Peter Jones L1 Flashcards
Why study animal cognition?
Curiosity, Human Welfare and Animal Welfare
Human-welfare
Animal models of human disorders - can help treatment of schizophrenia, addiction and anxiety
Lesion studies - injection of pharmacological agents into brain areas
Why shouldn’t we study animal cognition?
It’s hard, how can we know what is going on in their mind, inference heavy, cost/management of studies
Do tools separate us from other animals?
Dolphins use sponges for foraging and chips use spears to hunt bush babies
What two questions do animal lab experiments on tool use ask?
Can non-human animals use tools?
Do they understand those tools in the same way we do?
Differences between tool use in humans and chimps M
Mithen, 1996 - Human tools are more complex, using more unique gestures, with multiple functions and humans learn tool use quicker.
Animal tools
Prefabricated objects, occasionally modified (leaves stripped) and in combination e.g. hammer + anvil
Kohler’s Observation of Sultan
Trial and error learning by chimpanzee stacking boxes for reward
Thorndike’s puzzle boxes
Cats pushing latch to escape box
Tool modification in New Caledonian Crows
The straight wire must be bent to retrieve food - one one crow solved and that crow had experience bending wire
Tube task
Stick retrieval of food through a tube - some need to be modified - capuchins did okay - Apes solve quicker but both struggle with H stick
How do animals seem to learn?
Learning associations but don’t have a greater understanding of the physical world inhibiting insight and complexity.
Inverted trap tube task
Chimpanzees had problems with physical understandings
Aesop’s fable task
WvS - 76%
Sink vs Floating - 88%
Solid vs hollow - 89%
U tubes - 49%
However, certain tasks might be harder, perspective?
Hanging string pulling
Those that mastered A could complete B
