Emotions and Personality

What was it believed that animals reactions to things were?

Simplistic responses to outside stimuli

Emotions were believed to be unique to what?

Humans

What two groups of animals do not show signs of expressing emotions?

Reptiles and fish

The fact that reptiles and fish do not show signs of emotional expression suggests what?

The trait evolved later in the animal kingdom

True or False, emotions are subjective

True

How are emotions experienced?

By an individual response to internal or external stimuli

What term is used to describe how an animal feels?

Affective state

What are affective states?

Longer lasting emotions not caused by a single stimulus but rather based on prior experiences

What is looked at first when studying affective states?

Research on emotions in humans

Why can we apply methods from human psychology and neuroscience to make inferences about the affective state of animals?

Because all animals have a shared ancestor

When stressed or experiencing strong emotions, what do both humans and animals do?

Increase heart rate and biological measures like adrenaline

What do both humans and mice have a fear response to?

Loud, startling, high pitched noises

What is arousal?

How intense the emotion is

Which emotions are considered high arousal?

Happiness, anger, and fear

What emotions are low arousal?

Boredom, and relaxation

What does Valence describe?

How pleasant an emotion is

Which emotions are considered high valence?

Calm, relaxation, and happiness

What emotions are considered low valence?

Boredom and sadness

What is Happiness when measured by arousal and valence?

High arousal, High valence

What is Sadness when measured by arousal and valence?

Low arousal, low valence

What is relaxation when measured by arousal and valence?

High valence low arousal

What is anger when measure by arousal and valence?

High arousal, and low valence

Which part of the nervous system do high arousal emotions activate?

Autonomic nervous system

Which part of the nervous system would low arousal emotions activate?

The parasympathetic nervous system

What is used to measure the emotions an animal might be feeling?

Behavior and physiological measures

Anger and Happiness would typically activate which part of the nervous system?

Autonomic

Sadness and Relaxation would typically activate which part of the nervous system?

The para-sympathetic nervous system

What is the cognitive bias test?

A study of how the attention, memory, or judgement of an animal can be changed by its affective state

What does the cognitive bias test examine?

How a stimulus can alter the affective state of an animal and lead to changes in its behavior

What do cognitive bias tests look at?

How novel seeking or novel adverse an animal is based on its experiences

What is novel seeking?

Optimistic

What is novel adverse?

Pessemistic

Why are cognitive bias tests often used on zoo animals?

To assess their psychological welfare

What are humans and animals more likely do do when in a positive affective state?

Seek out new things

How can the cognitive bias test be performed on dogs?

Dogs can be trained to associate either a large food reward or a small food reward with a specific sound

After several training sessions what happens?

Dogs can be presented with an ambiguous cue between positive and negative and their behavior is measured

What does it mean if a dog checks its food bowl faster?

The more they are anticipating the large, preferred reward

How do scientists test if an experience effects an animals bias?

They can be given the control, or have an unpredictable experience to see how the interpret the ambiguous cue

How are animals assessed?

By having them make a choice

In a cognitive bias test what are animals trained to associate rewards with?

A cue

What are the two cues presented?

One signals a preferred or large reward, while the other cue represents a small or negative reward

After the training with the cue what happens?

The animal is presented with an ambiguous cue that they have never before experienced that is a mix between positive and negative

In the cognitive bias test on dolphins what were the cues?

Swimming to one end of their enclosure and return for a big fish, or swim to the other end a return for a small fish

What was the result of the cue training?

The big fish was the preferred reward, the dolphins swam back faster after swimming to the end of the enclosure that resulted in the bigger fish

What was the ambiguous cue?

Dolphins were asked to return to a point for a reward that is between the two target locations

What does the speed at which the dolphins return indicate?

Whether they are expecting a large or small reward

In what ways is cognitive bias testing used?

To determine the affective state of animals, or examine how certain conditions affect animals

How can cognitive bias testing be examine how certain conditions affect animals?

It can be performed after a negative experience

What is personality sometimes called?

Behavioral syndrome

What is personality defined as?

A consistent predictable behavioral reaction an individual has to stimuli

The earliest animal research on personality examined what?

The difference between bold and shy animals

What is boldness?

The tendency of an animal to take risks even with the potential for danger

What is shyness?

Animals that are less likely to engage in risky activities and more likely to act cautiously in new situations

When would a population of bold animals be advantageous?

If there are few predators

What did early animal personality researchers hypothesize about differences in personalities?

They were a product of slight changes in genetics and environmental experience and were a product of differences in evolutionary processes

Natural selection preserves traits as long as what?

They dont negatively impact an animals overall fitness

In which animals as aggressiveness been identified as an heritable genetic trait?

Rhesus macaques (Maccaca mulatta)

Which species of fish are commonly studied in laboratories to parse apart evolutionary benefit of personalities in animals?

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) and Amazon mollies (Poecilia formosa)

Research on the zebrafish genome has shown what?

There are genetic differenced between bold and shy personalities affecting the structure of the brain and abilities to learn

True or False, Amazon mollies have offpsring that share the same genetic code?

True

What do Amazon mollies make excellent models for?

Studying how the environment can affect personality

The distinct and persistent personality types of Amazon mollies in controlled environments with offspring sharing genetic code suggests what?

There are other factors yet to be found that can influence the personality of an individual

What have critics of personality in animals argued?

Researchers rely too much on applying methods of human psychology to the study of non-human animal behavior

What do proponents of personality in animals argue?

Personality in animals is simply an extensions of behavioral plasticity and there are naturally small variations in behavior due to animals ability to adapt

How do modern animal personality researchers examine behavior?

Using many different tests and examining individuals

By studying individuals response to behavioral tests what can scientists begin to understand?

The evolutionary significance of personality