Social Intelligence & Communication

Question 1

SOCIAL LEARNING MECHANISMS

Answer 1

OBSERVATIONAL CONDITIONING
STIMULUS/LOCAL ENHANCEMENT
IMITATION
TOOL USE
TEACHING
COMMUNICATION

Question 2

OBSERVATIONAL/VICARIOUS CONDITIONING

Answer 2

• monkeys fearing snakes
• naiive monkey doesn’t fear snake
• observes fear reaction in other w/snake present
• conditioned fear of snakes
• particularly important in phobias

Question 3

ENHANCEMENT

Answer 3

• blue tits & milk
• demonstrators beh draws observers attention to location/stimulus
• makes imitation hard to establish

Question 4

IMITATION

Answer 4

• when enhancement/observational conditioning can’t explain new beh
• quail/rats/budgerigars/pigeons
• 2-action test
• set up 2 dif responses both delivering same reward (ie. pressing lever)
• demonstrator performs 1 response to stimuli; observer watches; then test observer
• same response could be =
  1. imitation evidence
  2. priming of response; may not require effort; concept of mirror neurons

Question 5

IMITATION: RATS

Answer 5

HEYES ET AL. (1990)
- response = pushing joystick to left/right (not typical beh); bi-directional response controls for enhancement effects
- rats observed demonstrator pushing joystick; transferred to demonstrator chamber; reinforced for pushing either direction (preferred to push in same direction)
- BUT turned out observer only followed smell of demonstrator on joystick aka. enhancement

Question 6

IMITATION: PRIMATES

Answer 6

• potato washing in Japanese macaques
• spread in pop too slow to be imitation (stimulus enhancement)
• anecdotal evidence (problem of anthropomorphising)
• conclusion = inconclusive evidence for true imitation

Question 7

TEACHING

Answer 7

• intentional learning facilitation w/teacher costs
• flavour prefs in rats/mobbing in birds = NOT teaching
• little intentional teaching evidence in animals; only beh helping young educate themselves/direct attention to object/location/beh (ie. meerkat guard giving young de-tailed scorpion to learn hunting)

Question 8

COMMUNCATION TYPES

Answer 8

REFERENTIAL
TACTICAL

Question 9

COMMUNICATION: PIGEONS

Answer 9

• receiver/sender set up; sender sends 2 lights; cannot be directly viewed by receiver BUT can see sender; 2 response keys (L/R); sender cannot see them either
• both rewarded if correct response key clicked (green = L, red = R)
• receiver settles on 1 key (ie. L) eventually; correct 50%; BUT sender has contingency issue aka. red doesn’t feed it -> Pavlovian conditioning (green = food) -> sender only comes out for food (discriminative stimulus for receiver) aka. peck R when seen, L when not
• not exactly communication

Question 10

COMMUNICATION VS EXPLOITATION

Answer 10

• advantage for sender = manipulation of beh for others
• benefits for both?
• communication = intention to send message to receiver
• reliable effect on receiver’s beh
• can be between species

Question 11

REFERNTIAL COMMUNICATION

Answer 11

• releaser/FAP communication = no decision; direct instruction to receiver
• referential communication = messages give varied info about external matters to sender/receiver (ie. dance language of honey bees/vervet monkey alarm calls)