Animal Cognition Final

What were some of Clever Hans “claims” that he could do?

arithmetic, spelling, reading, telling time all by tapping his foot

What was Clever Hans really doing?

reading body language, facial expressions to know when to stop tapping?

What human biases exist when studying animal cognition?

anthropomorphism, anthropocentrism (using human traits as standard), confirmation bias (seeking supporting evidence), sensory-perceptual limitations

What is the difference between task success and understanding?

success = measurable outcome, understanding = cognitive process that allows an animal to generalize knowledge to new, similar situations

How do you test understanding?

maze tests, problem-solving/deduction tasks, self-awareness tests, novel object recognition, transfer tasks

What are transfer tasks?

providing new stimuli to apply learning?

What is the purpose of a transfer task?

rule out that an animal is using “shortcut” solutions; strengthen ability to apply knowledge in one context to a new situation

What is behaviorism?

focus on the behavior of individuals; believes sources of behavior are external; behavior can & should be explained without reference to mental state

What is cognitivism?

explains behavior as internal mental processes like perception, memory, learning, decision-making; animals as active info processors instead of reactive machines

Who was Pavlov?

Russian physiologist; discovered classical conditioning by noticing dogs salivating to stimuli

Who was Skinner?

American psychologist; radical behaviorism (all action result of conditioning, no free will), operant conditioning

Who was Tolman?

American psychologist; cognitive behaviorism (thoughts, feelings, behaviors all interconnected)

What are the types of conditioning?

operant conditioning, associative learning, classical conditioning

What is conditioning?

repeated exposure to co-occurence of a natural stimulus with a normally neutral stimulus

What is associative learning?

linking events, actions, or stimuli together through conditioning

What is classical conditioning?

links stimulus to anticipation of an event (dog salivating at sound of bell)

What is operant conditioning?

increase/decrease of a behavior over time due to reinforcement

What are the types of operant conditioning?

positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, secondary reinforcement

What is positive reinforcement?

increase of likelihood of a behavior (treat for trick)

What is negative reinforcement?

decrease likelihood of behavior (punished for barking)

What is a secondary reinforcer?

something initially paired with reward that later acts as signal of a reward (clicker training)

What are some evidence for cognition?

learning biases and cognitive maps

What are learning biases?

implicit assumptions, mental shortcuts, or algorithmic preferences that steer how information is processed, interpreted, and learned

What are cognitive maps?

mental representation of one’s environment

What are Marr’s levels?

the 3 levels at which any machine carrying out an information processing task must be understood

Which of Marr’s levels addresses the goal of the computation, why it’s appropriate, and the logic of the strategy by which it’s carried out?

computation

Which of Marr’s levels addresses how the computational theory can be implemented?

algorithm

Which of Marr’s levels addresses how the representation & algorithm can be realized physically?

implementation

What is an example of Marr’s levels in action?

flight control:

computation: controlled landing in wind

algorithm: rules about wing angle & flapping speed

implementation: wing tilt & spread, flapping speed

What are some methodological differences in studying animal cognition in a lab vs in the field?

lab: control over environmental & social factors, hunger, artificial stimuli, motivation controlled by food, can cause stress, good for studying general cognition, memory, learning

field: ecological validity, less control over outside factors, natural movements, motivation by natural drives, observational data & videography, good for studying spatial cognition, foraging strategies, social aspects in natural habitat

What are the types of observational sampling?

focal, scan, all-occurance

What is focal sampling?

follow one individual for a fixed duration recording their behavior & interactions

What is scan sampling?

record behavior of everyone in the group at set time intervals

What is all-occurence sampling?

(ad libitum) record every time anyone exhibits a specific behavior

What are the sample timings?

continuous, point, interval sequence

What are the pros & cons of continuous sampling (all occurrence)?

pros: captures all behaviors of interest

cons: time consuming, hard to establish reliability, data overkill

What are the pros & cons of point sampling (instantaneous)?

pros: efficient, easier reliability, good for determining rates of behavior

cons: can miss behaviors of interest, inflexible

What are the pros & cons of interval sampling?

pros: efficient, easier reliability, good for determining rates of behavior

cons: can’t distinguish between levels of behavior during an interval, only 1/0 data

What are the pros & cons of sequence sampling?

pros: efficient, good for determining sequences of behavior

cons: ignores timing, only good for some questions

What are the three features of natural selection according to Darwin?

variation, inheritance, differential survival

What is fitness?

measure of individual’s success at survival and reproduction

What is fitness in reference to a trait?

how successful a trait is at being passed on to the next generation

What are the types of selection?

kin, group, sexual

What is sexual selection?

competition for mates within a population

What is inclusive fitness?

organism’s total genetic success including relatives

What is kin selection?

organisms boost inclusive fitness by helping relatives reproduce, even at a cost to themselves

What is group selection?

competition between groups in a population leads to some groups out performing others and traits that are beneficial to groups may spread

What is a cladogram?

diagram used to visualize hypothesized evolutionary relationships & common ancestry among species

What is the comparative method?

using comparisons across species to understand how traits evolved

What are homologous traits?

physical features/developmental patterns shared by different species & inherited by a common ancestor

What are analogous traits?

species with similar features that evolved independently

What is the brain to body size ratio?

a rough estimate for intelligence; a measure comparing an animal’s brain mass with its body mass

What is an umwelt?

describes sensory world of an organism; focused on what has meaning

What are the different applications of search?

allows us to understand an animal’s mental processes, particularly in spatial memory, attention, and decision-making

What is the explore/exploit tradeoff?

tension between exploration (searching for new, potentially better options) and exploitation (using known resources/strategies)

What is the importance of patchy resources?

create explore/exploit tradeoff

What are the major divisions in memory?

long-term, short-term

What is working memory?

the temporary holding & manipulation of info within a single session to guide immediate behavior

When is working memory useful?

tasks, decision-making, goal-directed actions

What is long-term memory?

the brain's system for storing, managing, and recalling information over extended periods, ranging from hours to a lifetime

What is short-term memory?

he capacity to temporarily hold a limited amount of information in an active, readily available state for a very short period, typically 15–30 seconds

What are the types of short-term memory?

short-term (STM), sensory, working

What is sensory memory?

hold image, sound, sensation in mind for ~1 second; part of perceiving process

What is explicit learning and an example?

(active learning) can learn patterned information from a single experience; learn rules, develop hypotheses; studying lyrics to a song

What is implicit learning and an example?

(passive learning) learn through prolonged exposure to patterned information; don’t learn rules purposefully; learning some of a song because of repeatedly hearing it on the radio

What is an example of an explicit learning task?

Morris water maze: using landmark cues for orientation

What is an example of an implicit learning task?

latent learning in mazes

what are some signatures of implicit learning tasks in labs?

performance improvements on hidden, repetitive structures based on success

what are some signatures of explicit learning tasks in labs?

improvement based on failure, fast learning of rule-based tasks

What is a maze best used to test?

basic procedural learning, testing effects of drugs or brain lesions on basic learning ability

What is a T-maze best used to test?

working memory, spatial memory, decision-making;

What is a radial arm maze used to test for?

working memory, reference memory, separating short-term vs long-term memory

What is episodic memory?

long-term memory which involves conscious recollection of previous experiences & their context

what are the sources of episodic memory in rats?

“what-where-when”; memory of what item was encountered, where it was located, when it was encountered

What is habituation?

response to a repeated, non-threatening stimulus decreases over time

What/when/where memory in foraging?

what = type/quality of food
when = timing
where = location of resources

Identify what/where/when: A bee returns to flowers that refill nectar every 20 minutes.

what = nectar
where = flower location
when = 20-minute replenishment

What are the three main challenges faced by foragers?

locating food sources, competition with others, avoiding predators

What is optimal foraging?

provides most benefit (food) for least cost

If a predator comes across small prey and big prey, which should it eat (assuming big prey provides more benefits)?

E1/h1 > E2/h2; always eat big prey

If big prey takes a lot of time, which should the predator eat?

E2/h2 > E1/(h1+S1)

What are the foraging strategies?

random walks, established routes, path integration, landmark navigation, cognitive maps

What are random walks?

if food is scattered in space, it is moving through the space according to some simple rules can be effective; changing direction and step length

What are established routes?

reusing the same traveling path; can lead to intentional or accidental modification of the environment; doesn’t say a lot about the cognitive mechanisms

What is path integration?

observation: animals often forage in random or winding paths but then bring the food straight back to their nest/hive rather than retracing steps; called “bee line”

What is the hypothesized mechanism of path integration?

previous turns are integrated back into the average direction and distance, providing shorter path back

What is landmark navigation

landmarks used to find food when sources may not be visible or smellable from a distance, but near things that are; in order to use landmarks for foraging, animal must be able to remember association between landmark and food, and the spatial relationship of landmark to food, and navigate to landmark

What are cognitive maps?

route-based: integrates landmark info and path info; predict changes in direction in middle of travel due to reorientation
global/euclidean: represents relationships between all items in region; do not predict reuse of same routes, each trip is a new calculation
both types allow efficient travel between out of sight resources

What are the benefits to recognizing/representing others?

identify conspecifics, distinguish between potential mates/avoid inbreeding, recognize allies, partners, offspring, avoid conflict, rise to power

What is gaze detection?

noticing an individual is looking at something (or you); detecting head orientation, eye direction, or attention

What is gaze following?

using someone else’s gaze direction to shift your own attention; turning to look at same thing

What is perspective taking?

understanding what someone else can or cannot see; representing another’s viewpoint; can adjust behavior based on what others see and what they know or don’t know; important for cooperation and competition

What is theory of mind?

capacity to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions and perspectives different from your own

Why is theory of mind beneficial?

better able to predict behavior of others, advantage in competition, allows for cooperation, calibrate behavior to other individuals, empathy (and revenge)

What is the Sally-Anne false belief task?

2 characters: sally, Anne; sally places marble in basket, sally leaves, anne puts marble in box. where will sally look for marble when she comes back? (correct answer: in basket)

sally has belief about world (marble in basket), which is now false; participant must predict behavior based on how sally views the world

What is the Sally-Anne false belief task used to test for?

theory of mind; participant is able to understand that sally did not see the marble get moved so she still believes it to be in the basket (children under 4 often fail)

What does it mean to recognize others’ intentions?

behaving differently in relation to others’ actions based on their motives for behaving (ex: distinguishing between desire and ability, recognizing mean vs clumsy behavior)

what does it mean to integrate your own experiences into social cognition?

using past experience to predict what another individual might or might not do

how does prior experience affect recaching behavior in scrub jays?

jays that have experience stealing food from others are more likely to recache, suggesting they use their own experience to predict potential theft

Why is scrub jay recaching considered evidence for perspective taking or theory of mind?

birds appear to consider what another individual might know or do based on their own experiences