Lecture 3 - Animal intelligence

Question 1

What is Aristotle’s great chain of being?

Answer 1

• idea that there is an orderly sequence of complexity
• simplistic view

Question 2

Romanes?

Answer 2

• believed the intelligence of animals to be ordered in a linear progression bought about by natural selection
• insects -> birds -> apes -> humans
• problem with this idea is that all animals have a long evolutionary history with many common ancestors

Question 3

Brain size and intelligence?

Answer 3

• seems reasonable to expect species with bigger brains to possess a greater potential for intelligence
• however much of an animals brain is involved in controlling motor functions so a big body is also correlated with a big brain

Question 4

Jerison?

Answer 4

• generated a ratio of brain weight to body weight called the cephalisation index:
  brain weight ÷ body weight
• a larger cephalisation index indicates a big brain for the size of the animals body and a low number indicates the reverse relationship
• using whole brain size implies that it is possible to identify a general intelligence measure for different species
• this has been attempted by some biologists who have correlated brain size with ‘innovation rate’ in different species = a measure of how many different foraging techniques have been observed for each species

Question 5

Anaxagoras?

Answer 5

• greek philosopher
• reasoned that all animals were equally intelligent but some were better able to express that intelligence
• this view is mirrored by Macphail who concluded that differences in intelligence of different species could be explained by differences in factors such as motivation or perception of motor skills

Question 6

Definition of learning?

Answer 6

• permanent change in behaviour that results from experience
• definition involves a change in behaviour rather than the acquisition of knowledge
• this is because knowledge is a mentalistic process that cannot be observed in animals

Question 7

Problems of using speed of learning as a measure of intelligence?

Answer 7

there are often unexpected differences between species differences in speed of learning

Question 8

What are the 2 reasons for the unexpected differences between species?

Answer 8

1. it is difficult to equate the perceptual demands of the test e.g. some species might find it more difficult to see or percieve the lever
2. it might be difficult to equate the motivational demands of the test e.g. the reward might be more effective for the fish than for the rat

Question 9

Bitterman’s solutions?

Answer 9

• conduct a series of experiments in which all the perceptual and motivational demands of the task are systematically varied
• problem with this solution is that it is not practical to conduct such systematic variation
• another problem with using the speed of learning as a measure of animal intelligence is that there are sometimes within species differences that are a result of the biological relevance of learning the relationships between certain stimuli

Question 10

Garcia and Koelling?

Answer 10

• trained thirsty rats to drink from a water dispenser
• were given saline to drink 1 group = made ill, other group = mild shock
• when they were given saline to drink again the group that were made ill avoided the saline while those who received a shock drank lots
• these findings could be down to the differences in perceptual or motivational demands of learning the relationship between saline and shock or illness

Question 11

Garcia and Koelling second experiment?

Answer 11

• another 2 groups were tested
• each group received training in which they drank water in the presence of light and a clicker
• rats were then either made ill or given a shock
• in contrast to the saline groups the group that was shocked avoided drinking water in the presence of the light and clicker after their treatment while the group that were made ill drank lots
• Garcia claimed that some cues are more biologically relevant than others
• foods are more likely to make an animal ill than predict a mild electric shock, so the rats easily associated the saline with illness, but not with shock
• dangerous events such as lightning, are more likely to be accompanied by flashes of light and loud noises than illness is, so the rats learn more about the significance of lights and noises when they are shocked than when they become ill