Animal Cognition Unit 2

Time-Long Intervals

If put in an environment with no day/night cues, animals generally still converge on a 24 hour cycle of sleep/wakefulnes

Cycles of sleep/wakefulness extremes

Lower bound: 20hr

Upper bound: 30hr

Zeitgeber

“Time Giver” 

A stimulus that helps entrain the sleep/wakefulness cycle

• Light

• Temp

• Social factors

• Availability of food

Biebach’s Garden Warbler Study

Birds sometimes use circadian clocks to judge the passage of time, and thus learn the location of food that is available at limited times

• Circadian clocks are only useful for judging larger time intervals

Gill’s Studies of Hummingbird Time Judgment

Males want to minimize time spent foraging (flowers not always full, fill up over time) so they can maximize time spent lekking

The longer the bird waits between foraging, the higher the chance the nectar has refilled AND that another bird has drained the flower

When artificial flowers are introduced that refill every 20 minutes, the birds soon a adopt a schedule where they revisit after a bit more than 20 minutes (same w/ 10 minutes)

Lekking

Group mating dance (like a talent show)

Operant Conditioning (Time Short Intervals)

Rats and other species learn about reinforcement schedules on various timeframes

Church, 1978 (Internal Clock Theories)

Scalar timing

Scalar Timing

Internal “ticks” counted in STM store

Number of “ticks” in STM is compared with number in LTM from previous experience with the task

Lion Study (McComb, Packer, and Pusey, 1994)

Play sounds of roaring intruder lion(s) (1 or 3) for prides of different sizes and observe responses

Lions more likely to approach if they are part of a larger group

Less latency with a single intruder

More/less judgments in Chimpanzees: Wilson, Hauser, and Wrangham, 2001

Fission-fusion communities

Pant-hoot

Chorusing

Probability of group counter-calling or approaching the pant-hoot of a foreign male was dependent on the number of adult males in group

Fission-Fusion Communities (Chimps)

When its night, chimps will gather in large numbers. During the day they will split off into smaller foraging groups (the smaller groups often change) 

Pant-Hoot

A chimps multi-purpose call

• Call to group members when food is abundant 

• Locate group members in the brush

• Warn off rival group members

  • Chorusing

Relative Number Judgment (Definition using candy as ex)

Which pile has more candy?

Relative Judgement: Koehler’s Pigeons

Pigeons can learn to choose smaller or larger numbers of grains

They learn this task much easier if there are values that are further apart rather than consecutive

Relative Judgement: Emmerton’s Follow-Up

Pigeons have a concept of more/less

Absolute Number Judgment: Definition (using candy as ex)

Realizing that a pile of 5 starbursts has something in common with 5 sour patch kids

Absolute Number Judgment: Davis and Albert (1986), Rocky the Raccoon

Rocky was given plastic cubes with varying amounts of items inside

Only the boxes with 3 items inside were openable 

Rocky did very well 

Absolute Number Judgment: Davis and Bradford (1986), Rats and Tunnels

Train rats to take food from the 3d of 6 tunnels

With training, rats go directly to the correct tunnel (tunnels are rearraigned) 

Counting

In order to count, you need a concept of relative number and a concept of absolute number, along with tagging and cardinality

Tagging (Counting)

A number has a specific “tag” that goes with it (e.g. “one”)

Cardinality (Counting)

The tag for the last number in the set is the number of items in the set

Alex: Model/Rival Technique

Humans demonstrate the response

• Human is model

Parrot sees human respond

• Human is rival

Alex: Pepperberg and Carey, 2012

Language is helpful when assessing counting skill

Model/rival technique

Hunt’s New Zealand Robin Study

More time was spent searching for hidden prey when they were shown more pray than they were allowed to retrieve

This effect declined when the total number of prey went up 

Associative Learning

Learning about the relationship between two separate stimuli

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

An unconditioned stimulus (US) is something that naturally triggers a reflexive response without prior learning or conditioning

Unconditioned Response (UR) 

An unconditioned response (UCR) is a natural, reflexive reaction to an unconditioned stimulus

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

The conditioned stimulus is a previously neutral stimulus that eventually triggers a conditioned response.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A conditioned response (CR) is a learned reaction formed when a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus

Olson and Fazio Pokémon Study

Told to look for target (a specific Pokémon) amongst random images + words

Images were in fact not random

Participants preferred Pokémon that had been associated with positive images and words. 

Conditioned preferences (Pokémon study)

Preferences can be altered by associations 

Erik Kande (Aplysia Sea Snails)

Aplysia’s only have 2 neurons controlling their tongue

Gill withdrawal reflex: animal moves to protect gill with mouth if siphon is contacted

Can be classically conditioned to alter this reflex, shows behavior extinction 

Hollis et al., 1997, Male Gouramis

Male Gouramis are territorial, sometimes are too aggressive and attack potential mates

Conditioning: 10s exposure to white light, followed by 5 minutes exposure to potential mates. Light signals that a potential mate is approaching

Conditioned male fish have far more offspring

Contiguity 

Closeness in time and space

How close in time does a stimulus need to be for classical conditioning to be observed

Depends

• Taste aversion: 1 day

• Eyeblink conditioning: 1 second

Rescorla’s Contiguity Experiment

Contingency

Drongos and Meercats

Drongo gives a predator warning, real the first time, later false so it can steal the meercats food

Meercats aren’t fooled for long

Drong learns to mimic meercats warning cry

Boisseau, Vogel, Dussutour (2016), Slime molds

Operant Conditioning

Throndike’s puzzle boxes and cats

Positive reinforcement

Negative reinforcement

Positive punishment

Negative punishment

Staddon and Simmelhag, 1971, Superstitious Pigeons

Operant conditioning: Complex Relationships

Rafiki the Baboon

Garcia and Koelling, 1965, Food Aversion

Lorenz and Tinbergen, 1948, Food Aversion

Breelands (Either food aversion or misbehavior of animals)

Reasoning

Adapt thought or action to some end

Usually refers to more complex behavior

Flexibility of response

Integration of info

Fixed action patterns

Oakley 1949, Man the Tool Maker

Antlion Larvae Sand Pits

Flexibility in Sea Otters

Taylor, Hunt, Gray, 2012 (New Caledonian Crow)

Food near potentially dangerous stimuli NOT COMPLETE

Flexibility and Coconut Octopuses

Brooks, 1988, Hermit Crab Survival

Hermit crabs placed in tank with an octopus

0, 1, or 3 anemones on their shells INCOMPLETE

Betty the crow

Kohler + Sultan the SOME TYPE OF APE

Sultan

Block stacking 

Two stick problem

Visalbergi and Limongelli (1994), Tufted Capuchins

Trap tube test

Hood, 1999, Cotton Top Tamarins

Transitive Inference

Deducing new relationships from stated relationships

Transitive Inference: Pigeons

Transitive Inference: Wasps and Honeybees, Tibbetts et al. 2019

Transitive Inference: Pinyon/Scrub Jays, Bond, Kamil, Balda, 2003

Social Complexity Hypothesis

Fairness

Capuchins and Fairness

Range, et al., 2008, Dogs

Social Cognition

Cognitive processes devoted to learning about and interacting with other individuals

Conspecific

Mirror recognition

Gallup 1970, Wildborn Chimps

Wildborn chimps living in captivity

Given access to mirror for 10 days

Anesthetize chimps, paint brow + ear

Mark test

Povinelli, 1993, Chimps + Mirror test

Which primates pass the mark test? Which fail?

Pass: chimps, orangutans, gorillas

Fail: gibbons and old+new world monkeys

Epstein, Lanza, Skinner, 1981, Pigeons

Kold et al, 2019, Cleaner Wrasse

De Waal’s framework on self-concept

Menzel et al 1985, Chimpanzees + Video Recognition

Point light display

Newborn animals prefer lights that move in a way consistent with biological movement of species

Rosa-Salva et al., 2019 (Chicken cube)