Comparative Cognition

A memory task where an animal is first shown a sample stimulus and then required to select that stimulus from a group of alternatives after a delay.

Delayed Matching-to-Sample (DMTS)

In a directed forgetting task, a cue during the delay indicates whether the sample should be remembered or forgotten, leading to poorer memory for the stimulus when the forget cue is shown.

When pigeons are “told” that they need to not remember a particular stimulus, they do in fact display poorer memory for that stimulus in the future 

Directed Forgetting in DMTS

Food storing species of birds have a larger hippocampus than those with less storing experience. Similar species can have different abilities if they are subjected to different Enviromental demands; as well different species can have similar abilities if they are subjected to similar environmental demands.  

How does the memory performance of food-storing birds differ from birds that don’t store food? What factors predict a larger hippocampus in birds? Finally, what is the “important thing to take away” that is noted in the last paragraph of this section?  

Switching choices after one is eliminated increases the probability of winning, contrasting with humans' classical probability reasoning which often leads to incorrect conclusions.

 Summarize the main points of the section When “Bird Brains” Outperform People. 

Children over age 4 indicate that characters will search where they left an object, unaware that it has been moved, demonstrating an understanding of differing beliefs.

In this and other variations of the task, subordinate chimps preferentially went for the hidden banana. This demonstrates that they were able to use information about what could be known by the dominant chimp to their advantage

Describe the false belief task and how children over the age of 4 typically respond.

Describe how the hidden banana task is used to assess the same skill in chimps.  

Vervet monkeys have alarm calls that vary by predator type, prompting different escape behaviors in the group.

Unique communication in vervet monkeys

Vicki was only able to learn a few words (e.g., 'mama', 'papa'), demonstrating limitations in her ability to acquire spoken language.

Who is Vicki, and why was the attempt to train her to speak destined to produce disappointing results?  

Certain animals can use symbols and have evolved specialized communications in response to their social and physical environments.

Characteristics of language-learning species

Alex learned to identify colors, categories, and could perform tasks requiring counting overlapping items, using the model-rival technique for training. EX. He could correctly identify a blue, wooden triangle and understand that it was both blue (color) and a triangle (shape

Alex the African grey parrot's language achievement