List Tinbergen’s four “whys” and give a brief description of each one.        

• Causation – What events inside and outside the animal cause it to behave as it does at this moment?
• Development – How do experience and genetic makeup combine to cause the animal to behave as it does?
• Function – What is this behavior good for? What is its survival value? What is the adaptive value?
• Evolution –How does a particular behavior evolve?

What are the three main approaches to comparative cognition?

The anthropocentric approach (human centered): In this approach humans are used as a reference point when studying a variety of animals. It compares animals with different relationships and measures how the different species perform on the same task.

Anthropocentrism coupled with anthropomorphism (projecting humanlike traits): This approach projects humanlike characteristics on animals, still using humans as a reference  point. Although animals may not possess all humanlike characteristics, they may possess some.
Biological approaches: Ethology & Evolutionary thinking
Modern Comparative Cognition: Ethology, Cognitive psychology, Animal behavior, Animal learning, Etc.

Describe three different areas which are affected by comparative cognition research. Give an example for each area.

Conservation:Manatee example: Understanding that manatee are bad at hearing can prevent them from being hit by boats, by implementing safety beacons in ship lanes.
Companion animals, animal therapy, assistance animals : Research shows that you can increase your life expectancy by 3 or more years and are useful for stressed based diseases.
Artificial intelligence :Humans don’t do everything the best. Animals are great for modeling behavioral skills, such as flying, climbing walls, and possibly threat detection.

How did Tinbergen et al. (1963) test whether black-headed gulls had adapted the behavior of removing broken egg shells from their nest through evolution?

• The researchers hypothesized that the reason the black-headed gulls removed broken eggs was due to predators being attracted to broken eggs. Therefore, if freshly broken eggs attract predators, then predators should take eggs more often in the presence of a broken egg. Which was found to be true.

Give an example of how a researcher might use the comparative method to determine the effect of ecology on behavior.

Find a species with a recent common ancestor (or with differing degrees of relatedness), in which grew up in different climates. Through this we can discover how the species adapted to different environments, physically and motivationally.

Define the terms homoplasy, homology, and divergence. Give a brief example of each of these processes.

• Homoplasy is a trait that has evolved from different ancestors and converged on a similar shape due to common selection pressures. Example flight/wings of bats/birds.
• Homology is a trait that evolved from a common ancestor, such as flight in two different kinds of birds.
• Divergence is a difference in species with comparatively recent common ancestor that evolved from different selection pressures. Different gulls, some which remove broken eggs, some that don’t.

What are the three components of all behavior systems? Draw a diagram showing how these components are connected.

Stimuli, central mechanisms, and behavior.

[image]

What are the two major problems faced by researchers in comparative cognition? How can these be dealt with?

• The two main problems faced by researchers in comparative cognition are representativeness and contextual variables.
  • Representativeness – both in terms of individuals representing the species and species representing the group. This can be dealt with by accumulation of knowledge.
  • Contextual variables – other factors that may cause species variables besides the variable of interest. This can be dealt with by systematic variation or testing under a variety of different situations.

What is the relationship between brain weight and body weight and how does this relationship vary across species?

• There is a positive correlation between brain weight and body weight. Different species lay either above or below the regression line, but this does not necessarily determine increased or decreased intelligence. Also, there are substantial individual differences within species.

What is the effect of food storing on the brain?

An increase in the size of the hippocampus.

Define the term module and discuss its relevance to the study of comparative cognition.

• Module is hard to define, but implies an unconscious perceptual system that acts independently and is not interrupted by higher level cognitive processes. It is relevant to the study of comparative cognition in that, by comparing the abilities of a module between species we can start to understand how a module works.

Give two examples of cognitive processes that could be considered “general processes” and two that could be considered “adaptive specializations”. Explain your reasoning behind the categorization of each process.

• General processes
  • Learning—animals need to learn from previous experience to survive
  • Perception—necessary for interaction with the outside world
• Adaptive specializations
  • Higher-level cognition—such as language, is only apparent in humans
  • Spatial navigation—degree of effectiveness in spatial navigation different across species.

What are the three main methods of studying perception in animals? Briefly describe each method.

• Habitutation – repeated presentation of a stimulus while measuring a change in response
• Electrophysiology – measure neural responses to stimulus input
• Psychophysics – train animals to make different responses to different stimuli using the methods of operant conditioning

List and briefly describe the three basic psychophysical principles.

• Sensory neurons tend to respond more to physically more intense stimuli
• Sensory/perceptual systems tend to habituate to repeated or prolonged stimulation (adaptation)
• A response to a stimulus typically depends on its contrast with the background.

What are the four possible outcomes in the Signal Detection Theory decision matrix?

• Hit
• Miss
• False alarm
• Correct rejection

What are the effects of response criterion and discriminability (d’) on hit and false alarm rates in SDT?

• Response criterion – when the response criterion is conservative that means there will be less hits, but also less false alarms; whereas when the response criterion is liberal there will be more hits, but also more false alarms.
• Discriminability – when discriminability is high or large, the distributions between stimulus and noise move farther apart, causing more hits and less false alarm. When discriminability is low, there will be less hits and more false alarms.

What two factors can shape the evolution of secondary sexual characteristics? Give a brief example.

• Female selection
• Predator selection
• Females have their choice of males, if a female prefers an arbitrary feature of a male such as color, then that selection bias is passed on, as well as the fathers genes. Likewise, predators may be attracted to bright colors, so then that color dies out.

Describe the sensory bias hypothesis of sexual selection and give a brief example that supports this hypothesis.

The sensory bias hypothesis states that female sexual preference evolved before male characteristics. And females choices help evolution, selecting for things that may not have any adaptive value. This can be seen in a peacock. It has brilliant plumage to attract a mate, but also makes it hard for the peacock to move and also attractive for a predator.

How does visual search differ in searching for single vs. conjunctive targets as a function of the number of distractors? How have these effects been interpreted?

When there is a single target, it is easy to detect regardless of the number of distractors due to a pop-out effect. Conversely, with a conjunctive target it is harder, takes longer, and more mistakes are made. This has been explained by the different “channels” of visual information. When there are more channels, information needs to be processed in parallel, such that the channels have to converse. When there is only one channel being used, there is only one source of information and no need for cross-talk between the channels.

What is texture segregation? And, how is texture segregation affected by simple vs. conjunctive targets?

Texture segregation is the ability to distinguish between two different textures or patterns of smooth/roughness of an object. Texture segregation is useful for predators when trying to find camouflaged prey. Texture segregation is easier with simple targets, and harder with conjunctive targets.

What are the two competing hypotheses regarding the effect of crypticity on search? Which one appears to be correct?

• Search image formation – animals search for one kind of thing. Have a template that they match what they are searching for to.  Should take one type and ignore the other, even if both are equally cryptic.
• The search rate hypothesis – adjust search rate according to crypticity of prey and this hypothesis predicts that a predator searching slowly should detect all equally cryptic prey equally well
• The search image formation seems to be the correct hypothesis

What were the main results of the Pietrewicz and Kamil’s (1981) study?

• The results of the study supported the search image formation hypothesis, but also suggested priming may be a key element. When animals subjects were given blocks of white or black moths, they improved in performance whereas if they were given a random mixture of white and black moths, they performed worse but more consistent.

How does divided attention affect detection of predators and/or specific prey items?

• A study on guppies revealed that when guppies are hungry and there is lots of food around, they are more likely to concentrate on their food than the threat of prey, therefore they get eaten more.

What are the key features of Pavlovian and operant conditioning? Give an example of each type of learning.

Pavlovian conditioning: cue “predicts” an outcome (ringing bell predicts food)

·         Operant conditioning: behavior “elicits” an outcome (pressing a button elicits food)

What are “constraints on learning”? Give an example.

Constraints on learning suggests that we cannot learn everything, especially if it is counterintuitive to our nature. For example the miserly raccoon. As much as you try to teach the raccoon to put the coin into the box, it is against his nature because he uses his hands to see.

What are some conditions for learning?

  Demographic variables

·         Perceptual capabilities

·         Response capabilities

·         Constraints on learning (behavior systems)

·         Learning vs. performance

What does Lorenz’s concept of “the innate schoolmarm” refer to? [from book section 4.3]

   The innate schoolmarm is like an editor which rules out impossible or unlikely possibilities so that when we learn by trial and error, we don’t spend all our energy on impossibilities and concentrate on the most relevant aspects of the solution.

What are the four elements that are all Pavlovian conditioning paradigms? Describe the four elements from one Pavlovian paradigm.

CS - Bell

·         US - Food

·         CR – Salivate during CS

·         UR – Continued salvation during and after US

What happens during acquisition and extinction? Draw a typical learning curve during acquisition. Add a curve for extinction

During acquisition, learning is occurring. There are big jumps in learning early on, but then it levels off.

·         After the CS is no longer followed by the US, we are not unlearning, but relearning to suppress the CR to the CS.

Briefly describe the effects of CS-US contingency on Pavlovian conditioning.

• Positive contingency – learns CS predicts US
• Zero contingency – learns pairings between CS and US are random
• Negative contingency – learns that during CS presentation, US will not occur

Give a brief description of the methods and results of blocking and overshadowing procedures.

Blocking

• Noise > shock: multiple pairings
• Noise + light > shock: multiple pairings
• Test light, no visible CR. Light gives no new information therefore, not learning to respond to it.
• Control group gets only Noise+Light>shock: multiple pairings, and then test light. Very strong learning associated with the light.

Overshadowing

• Noise + Light > shock: multiple pairings
• CR from both noise and light but depending on salience of cues a stronger CR could be elicited from a more salient CS.

What two procedures can be used to study CS-CS associations? Diagram each procedure and give a short description of typical results.

Describe the four temporal arrangements between the CS and US in the Pavlovian conditioning.

• Delay – US occurs at the end of the CS (always) – standard paradigm
• Trace – There is a gap between the CS (first) and US (second), learning depends on trace interval.
• Simultaneous – CS and US presented simultaneously
• Backward – US presented before the CS

• Latent inhibition is the result of pre-exposure. Learning happens, but instead of learning that the CS predicts the US, they learn to inhibit their reaction to the CS or learn to ignore the CS.

What is learned irrelevance? And, how does it affect CS > US learning?

• Learned irrelevance is when there is prior learning of zero contingency between CS and US. Learning that CS is an irrelevant predictor of US. CR strength is reduced more than even pre-exposure.

What is occasion setting? And, which two procedures can be used to study occasion setting?