Transcript Introduction

Psychology 3906
Animal Cognition
Dr. Dave Brodbeck
Introduction
• OK, the book is called ‘Cognition,
Evolution and Behavior’ so, we had better
know about all of the above
• Now of course most of this is review…
Cognition
• Cognition is about mechanism
• The perception, storage, processing and
retrieval of information
• Some internal representation of the
external
• Functioning isomorphisms
• Not consciousness
Not consciousness, but…
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We do use the terms though
Emotion
Fear
To know
And indeed, perhaps one day someone
will be able to study consciousness
Is all complex behaviour
“cognitive?”
• Well it need not be
• Indeed it could be a simple S-R type of
thing.
• The complexity of a behaviour is not
necessarily an indication of complicated
cognition
• You knew it was coming…..
In a Moth’s Ear….
• Moth Ear basically
has two neurons A1
and A2
• They are not
frequency sensitive,
but do not respond to
low frequencies
Those would be some tiny Q
tips…..
Do Moths Have Ear Wax?
• A1 is responsive to
intensity
• More firing with closer
bat
• A2 only fires with very
loud sounds
• A2 fires, bat must be
very close
Moths and Bats, Charts and
Graphs
• A1 on the left fires, that
wing beats faster
• Moth’s course corrects to
180 degrees from bat
• So very and totally cool
• A2, go crazy
• 2 neuron ear can encode
where a predator in in 3
dimensional space!!!
Why does an animal behave the
way it does?
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Cause (proximate cause)
Development
Function (ultimate cause)
Evolution
Do not mix these up!
Why do birds migrate?
Innate vs. learned
Nature vs. nurture
Approaches to the Study of
Comparative Cognition
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Traditional or Anthropocentric approach
People can do x
I wonder if rats can?
Probably still the most popular approach,
even when people say they don’t do it..
Characteristics of the Traditional
Approach
• Focuses on memory, representation etc,
just like in humans
• The choice of the species to be studied is
based primarily on convenience
• The notion of a phylogenetic scale
MacPhail
• Probably best example is MacPhail
• No differences have been found between
species that cannot be explained by
motivation
• We must, therefore, accept H0
• Except for humans of course, we are all
special..
The Synthetic Approach
• This approach sees the MacPhailian ideas
as illogical
• Instead lets look at behaviour from an
evolutionary perspective
• Look at behaviour in the field
• Choose species/problems based on these
• Make predictions about mechanism
But what about the motivation
thing?
• Error cancels baby
• Plus, how likely is it to find a pattern of
results, that fits with your hypothesis that
is by dumb luck, also due to motivation
• There should be patterns of results in
essence
Natural Selection
• The Theory of Natural Selection is so simple that
anyone can misunderstand it…. (Anonymous)
• Charles Darwin (1809-1882) saw three problems
in need of a solution.
– Darwin was not the only one to see these problems
BTW
– Other ‘Naturalists’ were struggling with the same
issues
Problem the First
• There is change over time in the flora and
fauna of the Earth
– What we would commonly call ‘evolution’
today
– The fossil record showed this to be pretty
clear, even to people in the mid 1800s
– This was not controversial in Darwin’s time,
and is not now.
The Second Problem
• There is a taxonomic relationship among
living things
– People were big into classifying stuff
– It was pretty obvious that there was a
relationship between different species
• Different birds, different grasses, different cats etc
The Third Problem
• Adaptation
– Different kinds of teeth for different animals,
say carnivore ripping teeth and herbivore
grinding teeth
– Different tissues within species
• Heart vs. eye etc.
The Solution!
• Natural Selection provides a mechanistic
account of how these things occurred and
shows how they are intimately related.
• It is one of those ‘oh man is that ever easy,
why didn’t I think of that?’ type things.
How’s it work?
• There is competition among living things
– More are born or hatched or whatever, than survive and
reproduce
• Reproduction occurs with variation
– This variation is heritable
– Remember, there was NO genetics back then, Chuck knew, he
just knew….
– Realized that is wasn’t ‘blending’
How’s it Work?
• Selection Determines which individuals
enter the adult breeding population
– This selection is done by the environment
– Those which are best suited reproduce
– They pass these well suited characteristics on
to their young
How’s it Work?
• REPRODUCTION is the
key, not merely survival
• If you survive to be 128
but have no kids, you are
not doing as well as I am
• I have reproduced…
• Assuming the traits that
made me successful will
help them then I amore fit
NOW than the 128 year
old guy
This lecture keeps evolving…..
• Survival of the Fittest (which Chucky D NEVER said)
means those who have the most offspring that reproduce
• So, the answer to the trilogy of problems is:
• ‘Descent with modification from a common ancestor,
NOT random modification, but, modification shaped by
natural selection’
Other Evolutionary Theories
• Lamarckism
– Inheritance of acquired characteristics
• E.g., giraffes really wanted leaves, so they stretched their
necks and…..
• Sounds crazy, but a lot of people think this way
• ‘We will all have giant heads and tiny bodies someday’
• ‘Cave swelling fish don’t use their eyes so they disappear’
• ‘We don’t use our appendix so it is disappearing’
Silly incorrect evolutionary theories
and ideas
• Orthogenesis
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There is some plan to evolution.
NO WRONG INCORRECT, THANKS FOR PLAYING
The idea of an ‘evolutionary ladder’ fits in here
It is wrong too……
Still another silly idea
• Intelligent Design
• Just Creationism with a fancy name
• God does not belong in a science class,
any more than experiments belong in
church
• NOT A SCIENTIFIC THEORY
How do we know if a behaviour
is an adaptation?
• Experimentation
• Comparative method
• modeling