Comparative Cognition Flashcards
(38 cards)
1
Q
Defintion of Comparative Cognition
A
- Umbrella term for many fields
- “…(aim of) understanding cognition across the animal kingdom including how it works, what it is good for in nature, and how it evolved” (Shettleworth, 2010)
2
Q
3 fields in Comparative Cognition
A
- Evolutionary psychology: an approach applying evolutionary principles to the working of the human mind
- Comparative psychology: study of animal and human cognition; emphasis on cross-species comparison
- Socio-biology: systematic study of the biological bases of social behaviours
3
Q
Natural Selection & Darwin
A
Made 3 observations:
- Individuals differ
- Some of these traits are heritable
- Not all offspring survive
Resulting in
Inference: Individuals differences affect the probability that offspring will survive and reproduce
4
Q
Natural Selection
A
- Acts of variations of phenotype (observable trait or characteristics; includes morphological structures, neural structures, neural properties and behaviours)
5
Q
Phenotypes
A
- Produced by organism’s genotype in combination with environement and activity-dependent mechanisms
6
Q
Genotypes
A
- Total collection of genes within individual
- Gene: the only heritable part of the natrual selection equation
7
Q
Adaptation
A
- A phenotype arising from genetic variation that increases the probability of an individual producing offspring
8
Q
Divergent Evolution
A
- Evolutionary pattersn in which two species share ancestry that gradually become different
- Develop novel characteristics and they take opportunity in the new environments they fidn themselves in
- They adapt to the environment they are in
9
Q
Convergent Evolution
A
- Evolution process have dirven different lines towards having similar features because of the environment they both share
- This is homoplasy where physical resemblance of features because of a resemblance between adaptations not because of a shares ancestor that have the same traits
10
Q
Analogy
A
- Similarity of function
- Not neccessarily similar in appearance
- Not evidence of evolved from common ancestry
11
Q
Homology
A
- Resemblance based on common ancestry
- Adapted to provide different functions
12
Q
What do we have in common with worms (Carnorhabdtis Elegans)
A
- Cells, organelles, intracellular fluid, homeostasis
- Neurons, action potentials, synapses & their modulation
- Genetics (genome ~ 40% homologous
- Basic patterns of behaviourRhythms
- Ultradian (recurrent cycles in 24 hour cycle - e.g. Defecation
- Circadian (endogenously driven 24 hour cycle - e.g. Locomotory speed
- Basic functions: foraging, alimentation, mating
- Hierarchy of needs
13
Q
Closet living relative
A
- Common chimpanzee and Bonobo (monkey)
- They differ from us from just over 1% of our DNA
14
Q
Different methods of navigation
A
- “Dead Reckoning” & path integration
- Ultrasound
- Magnetic Field
- External Reference points (landmarks, sun, stars)
- Leaving traces (e.g. Odour)
- Remembering the path/time taken
15
Q
Researchers testing hypothesis that ants use idiothetic cues in form of a step counter
A
- Caught ants after they made their journey to their food and then removed their nest from its location
- Three groups
- Shortened legs (stumps)
- Normal legs
- Elongated legs (stilts)
- Stump group: undershot (started exhibiting nest searching behaviours before they would have come to the removed nest)
- Control group: correct (started exhibiting nest searching behaviour where the nest would have been if it had not been removed)
- Stilt group: overshot (started exhibiting nest searching behaviours further beyond where the nest was)
- Length of leg affected the distance traversed and indicates that the ants had been using the number of steps counted as a way to measure distance
16
Q
Food storing species of birds
A
- Twice as large of a hippocampus in realtion to species that don’t store food
17
Q
Allometry
A
- Describes how triats or processes scale with one another
18
Q
Inclusion of allometry
A
- Allows us to dervice something called a measure of encephalisation
- We can look at how much a species deviates from the observed or expected relationship for those in its class
- So what is the normal relationship for a class between brain mass in the given group and then how much does a species deviate from that
19
Q
Encephalization quotient
A
- The ratio of the actual mass of the brain and the expected mass of the brain given a particualr body weight
- Shows that there are other animals that have higher encephalization quotient then species that we would think to be more intelligent.
20
Q
Cortex Expansion
A
- Primates have much more of their brain dedicated to being cortex compared to mammals
- Their are differences between primates
21
Q
Neuronal Density
A
- Barton suggests we should look at neuronal measures, not size
- Herculaneum-Houzel suggests that size doesn’t link to neuronal density in a way that is consistent or common across all mammals.
- So you can’t infer the neuronal content as increasing just because the size is increasing
- Roth and Dicke (2005), suggest that because you have thick neurons in a high density packed together, that they have a higher conduction velocity, they have smaller distances, therefore quicker functioning and therefore the half a better or information processing capacity
22
Q
Cortico-cerebellar connections
A
23
Q
Learned and innate behaviour
A
- Marler and Peters (1989)
- Pre-existing selective processes in animal that interact with specific experiences to produce learning outcomes from songs in two species of sparrows
- Male song sparrow (melospiza melodia) and swamp sparrows (melospiza georgiana) need to hear species-specific song early in life in order to sing it when they mature
- Played song sparrow songs and swamp sparrow songs to isolated young males of both species in the laboratory
- Swamp sparrow learned only swap sparrow songs and song sparrow had a strong preference to learn song sparrow songs
24
Q
Associated learning
A
- The learning that results from experiencing contingencies, or predicitive relationships, between events
25
Four questions often referrred to as Tinbergen's 4 whys, can be asked about any behaviour
1. Immediate causation
2. Development in the individual
3. Present-day function
4. Evolution
* Complementary to each other and contribute to a complete understanding of behaviour
* Cognitive mechanisms such as perception and memory are immediate causes of behaviour; learning is part of behaviour development
26
How cognition and behaviour are shaped by natural selection (Shettleworth)
27
Featured in our 'recent' evolution
* Forgaing:
* Diet variations - varied cognitive demands, (Milton, 1981)
* Evidence for relative brain size relationship mixed, (Dunbar, 1995 vs Barton, 1996)
* Social:
* Diet variations - varied cognitive demands, (Milton, 1981)
* Evidence for relative brain size relationship mixed, (Dunbar, 1995 vs Barton, 1996)
* Language and Communcation
28
Tool use
* Insight
* Instrumental learning
* Imitation and social learning
29
Tool use - Insight
* Implies some sort of reason/working out
* Understanding of unseen causes
30
Tool use - Instrumental learning
* Associative learning procedures
* Effects of a specific behaviour will either increase of decrease the probability of the behaviour occuring again
31
Tool use - Imiatation and social learning
* Imitation: form of behaviour that could be specie specific, requires an understanding of intentions and outcomes
* Social learning: term covering a number of aspects of conseqences of living in social group
32
Insight Wolfgang Kohler (1925)
* Suspended bananas on the roof just out of reach of the chimpanzee and they wanted to see if they could get to the bananas (could they make use of their surroundings)
* After a time they did
* This was questioned if this was insight
33
Heinrich and Bugnyar (2007)
* Tested insight on naive ravens
* Sequence of steps required
* Reach down and grasp, pull up, put on perch, step on string to hold it (& repeat)
* Naïve Ravens (not been trained on the task) will pull string up to draw food closer
* However, in a 2005 study the Naïve Ravens had to pull down on the string for food - they found that Naïve Ravens do not pull DOWN on string to draw food closer
34
Taylor and colleagues (2010) - Insight?
* Devised new experiment from Heinrich and Bugnyar, (2007) on naive crows
* New experiment manipuated whether visual feedback was available or not
* Bird is on a perch and the string with the food on it is held within a hole - so it's not something that is visible to the birds, restricted feedback.
* Then they created another scenario where they provided a mirror that did allow visual feedback.
* The experienced crows solved the version (A) bit slower and with more errors than the would in a normal string pulling task, but they were still able to do it.
* Whereas naïve crows, either failed or they solved it by trial and error. But when visual feedback was available with the mirror condition, then some naïve crows were able to perform the task just like experienced crows.
* Suggest that this shows spontaneous string pulling. It might not be based on insight or logic, but just on operant conditioning and dependent on a perceptual motor feedback cycle.
35
Holzhaider et al. (2008)
* Investigating just how much crows attend to functional properties of the tools that the routinely use in the wild
* They used sticks to extract grubs from holes in the ground
* Experimenters lay down non-functional tools, ones which had no barbs on them and then ones with barbs turned upside down (non-functional orientation)
* They found that crows didn't do what would be expected if they understood their actions
* They flipped the tool when it was in the right direction but just not working.
* They tried to use it when it was in the wrong direction.
* They tried to use the tools that didn't have barbs on them.
* When they had the opportunity they would create their own tools instead
* New Caledonian crows are raised in captive rather than being wild crows - so they were naïve to everything.
* It was shown that they did have sort of inherited predispositions for basic tool use
36
Explain this image by referring to learning in a social environment
* Bird of left is experienced, bird on right is young
* Experience bird is exposed by predator
* Experience bird will exhibit moping behaviour (flopping around, noise and movement to disturb predator) this behaviour is learned over time
* Young bird is not looking at a predator but by experience response, it will then exhibit moping behaviour
* This is learned through observational conditioning
37
Racheting
* Changes introduced in one generation are adopted and further elaborated in the next in a process of cumulative change
38
Tennie, Call & Tomasello (2009)
* Human culture accumaltes modifications over time
* Humans:social learning more process than product oriented (Chimpanzee learning product oriented)
* Humans employ cooperation and active teaching
* Social motivations for conformity (humans are driven to be social and that the Imitate sometimes purely for social reasons and that they have a strong inclination for social conformity and therefore, they're likely to actively teach, but also to imitate those around them)
