Animal Cognition Unit 2 Flashcards
(101 cards)
How do we judge the passage of time? How do other animals?
People judge the passage of time through manmade time keeping apparatus like a clock while also with other species have a sense of time based on the day/night cycle and cues from other bodily functions and temperature changes
What is the average medien in a sleep/wake cycle?
Without an external input the average sleep wake cycle of a species is between a low of 20 hours and a high of 30.
What is a zeightgeiber?
The the german word for keeper of time refers to the day/night cycle, change in temp, social factors and the availability of food
What is Biebachs Garden warbler study?
Used to study how a different species is impacted by time-long intervals by testing the warblers with as sectioned off feeding boxes that would only be opened at certain times of day (the birds would go to the given food box) they then did a different example where they left all the boxes open but still kept to the same feeding schedule (The birds still went to the correct box given on the particular time of day)
What was Gill’s study on Hummingbird time judgement?
Hummingbirds are faced with the time dilema of refilling flowers, socilization and a competition for food. Gill capatalizing on this wanted to track the hummingbirds time patterns by creating false flowers and having them set on a refill interval which the hummingbirds met over a short period of time, he then changed it again and the hummgbirds adapted to the schedule (arguing that hummingbirds are capable of time-short activities)
Do rats understand time-short intervals?
Yes, rats understand time-short intervals this can be tested by using opprant conditioning with reward intervals which a rat will interact with the skinner box around a set time continually because they know there is a reward
What is Church’s theory of Scalar timing ?
A theory demonstrating time-short intervals dependent on the species brain to have an internal tick which is stored in the creatures short term memory (how many ticks have passed in a given moment) and referenced in the long term memory (how many ticks must pass untill I get a reward) (Kinda like a prototype system, it is a set expectation)
What is More or Less judgement?
A species ability to have a general comparitive concept of wheter there are more or less of an item (ex: are there more or less numbers in a rivaling lion pride if the first has 1 and the second has 3)
What is McCoumbs Lion Study?
McCoumb et all’s study is focused on the more less pricipal and whether or not a lion is able to tell if there are more or less lions in a rivalring pride. This is done with a recording of a rivalring pride of a varying size (the lions are able to gage the threat and react accordingly)
What is Wilson’s Chimp study?
Similar to McCoumb’s study with lions Wilson deals with the more/less principal in chimps using recorded audio of rivaling packs male chimp to see how the group would react (similarily they are able to gauge the reaction to whether there are more or less and are able to tell the level of threat.)
What is a fission-fusion community?
A fission-fusion community is community that starts together and then disperces for a short period before returing together again (human live in a fission-fusion community)
What is a panhoot?
A panhoot is a chimps multipurpouse call to altert the other members of their community to a threat, if there is food and can be used as a defense tactic against other chimps (the louder is the stronger)
What is relative number judgement?
It is a metric to judge whether a species is able to understand general more or less than (not specific labeled numbers)
What was Kohlers pigeon experiment?
An experiemnt where Kohler tried to find out if pigeons (and many other types of birds) where able to grasp relative number judgement by placing two containers with differing numbers of seeds in them (they got a treat if they could idetify which had more) (also accounted for size discrimination by making the dots on the containers the same size) (starting to prove that pigeons have relative number judgement)
What was Emmertons pigeon study?
A follow up to Kohlers study, Emerton put pigeons in skinner boxes and had them differnciate between 1/2 as the fewer and 6/7 as the majority and asked them to peck at the one that was bigger (future tests would differenciate the amounts used) ( and different stimulus used different tests such as lighting, size and orientation. (further prooving that pigeons have relative number judgement)
What is Absolute Number Judgement?
Absolute number judgement is to be able to distinguish a certain value from others (ex: 3)
(this is difficult to do because of the language surrounding numeric values as a crucial part of disinction)
What was the Davis and Albert Raccoon Study?
This study featuring Rocky Raccoon has to do with absolute number judgement and the ability to disinguish numbers by having cubes with prizes inside but Rocky would only get a prize if he correctly disinguished the right number (ex: 3 raisins) However Raccoons are not common tests subjects as they become bored of rewards easily ( also does not finatively prove that raccoons have absolute number judgements)
What skills are needed for a species to be able to count?
Relative number judgement, Absolute number judgement, Tagging and Cardinality
What was the Davis and Bradfort rat study?
This study involving absolute number judgement has rats go to a set tunnel of six with a treat behind it (the distance between the tunnels shifted per trial as rats use muscle memory in their naivigation skills) trying to see if the rats would count the number of tunnels passed until they get to the right one. (still does not defintatively prove anj)
What is Tagging?
Tagging is the visual and audible signs attributed to a specifc number (ex :1 and one)
What is Cardinality?
Cardinality is the highest number in a set, an upper limit (ex: 10 in a set of ten)
What is the Model/Rival Technique?
This technique is used with parrots and other species capable of linquistic mimcry where there is a human rival who models the correct behavior for the parrot in hopes that they will play along and exibit the same behavior
What was Pepperbergs with Casey study?
Pepperberg trying to test Alex’s ability to count with an assortment of objects on a platter (asking a question like “How many green” Alex was able to preform the task and quickly tired of it, and interestingly became more fixated on the idea of “none”
What is Hunt’s New Zealand Robin Study?
Hunt’s study looks at the numerical abilities of the new zealand robin, as they are tested with man made food cache which the robins see the experimenter put seeds in (they then test to see if the robins go to the cache with more, and it turns out the bigger the number the less accurate they get granting them a relative number judgement.) In a second test they see how long a robin will investigate a cache which they believe to have more food (which turns out that they will again up to a certain number as the imact is less drastic)