Animal Cognition

Animal Cognition Clive D. L. Wynne

What is Animal Cognition? • Study of non-human animal behavior • Especially complex behavior • Perception – light (UV & IR, polarity), sound, magnetic, electrical • Cause and effect learning • Concept formation – Time, number, relational • Reasoning – Spatial, inferential, insight, tool use • Memory - STM, LTM, implicit, explicit, • Theory of Mind • Self-awareness • Communication – natural and artificial

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) • Theory of Evolution by • Natural Selection • More offspring are born than survive • There is variation among offspring • Some are selected & have offspring • Some of the qualities that enable offspring to survive are heritable • What makes this hard to accept? • Time scale • Don’t observe (large) animals changing • Contradicts creation myths

Charles Darwin • What is the biological significance of behavior? • Study relation of organism to environment • Adaptation – adaptive significance • Descent of Man and Selection in Regards to Sex, 1871 • Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, 1872

Darwin & the Tree of Life AD (After Darwin) BD (Before Darwin)

Darwin and Animal Cognition Let man visit Ourang-outang in domestication, hear expressive whine, see its intelligence when spoken [to]; as if it understood every word said – see its affection – to those it knew – see its passion and rage, sulkiness, and very actions of despair; and then let him dare to boast of his proud pre-eminence. (Darwin, 1842/1987).

Behaviorism • John D. Watson 1913 “Behaviorist Manifesto.” • Behaviorists emphasized • Classical and associative conditioning (cause and effect relationships). • Found surprising similarities between species including humans. • Concentrated on a few convenient ‘model’ species • Greatly refined laboratory technique for the study of animal behavior • Discouraged study of complex behavior, wide range of species, and behavior in the natural habitat.

Ethology • Zoological tradition of studying animals in their natural habitats. • Especially strong in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands • Formalized into a distinct field of science in the 1930s under the title Ethology by Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinbergen. Shared Nobel prize for medicine with Karl von Frisch 1973. • Early “Classical” ethology emphasized role of instinct and other behaviors characteristic of (and more-or-less unique to) distinct species. • Emphasis on diversity of behavior across species

Cognitive Psychology • In the 1960s, psychologists grew tired of the ‘strictures’ of behaviorism. • Cognitive Psychology encourages study of wider range of behavioral phenomena. • Still experimental science. • Less concerned with parsimony in explanation • Tends to view human cognition as unique – therefore little purpose studying animals.

Clever Hans Germany, 1890s • Horse in possession of retired school teacher, Mr. Von Osten. • Could answer complex questions by stomping foot correct number of times. • Arithmetic, including fractions • Also questions requiring word answers by reference to a letter chart.

Clever Hans • Not a circus trick. Investigated by commission including university professor, director of Hanover Zoo, an African explorer and two experts from the Prussian cavalry. “We were careful to state in our report that the intentional use of the means of training, on the part of the horse’s teacher, is out of the question… nor are there involved any of the known kinds of unconscious, involuntary aids.” Frankfurter Zeitung 1904.

Clever Hans • Student, Oskar Pfungst, investigated further. • Horse could not answer correctly unless questioner knew answer. • Could not answer if questioner in a tent • Aha! It’s something visual. “As soon as the experimenter had given a problem to the horse, he involuntarily bent his head and trunk slightly forward and the horse would then put the right foot forward and begin to top, without, however, returning it each time to its original position. As soon as the desired number of taps was given, the questioner would make a slight upward jerk of the head. Thereupon the horse would immediately swing his foot in a wide circle, bringing it back to its original position.” Pfungst, 1911.

Clever Hans • N.B. The trainer’s signals to the horse were involuntary and unconscious. • IMPORTANT POINT: It is possible to cue an animal to the right answer in a test without intending to or realizing you’re doing it. • E.g. by your eye movements • We must always be open to the possibility that the animal is being cued by unintentional stimuli.

Anthropomorphism • Anthropo – man • morph - shape • Anthropomorphism • Tendency to see other species as being like us. • Dr. Dolittle – children’s movies

Anthropocentrism • Anthropo – man • Centrism – in the center • Anthropocentrism • Tendency to see other species from a human perspective

How to compare species intelligence • No animal is ‘more evolved’ than any other • evolution has been going on the same length of time for all extant species • Evolution does not have to lead to more complexity • Simplicity can evolve too • Since all animals have to adapt to the problems of their own niches, comparisons are unfair • Nonetheless, people over the years have tried to find fair ways to compare intelligence and cognition

whale Brain Size

Brain size: relative • Heavier animals have heavier brains • more body to control • Animals above line have more brain for their size than average animal • Cephalization index K is brain size after taking account of body size

Brain size: relative • Simple mammals K ~ 0.1 • Other mammals K ~ 0.2 • Primates/whales K ~ 0.3 • Dolphins K ~ 0.64 • Human K ~ 0.89

Brain size: relative • What determines K? • Birds fly – must keep weight down • Dolphins live in water – weight unimportant • Dolphin cortex only ¼ density nerve cells as land mammals • Maybe should consider different parts of brain • e.g. neocortex • But birds don’t have cortex…

+ Trial 1 Learning set + Trial 2 • Performance on 2nd trial seemed to correlate well with K index + Trial 3 Trial 4 + + + + +

Learning Set: Comparisons 100 Chimpanzee Mink Rhesus Ferret Sq. Monkey Dunnart Lemur 80 Marmoset Skunk Max Percent Correct, Trial 2 Cat Bluejay 60 Squirrel Tree Shrew Rat Large – K - Small Performance on 2nd trial seemed to correlate well with K index But birds & fat-tailed dunnart do better than they should 40

Comparisons are tricky • Commonality vs. uniqueness • As we survey Animal Cognition we shall see some processes that are highly conserved • And others that appear to be unique

Animal Cognition