Observational Methods 1 Flashcards

1
Q

Why use observational methods?:

A
  1. Questionnaires of limited applicability
    · Only one animal species with language, out of millions of animal species.
    1. Apparatus limits generalisability
      * E.g., if behavioural measuring equipment is noticeable, then results only apply to organisms that are habituated to that apparatus.
    2. Context-dependent behaviour where context might be difficult or infeasible to replicate in controlled environments.
      · For example, behaviour of riotous mobs
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2
Q

Linguistic animals:

A

· Circle graph which is almost completely yellow with a tiny black slice
· Demonstrates that there is only linguistic animals (humans) among millions of non-linguistic animals
- Questionnaires of limited use, one needs observational methods with non-humans

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3
Q

Lana the chimpanzee - Rumbaugh, 1977:

A

· Lana was being trained to use the keyboard to request activities, food, and drink
· The chimpanzee is embedded in a highly technical environment
· Results from studies of this chimpanzee are not generalisable to other chimpanzees.

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4
Q

Rat in Skinner box:

A

· Heavy reliance on rat performance in a Skinner box limits generalisability to rats in similar testing circumstances.
· Observational methods allow us to view rats in many different contexts.

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5
Q

Spelman et al, 1991:

A

· Complex schematic of the technological system supporting data collection in a study of simultaneous physiology and behaviour

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6
Q

Spelman et al, 1991 - heart rate:

A

· Staying relatively steady at 120 beats-per-minute while the animals is at rest
· Rapidly increasing from the moment the animal starts running to about 185 BPM.

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7
Q

Spelman et al, 1991 - blood pressure:

A

· Staying relatively steady at about 107 millimetres of mercury until about 12 seconds when a relatively steep rise in blood pressure begins
· Peaks at about 114 mmHg at about 17 seconds into the record, then rapidly declines to about 106 mmHg even while the animal continues to run.

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8
Q

Spelman et al, 1991 - renal flow:

A

· While sitting, it is steady at around 4.7 kHz, but at the moment of transition to running, it plummets quickly to a low of 3.6kHz at 19 seconds, then rising slightly to 3.8 kHz in the final second.

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9
Q

Spelman et al, 1991 - femoral flow:

A

· Pattern is opposite of that shown by the renal flow data
· Steady rate around 2.2 kHz while sitting rises steeply from the moment of transition to running, to about 3.7 kHz by the end of the record

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10
Q

Spelman et al, 1991 - 2:

A

· Scientific breakthrough
· Allow scientists to examine both internal physiology and external behaviour simultaneously.

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11
Q

Human behavioural coder - Spelman:

A

· Essential component is the human being who is applying the coding scheme to the behaviour of the monkeys.
· Need a trained human being to allocate behavioural codes to behaviour.
· On the verge of being able to automatically categorise behaviour, but existing systems for doing this are relatively unreliable or expensive or both.
· Human judgements is a key component in behavioural measuring systems

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12
Q

Riotous mobs:

A

· Some behaviours cannot be studied in controlled, laboratory conditions.

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13
Q

Are observational data necessarily subjective?:

A

· Female chimpanzee named Elvira
· Elvira displays a complex series of communicative actions apparently to try to capture the attention of the human.
· Elvira displayed both persistence and elaboration
· It is easy to achieve impressive inter-observer reliability despite a complete lack of prior training
· Observational methods are not necessarily weak or unreliable.

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14
Q

Joint attention as neurocognitive adaption - derived from human adaptation for speech:

A

· “. . . no infrahuman animal is known to point. . . ” (Werner & Kaplan, 1963, p. 78).
· “. . . pointing with the outstretched arm and index finger at objects in visual space seems to be unique to humans” (Corballis, 1993[1991], p. 157).
· “. . . pointing is a species-specific form of reference that is basic to human nonverbal communication” (Butterworth, 1995, p. 335).
· “The pointing gesture is exclusively human, and universal within mankind” (Degos, 2001, p. 263).
· “. . . human index-finger pointing is biologically based and species-specific” (Butterworth, 2003, p. 28).
· “Index-finger pointing is apparently unique to humans” (Masataka, 2003, p. 69).

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15
Q

Steps in observational research - Observational stream:

A
  1. Ask
    1. Observe informally
    2. Choose measures
    3. Choose recording method
    4. Collect and analyse data
      * Science is an iterative process, that finding some answers usually raises more questions
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16
Q

Steps in observational research - experimental stream:

A
  1. Ask
    1. Hypothesise
    2. Predict
    3. Design
    4. Run the experiment
    5. Analyse the results
    6. Interpret the findings
17
Q

Audience effects on pointing by three chimpanzees:

A
  • Graph showing the percent of pointing gestures by Clint and his two cage mates in the absence and in the presence of a human observer.
    • Out of the 256 pointing gestures we observed, only 2 were displayed in the absence of the human observer
    • These alleged pointing gestures were not simply failed attempts to reach for the food, but intentionally communicative acts.
18
Q

Ask Questions:

A
  • Usually, the more YOU know about the published literature in an area, the more sophisticated your questions are, BUT if you are one of the first people asking a specific question, then even simple questions are scientifically valuable, indeed necessary.
19
Q

Observe Informally (a.k.a. ad libitum sampling):

A

· Get to know your subject pool first hand.

20
Q

Recording Methods:

A

Answers the questions, “When and how do you sample behaviour?”

21
Q

Choose Measures:

A

· Not only will you be sampling from a population, you will be sampling behaviour from a large set of possible responses.
· Don’t code for behaviour that does not directly speak to your research question.
· Balance what you want to do against what you can practically do. Answers the question, “What to measure?”

22
Q

Choosing measures - define the measures with either:

A

· Operational definitions:
- specify the physical requirements for coding a behaviour (e.g., a lever press by a rat, a button press by a pigeon, or code a finger extension whenever one or more of a chimpanzee’s digits breaks the plane of the cage mesh), or
· Ostensive definitions:
- provide examples through pictures or diagrams, along with written descriptions of the behaviour of interest (e.g., coordinated play versus solitary play).

23
Q

Choosing measures - classify your measures as either:

A

· Events:
- Occurrences, usually, but not necessarily of short duration - approximated as points in time
· States:
- Relatively long-duration events - such as sleep or play