animal cognition exam II

Object permanence

objects continue to exist even when they are not seen

gravitational expectations

objects are pulled downward

some animals factor the principle of gravity into their decisions, expecting objects to fall in a certain place/direction

statics expectations

object loads interact and can reach equilibrium

Balancing stacked objects on the first try demonstrates an understanding of statics

Chimpanzees stack boxes randomly until they happened to balance, and will attempt to climb up a stack that is about to fall

Therefore chimps and other animals do not seem to understand statics, this may be because there is not a lot of stacking behaviors/mechanisms in nature?

Kinetics expectations

objects move in specific ways as a result of specific causes

Dogs spend more time looking at objects when a violation to contact causality occurs

pupil size of dogs were also greater when watching a violation of contact causality

chimp failure at banana rope type of contact task... recognize contact is needed, but not what kind of contact

Animals have some innate behaviors that assume properties of objects and surfaces

These are inflexible and do not show that animals actually have an understanding of physics behind it

But, animals also have some flexible, general expectations about how objects or surfaces behave that can be applied to many problems

when frogs attack

In frogs, innate behavior allows their eyes to detect small patches of contrast, convex edges, and movement (especially small moving objects)

When all three of these are present, the frog attacks

This is why non moving flies do not exist to frogs; even if frogs are surrounded by dead flies they will not eat them

imprinting

another innate behavior that assumes properties of objects

Must be an object

Must be a certain size

Preferably moving

Newly hatched chickens are prepared to perceive objects and perceptually fill in an image to recognize their printed object... a newly hatched chick that imprinted on a triangle will also follow a partly covered triangle, and a triangle with only endpoints (not connected)

newborn bat expectations

Expect certain types of surfaces will have certain properties:

Bodies of water reflect sound, that makes bats know they can get water from it

Study: when bats were presented with a smooth, metal surface, which reflects sound in the same way as water, bats attempted to drink from it

This happened with newborn bats as well who had no water experience, suggesting they are born with a predisposed ability to know that a certain reflection sound indicates a good spot to drink water

jumping spiders

have the innate ability to track objects over indirect routes and detours, showing they assume object permanence

To do this, the spiders use their anterior lateral eyes to measure and remember distance, and adjust memory of distance as it moves

Assumes objects exists even when out of view

Dragonfly larvae

do a built in and inflexible movement sequence after the disappearance of an object, usually prey

Turn slowly 180 degrees, backs up and does that turn; this repeats

This behavior increases the probability of contacting prey once they disappear from view

formal physics

based on formal mathematical properties, explains things we cannot see or sense, and is used by science to explain the natural world

folk physics

based on our intuition and experience, can only explain things we sense/infer, and is used by animals to predict events for survival

Sometimes folk physics intuitions about physical laws are inaccurate, but are still useful

one way to test object permanence: visible displacement test

the experimenter visibly places an object behind one of three screens, and the dog is allowed to search. It searches behind the screen where the object was hidden

Apes, monkeys, dogs, hamsters, birds, and other animals expect objects to continue to exist even when out of view, and so are successful with the visible displacement task

another way to test further object permanence understanding: invisible displacement

an experimenter hides an object in hand/container, then moves hand/container behind one of three screens, then shows the dog an empty hand/container. The dog is allowed to search, but does not search the correct screen

This second level of hiding blocks dog's representation of the object

Dogs and other animals who fail at this do not logically deduce the location of an object that has ambiguously disappeared

For human children, but not for dogs, a negative finding in one location increases their certainty for finding it in the next location... so children get faster and faster after each negative finding, while dogs actually get slower after each negative finding

Another invisible displacement task puts an object under one of three cups, then moves the cups around. Primates were successful with finding the object after, while many other species were not

Spatiotemporal continuity

Humans and non-human primates expect an object to move along a spatially and temporally continuous path

Things moving down a spatiotemporal path look like one object to monkeys instead of two

Shows the spatiotemporal expectation is so strong, it can overcome when there are actually two objects instead of one

Spatiotemporally continuous: looks like one object

Spatiotemporally discontinuous: looks like two objects

most animals show success in

Object performance and visible displacement

Spatiotemporal continuity recognition

Gravity

Contact vs non contact kinetics

Most animals show failures in

Indivisible displacement

Statistics and balance

Logical object tracking

Type of contact kinetics

time and space

Are abstract and cannot be directly physically sensed

Must be calculated using coordinates, vectors, or summation of signals

three types of time

Circadian rhythms: light-dark cycles

Time of day: hours/minutes

Intervals: seconds to minutes

hamsters ans circadian rhythms

Hamsters show regular running wheel activity over a 12 hour on/12 hour off cycle

If hamsters are raised in the dark, they still show this 12 hour of-on cycle, but it drifts

Hamsters raised normally would be active in the AM on a normal day

If hamsters are raised in dark or go without light, their active period will drift over time, though it begins the same as normal

Zeitgeber

Landmarks in time, like the sunrise or sunset, to help anchor activity periods

Light is a commonly used zeitgeber, used by hamsters and humans and many other species to determine activity periods

With or without light, the animal is still having some sort of rough schedule of active for 12 consecutive hours and inactive for another 12, but without light, this can drift

If light is gone, and activity period drifts, turning the light back on can return the normal activity period

oil birds

live deep in caves where no sunlight reaches. They emerge each night at roughly the same time to eat fruit

They have this circadian rhythm even without the external cue of light

Must have another form of zeitgeber?

sun position Zeitgeber

At different times of day, the sun is in different positions. Its position alters the position and direction of the dominant band of polarization, which some animals can see and use to tell time of day

rats and humans internal clock

Rats and humans have similar internal clocks and similar levels of response at the same time interval

Other potential cues to timing

internal cues: decaying memory, how sleepy you are, getting over a sickness, temperature

external cues: tide, leaves changing, smell of food (stinky = old food)

home range

the space an animal patrols over a year

Used for foraging and finding mates

Range in size from meters to thousands of kilometers

migration

long range travel over months to a new nesting site

Innate restlessness in captive young birds

Migrating can happen without a group on the first try and is successful (butterflies, turtles)

migration and learning

Some animals change direction before encountering dangerous territory, others do not

Birds can be trained to migrate on a certain route

whooping crane migration

oddly have not been migrating, causing many to die because they stay in cold weather; this has endangered their species

Conservation efforts to help this, but when whooping cranes were trained to migrate, they would do so but their offspring would not

Methods of navigation during migration and also short range navigation

Sun angle

Compass

Beacon

geometry/landmarks

Odometer

sun angle

Using direction of the sun

Finding the angle of a destination relative to the sun

Many ants use the sun angle to find their nests. Even when the ant is moved to a spot (and they are unaware of the movement), they use sun angle to go to where next would be, then search when they do not find it

sun compass

Humans can use a watch

After pointing the hour hand at the sun, and then taking half the distance from the hour hand to 12 is the north/south axis

Animals can know this axis and figure out the number of degrees away the sun is from north, which is proportional to the time of day

To find compass direction, an animal must know time of day, sun position, how many degrees to add to the sun's position

Ephemeris function: a table that gives the degrees to add to the sun's position to arrive at north

Bees use time of day to adjust the angle they travel relative to the sun, with the goal of finding a flower

Magnetic compass

Using magnetic fields as markers during travel

Magnetic field of earth also leave cracks in the ocean floor, which may be used by whales and turtles during migration

indigo hunting birds

use the patch around which stars swirl to help in navigation

beacons

are super salient visual, odor, or other sensory cues that mark home

Wasps and many other animals use beacons to find their way

ex: wasps associating pinecones with nest location

what allows us to learn math

Early approximate representation of quantity

Learn the count list

Map numbers onto words

Understand principles of how numbers work

approximate number system

telling approximate number based on ratio difference (just by looking at it)

babies who stared longer at something that violated number were shown a few years later to have better math scores

Easier to tell apart numbers that have a a bigger ratio difference (telling apart 1vs 2 is the same difficulty as telling apart 6 vs 12)

why animals may use number for foraging

Foraging: number is helpful for estimating the ratio of number of food items to number of foragers

Animals go to the food patch where there would be a more favorable ratio of food to forager to them

But animals may not always need numbers... they can tell which area to get food via smell, or just an understanding of there being a greater surface area of food (not an exact number)

why animals may use number for social situations

Lions use number of other adult lion calls to determine if they should approach or not

or could it be other factors??

Spontaneous number representation

Is the primate perceptual system biased to represent numbers through the posterior parietal cortex?

These number representations are uniquely human and are a recent cultural invention (humans could be unique in really caring about numbers, specifically western humans)

question: : do BOTH monkeys and humans spontaneously represent number vs other non-numeric features that can estimate quantity? for humans, is this affected by math education, culture, etc?

use of number

monkeys, children, and both eastern and US adults were more likely to use number instead of area to find similarities between two pictures

However, eastern adults still used a lot more area than US adults did.

more educated eastern adults and less educated eastern adults used the same amount of area, but more educated eastern adults used more number than less educated ones.

quantity estimation maturation in humans

1 year old baboons and adults shows similar levels of accuracy

On these tasks, baby monkeys are better than human babies in terms of developing approximate number skills faster

Suggests a possible biological maturation component in humans needed for quantity estimation

Monkeys do also get better with training/experience, so their success relies on both maturation and experience

count list

seems that at least some non human animals have the capacity to learn a long, ordered list, especially other primates

mapping numbers onto words: alan the parrot

Alan the parrot gave evidence that a parrot can map number words onto quantities

Alan could look at a tray of objects and say the correct number word for how many of a certain object there was

This gives some evidence that some animals can map number words onto numbers/quantities

arithmetic and monkeys

80% success on addition and 70% success on subtraction

Monkeys do not do precise arithmetic, but they can estimate arithmetic outcomes

Humans can be 100% on arithmetic with digits, but monkeys can only discriminate numerical values that differ by a big enough ratio (0.5 easiest)

arithmetic and honeybees

showed improved numerical cognition as training trials increased

Were better at addition tests in the same direction and better at subtraction tests in the opposite direction

So animals have some understanding of approximate number principles, ie adding means more and subtracting means less

What is unique to humans learning math as kids

Conceptual leap: where all of a sudden children understanding how counting relates to numbers

Animals have yet to show an understanding of how number words or symbols relate to subsequent numbers. So each number needs to be taught individually

So this leap may be a step that allows humans to learn complex mathematics, but not other animals

chimps and humans relation

Chimps and humans have a similar common ancestor. A group of this common ancestor that migrated to Africa would later become humans, while those that stayed behind would become chimps

kids vs chimps: teaching

kids engage more in teaching, which involves cooperation

chimps prioritize competition over cooperation

Human civilization depends on cooperation and communication, and the degree to which humans can do this divides us from other animals. Language is an important part of this communication

pointing behavior

Pointing behavior is also an example of cooperation and communication in humans.

When one human points something out to another, the human infers there must be a benefit to looking at it, even if it is boring.

Chimps do not show this understanding

Dogs DO have the pointing understanding. Though chimps are much closer relatives to humans, dogs have been living with humans more, which allows dogs to understand human communication better

Wolves do not do this, even when living with humans, showing there is some adaptation in dogs specifically that allow them to learn human communication

concept

refers to an abstract notion for grouping a class of entities

the abstract principles that define the formation of categories

needed to form concepts and categories: discrimination and generalizations

category

a set of entities that are grouped together

types of categories

Perceptual: based on common sensory features

Amodal: independent of any single sensory modality, yet are still grouped together

Functional: based on a common use or purpose

Relational: based on relations between things

Discrimination

singling out some object or feature for special treatment

Animals discriminate need for special treatment (avoidance) \

Animals can discriminate against many objects based on shape, color, material, visual features, etc.

generalization

treating similar objects or features similarly

Animals generalize their response to bees to other similar looking bugs

Generalization is important for safety, as it is not effective to just avoid one certain bee, which is where discrimination comes in

mimicry

takes advantage of discrimination and generalization; some insects may look like bees, but are not, but animals still avoid eating it because it looks like a bee

Adaptive value of looking like a bee: less likely to be eaten

pigeons can learn not only from memory, but...

Memory helps

After initial training, pigeons were tested with novel stimuli and familiar training stimuli. They were successful at categorizing both, but more successful with familiar stimuli, showing that they were not just learning from memorization, but that memorization does help

animal amodal categorization can be easily thrown off by

abnormal perceptual features

For example, pink/red patches of skin on a human could throw them off and make them not think its human

number

an amodal category, ie not tied to a specific feature

Can categorize number without using any particular feature like color, size, and shape

Numbers can also be categorized across auditory and visual modalities, no matter how it is arranged in time and space (2 apples, 2 cars, 2 people, 2 buildings, etc.)

Relational category

This is when categorization is made based on sameness/equality/relationships

Pigeons, monkeys, and other animals can form the concept of same

monkeys and telling sets of different amounts of objects apart

We think monkeys use entropy (chaos) to do this. There is higher entropy in a set of 16 objects that are all different than a set of 4 objects that are all different, making it easier for monkeys to tell they are all different

many animals have

discrimination, generalization, and perceptual categorization

Limited evidence that animals have

amodal categories, but some evidence in number and possibly human concepts

functional categories, but some evidence in monkey alarm calls and eagle calls

relational categories, but some evidence that pigeons and monkeys can form concept of same/different, more evidence in monkeys

tool

an external object used as a functional extension of mouth/beak or hand/claw in the attainment of an immediate goal

A more recent definition of tool use: manipulating one object to effect another object, even if the tool is not a direct extension of the animal

Causal reasoning

understanding cause and effect of one object's behavior on another object

Derives from inference about object functions

Successful on first trial

Not disrupted by superficial or irrelevant features

Clues that an instance of tool use or object manipulation might be genetic

all individuals in a species do it in the same way, and the action is inflexible

ex: wasp do not patch a funnel nest they make, instead start another one

weaver birds

Make some of the most complex nests in the animal kingdom, likely some combination of genetics and learning in the building

extractive foraging

getting food out of a shell or hiding place

When there are no animals who have physical adaptations for extractive foraging, tool use tends to emerge (so tool use emerges when there is less competition)

Some animals will modify objects to make tools that will help them get a reward

Most tool making/use in the wild: chimps, capuchins, and crows

Capuchin monkeys tool use

use a rock as a hammer and another rock surface as an anvil for nut cracking.

It takes 8 years for capuchin monkeys to fully learn this... which itself supported association learning instead of causal reasoning , but likely involve both

Capuchins can sequence multiple tools and actions to get an outcome in the correct and most effective order, and can think of what tool is needed even when not shown the tools

chimp tool use

fish for termites with modified sticks they make. The chimp strips a stick of all leaves and then uses it for the termites.

crow tool use

They bend the sticks to make a hook shape

These crows will also fish/search for tools that they can use to get bugs, which shows possible evidence for planning

Crows also cut leaves into shapes to use.

contingency

an association between behavior and outcome, showing no understanding of the cause

many argue that animals only use contingency when engaging in tool use, and dot not have causal understanding of what they are doing... this is what separates humans and animals

Involves exploiting and manipulating an object and eventually getting a reward

forming associations by trial and error

Disrupted by superficial features

dog food/string test

learned to pull a string to get a treat, but always pulled the closest one

cat food/string test

learned to pull a string to get a reward but chose the string randomly

raven/crow food/ string test

s learned to pull the connected string, but had trouble with recognizing that contact and connection (rope tied around object) was necessary

chimp food/string test

earned to pull the string, understand contact is necessary but had trouble with connection

Existence proof

there is one animal who sowed evidence of causal reasoning, but cannot generalize this to population '

with associative learning we expect

animals to keep trying something that they have learned has worked (by trial and error) even when it is not working

If the animal sees it is not working and changes the behavior to adapt, that is some evidence for causal reasoning

insight

when a novel problem is solved rapidly

However, contingency learning can be the basis for insight and maybe even some form of causal reasoning in some cases... learning cause and effect in one problem can help with insight in a novel problem