Lecture 8 - Problem solving

Question 1

Definition of reasoning?

Answer 1

the ability to combine 2 or more pieces of information to draw a novel conclusion

Question 2

What are the 2 types of reasoning?

Answer 2

1. deductive reasoning = is said to occur when the conclusion is necessitated by the premises
2. inductive reasoning = when the conclusion is likely from the premises, the conclusion can be drawn from the presented facts but is not necessarily true - the conclusion follows with some degree of probability

Question 3

Navigation?

Answer 3

• Is a fundamental problem for animals
• The most efficient way of navigating would be to plot and then follow a course to a goal
• This is very different from finding your way by trial and error and we can think of successful navigation as a form of deductive reasoning

Question 4

Dead reckoning/ path integration?

Answer 4

• is 1 form of navigation
• involves taking into account one’s own body movements
• Wehner & Srinivasan:
  -> looked at the desert ant = problem of returning home as quickly as possible after finding food to avoid heat
  -> it uses dead reckoning to achieve efficient navigation rather than using landmarks

Question 5

Piloting ?

Answer 5

• another form of navigation
• the ability to plot a course to a hidden goal using landmarks
• can take place with multiple landmarks

Question 6

Cognitive maps?

Answer 6

• when an animal identifies it’s own position and uses it to plan a course to the goal
• if animals possess a cognitive map then they should firstly be able to select a novel route, or shortcut, to a goal, and secondly make a detour around an obstacle that blocks a previously taken path

Question 7

Tolman et al.?

Answer 7

-> Conducted a number of experiments to try to find evidence of cognitive maps in rats
-> All appear to have some flaw, such as rats only selecting a novel route to a goal if the goal had a light above it
-> They also argued against stimulus response learning

Question 8

Morris 1981?

Answer 8

• Trained rats to locate a hidden platform in a circular pool of water
• They were always trained to find the platform in the same location, and always released from the same point on the edge of the pool
• The experimental group, then received a test in which they were released from a new point on the edge of the pool
• Nearly all the rats in the experimental group began their path to the goal by heading in the wrong direction
• Taken together, Morris’s and Tolman’s experiments do not provide good evidence for the existence of cognitive maps in rats

Question 9

Insight - Kohler?

Answer 9

• rejected Thorndike’s idea of trial and error
• he showed that chimpanzees were able to use poles and boxes to get closer to fruit hung out of the chimps’ reach
• he said this behaviour was evidence of insight, that the novel behaviour came as a result of a flash of inspiration after they had reasoned out the problem internally
• one problem with Köhler’s conclusion is that the chimps were not naïve to interacting with boxes and poles and may have had experience

Question 10

Epstein et al 1984?

Answer 10

• conducted an experiment with pigeons
• some trained to push a box to get food
• then trained to stand on the box
• birds with experience were quicker at this process = experience might be the key to explaining this insightful behaviour

Question 11

Analogical reasoning?

Answer 11

• A subset of inductive reasoning is reasoning by analogy
• Gillian and Premack 1981:
  -> Trained a chimpanzee to use language by pointing to symbols on a board
  -> It learned that one symbol meant ‘same as’, and was given a symbolic analogical reasoning task
  -> The example was two symbols that were identical except for their size
  -> Was then presented with a large triangle with a spot in it, and asked what the correct choice was between a small triangle with a spot in it, and a large triangle with no spot
  -> She understood, by analogy with the example relationship, that the correct answer (‘same as’) was the smaller of the two triangles