tool use? (what do they involve?)
insincere acts by user, exploiting tool to influence target
Why is it useful to use tactile deception to mask eyes?
across phyla, predict direction of movement, leading edge of animals
What did the “friendly trainer” and “mean trainer” experiment test for?
competitive manipulation of attention
What was the procedure of the “friendly trainer” and “mean trainer” experiment test?
- subject watches as experimenter hides a treat in one of many opaque, out of reach containers
- experimenter leaves, trainer who does not know location of treat enters
- “friendly” trainer will share treat when found, “unfriendly trainer” will eat it in front of animal
What were the results of the “friendly trainer” and “mean trainer” experiment test?
- Many chimps and some cebus will orient and reach to baited container in presence of friendly trainer
- also soon suppress response to container in presence of unfriendly trainer
- few also come to overtly “misdirect” unfriendly toward unbaited container
What questions were raised about how much deceivers know about what they are doing after the “friendly trainer” and “mean trainer” experiment test?
Does deceiver have a Theory of Mind about what its actions are causing others to believe?
What is Theory of Mind (ToM)?
capacity to attribute mental states to oneself and others
What experiment by Premack and Woodruff (1978) was performed on Sarah to test ToM?
tested if sarah could interpret tape of trainer with a problem and pick a photo of the solution
What were the results of the Premack and Woodruff (1978) study on Sarah and ToM?
Interpret: Subject must understand trainer’s goal
(But may have just picked own desired outcome) => didn’t like trainer, pick the wrong one
What experiment was done on human children to test ToM?
false belief task
Why is a Fission Fusion society important for ToM and MI?
sets up similar differential access to information
-posses selects for covert competitors and counter deception
How are deception and evolution related?
- evolution may select for counter-deception, selects for better deception, etc.
- i.e. evolutionary “arms” race or “ratchet” that selections for more complex cognition
(True/False): All deception is ToM based.
FALSE; not all
What did Povinelli et al 1990 do to test ToM?
“Guesser vs. Knower” design
chimps, not macaques, learned that trainer present during baiting was best indicator of food
-tested with “Guesser” present but with bucket over head so couldn’t see baiting, etc.
What were the results of Povinelli et al (1990) test?
required many trials (no first trial success), so not clear what features they learned to use
-did not seem to come to task prepared to solve it
What are the problems with ToM account?
falsifiable? how to rule out alternative explanations?
What are different explanations to why primate would hide from dominant male before mating?
- Prevent target from knowing, since if he knows he’ll interfere (ToM)
- Prevent target from seeing, since if he sees, he will interfere? (=ToM)
- Prevent yourself from seeing Target’s face, since when you can, you predict he’ll interferes?
- Avoid stress of possible eye contact with intimidating Target so can relax for sex? (need parasympathetic to have sex)
How did an embodied approach to social cognition change how people create experiments compared to before?
change from trying to prove/disprove ToM to
identifying relevant behaviors and contexts involved
i.e. looking at what they’re doing
If we examine MI interactions closely, they almost always involve ________
the manipulation of attention
ex: video -> Connie and Laurie = feigning indifference
What were the results when primates had EEGs while they were looking at a face that turned 180 degrees?
STS 80-100 degrees neurons start to respond eyes = most attended aspect of primate face
What are cortical cells (Gaze cells)?
primates have these; respond to head and eye direction
Gaze, head orientation critcal in many examples of ____ and _____
deception and ToM
What is importance of eye contact in social interaction in NHPs?
can be a threat; also can be required before friendly interaction can proceed
What is importance of solicit gaze in social interaction in NHPs?
as in a recruit, when look back and forth between ally and target
What is importance of gaze aversion in social interaction in NHPs?
precludes engagement, deters aggression
-can be used to misdirect by exploiting tendency of others to gaze follow
What is importance of gaze follow in social interaction in NHPs?
-learn, demonstrate common interest–tied to Social Learning
In the lab what have they found on NHPs and gaze following?
NHPs can gaze follow based on head turning cue (some chimps on eyes-only cue); may underestimate abilities because of contrived lab setting
What is unique about the ability to point? What does this mean?
- only humans and human enculturated apes point
- NHPs do not teach; after hundreds of hours observing mother and juv chimps cracking nuts, on only 3 occasions did moms ever actively intervene in offspring’s learning (VERY unlike humans)
In the lab, how do we see NHPs interaction with humans in relation to face and gaze following etc.?
- Apes required to request food (Beg) from a human donor who has eyes, head, and/or body to/from subject
- Orangutans and gorillas tended to move more with the food, or per donor’s body orientation
- Chimpanzees and bonobos chose mostly to communicate to the experimenter’s face
Do dolphins teach? What evidence do we have suggesting on way or the other?
- Dolphins may teach
- modify own behavior in presence of learning
e. g. Foraging mom takes 7X as long to eat a fish she flushes if her youngster is watching
What interactions with humans show possible attentional behavior with dolphins?
- respond appropriately to a human point?
- solicit follows from humans (point??) only when humans attending (not clear if showing the way or just checking if following)
What is an example of recursive thought?
- I know that she knows that he doesn’t know, but she wants me to believe that she thinks he does
- “Reflection” as thinking about thinking, embedding mental reps in other mental reps..
What are the different videotaped gazes in a bonobo triad?
- A turns head toward B (in presence of C), subsequently either stays or rapidly turns away (best predictor of A’s subsequent move is not B, but whether C is monitoring them)
- In situations when a head turn toward others brings all three into high visual access of each other, one of three will shift gaze away immediately (mean 260 ms, significantly faster than typical)
- A sees not just B seeing A, but A sees C seeing A seeing B
What are the different videotaped gazes in a bonobo triad?
- A turns head toward B (in presence of C), subsequently either stays or rapidly turns away
- In situations when a head turn toward others brings all three into high visual access of each other, one of three will shift gaze away immediately (mean 260 ms, significantly faster than typical)
- A sees not just B seeing A, but A sees C seeing A seeing B
In the bonobo triad videotapes, what is the effect of fission fusion on this interaction?
fission fusion provides differential access to info, provides both opporutnity and selective pressure for monitoring and exploiting who sees (knows) what
Describe social tool use in the bonobo triad video taped interactions.
user embeds a dyadic interaction (w/tool) within another interaction (w/target)
Super alliances within cetaceans could be an example of _______ interactions
embedded
