Social cognition Flashcards
what does cognition deal with
the mental capacity of an animal to:
-aquire information
-have perceptions and interpret something, someone, realize, or understand
-storing of information
-utilize (brining info back out of the brain)
if an animal can recognize some one then they have the ability of…
-social cognition
-ie.
-aquire info
-understanding the info
-storing the info
-utilize the info
what are three examples of how recognition complexity may differ
1) cattle from numerous farms get mixed together and fights happen, is this because those animals are not familiar with eachother (simplest form of cognition)
2) a flock of adult hens, submissives avoids a dominant (more complex)
3) friendship (mem + recognition)
4) mother offspring (most complex)
what does it mean to recognize someone
-remembering previous encounters
-an understanding of the object or event (perception)
-acquire information
-perception (interprets something or someone, realize or understand)
-storing of info
-utilize
mixing unfamiliar animals often result in…
-aggression/fighting
-subordinate animals avoiding dominant
-friends
-dam and offspring
mechanisms of recognition
-recall
-memory
recall
-ability to form a mental image of an object in its absence
-some evidence of ability in animals
-brids: recognized pictures of individuals and difference angles
-sheep: recognized frontal and profile views
memory
-is this simply storing information
-involves new CNS activities: they are:
1) strengthening of synaptic connectivity
2) fresh production or reconstruction of neural pathways
information overload
-too much to utilize (so much info- cannot remember everything)
filtering of information occurs at a what level…
-the receptor level and the cortical region of the brain
cognition measurements in humans
-self reporting
-questionnaires
-etc
cognition measurements in animals
-physiological measures
-behavioural measures
-“asking the animals”
-most effective to utilize all of them
physiology examination of brain activity
-in humans the section of the brain that is active on reciving these signal is the same as those that are active on recall
-electroencephalograph:
-different cells utilized for different projections of images in sheet
-animals or human faces
-animals with horns and how large the horns were
-faces of same species sheet, especially if familiar
-dogs and people
behavioural observations to test cognition and recognition
-operant conditioning to determine if animals can distinguish between individuals
-exposure to familiar or unfamiliar animals
individual recognition in sheep
-ewes trained to choose between two pictures in a Y maze
-test 1: humans vs sheep recognize their own (ewes preferred the sheep picture)
-test 2: same breed vs different breed recognize their breed (ewes preferred same breed picture)
-test 3: ram vs ewe picture recognition repro status (estrous ewe preferred ram, anestrous ewe perferred ewe)
-conclusion of this study: sheep show species, breed and individual recognition. social preference influenced by neuroendocrine systems
exposure to familiar or unfamiliar animals horse studies
-studied individual horses
-walked a herd past test horse
-when out of site, played a whinny over loudspeaker
-measured amount of the time horses looked towards the herd
-if they recognized the call- they looked for a longer period of time
“asking the animals” mechanism
-need to be careful using behaviour to interpret cognitive abilities
-animals choose between what is offered to them
-they may hate two things but one thing less but doesnt mean they love it
recognition mechanisms smell vs olfactory
-are other senses important
-visual vs olfactory
-ewes can be taught to recognize their lambs using visual clues in the Y-maze, but slow process
-sheep are follower species so mother and baby never far
-smell more important then vision??
recognition mechanisms vocal
-speakers playing calls from cows
-cows and young calves separated, and cow calls recorded
-young calves were exposed to sound of their mother and a different mother
-significantly chose to spend more time at the speaker emitting sound from their mother
recognition: do animals have the complex cognitive capability to form mental image of another individual
-evidence shows maybe
-sheep front vs side view
-sheep and cattle had lack of recognition in a mirror
recognition: can animals classify one and other, species, gender, kin
-elephants show more intrest in skulls/tusks of their own species
-ducklings recognize calls from their own species
-hens: avoid chickens from other strains, performed more aggression to those not in their strains, more sexual attraction to those within their strain
cognative methods: examples how can we “ask the animal”
-preference testing (Y maze)
-working for resources (detemaning the value of the resource)
other factors affecting cognition: social learning: social environment
-social environment affects learning
-increased/decreased fear or arousal
-increase the chance of behavioural learning
other factors affecting cognition: social learning: demonstrating
-to naive animals withe the result of learning that specific behaviour suggests an even higher level of cognitive ability
-individual that demonstrates
-ie. pups that watched their mothers training to detect drugs were better at the same activity than pups that did lot
