Cognition

1. Cognition Psychology 3906

2. Introduction • Basically we are talking about thinking • Problem solving • Memory • categorization

3. Categorization • We are VERY good at this • Typicality is important • A penguin is less birdlike than a robin • A dolphin is less mammalish than a dog • Boster and D’Andrade (1989) had experts, non experts and local tribespeople classify birds, all agreed

4. We think in categories • That whole semantic network thing • So natural categories are good • Even man made ones are pretty good • What about stereotypes • Oh no of course not • Err umm, they are ok actually (in fact we UNDERESTIMATE proclivities of groups!) • Depends on how you use them

5. Memory • Boy do we run in to a heck of a lot of stuff on a moment by moment basis • We don’t remember it all • An efficient memory, like ours or any other species’ forgets, or does not even process much of what it encounters

7. Putting evolution and cognition together, an example • Anderson and Krebs, 1978 • Mathematical model of when food storing should evolve • Food storing can only evolve if you recover your own caches • Sherry, Avery and Stevens (1981) • Birds seem to recover own seeds using memory

8. More data • Shettleworth and Krebs, 1982 • Marsh tits storing seeds in a lab • Better at recovery of cached seeds than randomly placed seeds • Half of seeds removed • They are using memory • In other general memory tests, there have been clear differences between storers and non storers in the corvid family

9. We have already discussed the hippocampal differences • But what about the parids? • Data are equivocal • Maybe it is not how much they remember, but how they remember

10. Qualitative vs. Quantitative differences • Brodbeck and his colleagues…. (ahem) pioneered this type of work • Comparing storers and non storers on what they remember in different tasts • Brodbeck, 1994; Brodbeck and Shettleworth, 1995

11. Brodbeck, 1994 • Chickadees would find a seed in a feeder • Usually return later and eat it • Move them around to dissociate colour and spatial location • The chickadees responded last to the correctly coloured feeder • Non storing Dark Eyed Juncos responded to all three cue types equally

12. And the comparisons continue • Same thing on a smaller scale using a computer touch sensitive monitor • Birds rewarded for going to one place and not another • Different coloured patches • Switch them around • Chickadees rely on space, juncos do not • Indeed, in another experiment it was determined that chickadees when directly tested to very poorly on coulor!

13. Functionally • Well functionally this makes a lot of sense • Birds remember WHERE something is, not what colour it is • Colours change • That line of trees over there is still going to be over there • However, the strange result really is that of the junco! • Brodbeck, Boisvert, Vaughan and Grant (1997)

14. D F 3 7 Beer Coke 25 16 Problem Solving • Wason Selection task

15. Social context • Cheater detection is easy • Not familiarity with the content • Even with toddlers! • The Big Bird problem

16. Probability information • We are not good at probability • Seems odd though • Gambler’s fallacy • We are better at doing ‘intuitive statistics when given frequency data

17. Sex Differences • They exist, no matter what you have been told. • This, for reasons that escape me, scares some people • Hormonal effects on spatial ability • Not really surprising

18. Conclusions • Cognition has been affected by selection • Memory is efficient • Logic is easy if it involves cheater detection • There are sex differences • We are pretty good intuitive statisticians