20- Cognitive Abilities in Animals

Question 1

What is cognition

Answer 1

The mental processes concerned with the acquisition and manipulation of knowledge including perception and thinking

Question 2

What is referential signalling

Answer 2

Involves using signals to functionally denote external objects and events

Question 3

Some animals have alarm calling systems that contain

Answer 3

Referential and response urgency information

Question 4

There is evidence that animals can attach acoustic or visual labels to

Answer 4

External objects and events

Question 5

What is Duality of Patterning

Answer 5

Where meaningless phonemes are combined into morphemes and words, words combined into sentences

Question 6

What higher order structure can humans produce but animals can’t

Answer 6

Duality of patterning

Question 7

What labelling can some animals do

Answer 7

Able to label social relationships

Question 8

What are the benefits of knowledge of the dominance relationships between other individuals

Answer 8

Could confer fitness benefits, enabling individuals to assess which potential allies are likely to be effective in coalitions against opponents

Question 9

There is evidence that male bonnet macaques use information about third party relationships when

Answer 9

They recruit support from other males, consistently choosing allies that outrank them AND their opponents

Question 10

What is machiavellian intelligence

Answer 10

large brains enabled primates to establish social relations based in part on the shared past. They learn from their interactions with each other and they retain that knowledge

Question 11

What is tactical deception

Answer 11

Short term tactics where elements from an honest counterpart in the individual’s repertoire are used in a functionally deceptive act

Question 12

Whiten & Byrne

Anecdotes of tactical deception

Answer 12

• Concealment
• Distraction
• Creating an image
• Manipulation of target using social tool
• Deflection of target to a fall guy
• Countering of deception

Question 13

Machiavellian intelligence may be the result of

Answer 13

Associative learning

Question 14

What is false belief understanding

Answer 14

• Hallmark of human Theory of Mind (ToM)
• It requires recognising that others’ actions are driven not by reality but by beliefs about reality, even when those beliefs are false
• Great apes show understanding of FB through anticipatory looking

Question 15

Crockfordet al. 2012

Answer 15

Wild chimpanzees may be aware of knowledge and ignorance in others

Question 16

Chimpanzees are more likely to alarm call in response to presentation of a snake (viper model) when

Answer 16

In the presence of unaware group members (than aware group members)

Question 17

Proopset al. 2009 & 2012

Horses remembering emotion

Answer 17

• Can discriminate between human (and horse) emotional expressions
• Horses presented with photo of smiling or angry human, then several hours later saw same person in a neutral state –evidence that past angry expression perceived negatively