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Exam 1 Study Guide ALC

Terms in this set (66)

Cognition
mechanisms by which animals acquire, store, process and act on information from the environment.
Cognitive ethology
the study of cognitive processes in nonhuman animals
Evolution
Change in characteristics of organisms over generations
Reproductive fitness
Organism's ability to leave copies of its genes in the next generations.
Sexual selection
A form of natural selection in which individuals with certain inherited characteristics are more likely than other individuals to obtain mates.
Fixed Action Patterns
stereotyped species typical behaviors that occur in rigid order and are triggered by specific stimuli

innate behaviors
Tinbergen's questions
Proximate Cause: what events cause an animal to behave how it is right now?

Developmental Cause: What experiences/ genetic influences cause the behavior?

Functional Cause: What is the survival value of the behavior?

Evolutionary Cause: How did the behavior change over generations?
Ecological approach to animal cognition
emphasis on how animals use cognition in the wild

use comparative method

focuses on animals with some sort of cognitive ability that stands out

looks for instances in which animals would have diverged or converged in terms of cognitive abilities
Anthropomorphism
accounting for behavior by giving human like characteristics to other species
Anthropocentrism
choosing problems to study based on human psychology
Comparative psychology
link between human mental abilities and those of other species
Behavioral ecology
focus on animals in the field and on functional and evolutionary questions, attempts to predict behavior based on models
Adaptation
trait that has evolved through the process of natural selection
"Just So Stories"
must be avoided

just because a trait or behavior exists today, does not necessarily mean it is an adaptation.
Selection pressures
problems linked to natural selection or survival that shapes how an animal changes over time.

EX: finding food, shelter, avoiding predators.
Morgan's Canon
the rule that the simplest possible interpretation for a behavioral observation should be given precedence

start with the simplest explanation and try to rule that out first
Perception
the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.
Methods of studying perception
neuroscience- allows us to compare the brains of species and what the regions a dedicated to

study natural behavior with stimulation- run experiments to try and get a reaction from the animal

psychophysics (study of how info. is processed by senses)-
Eye placement/binocular vision
eyes on the front help with distance and picking up details often for predators, but can also be for looking for good fruit as with primates

eyes on the sides are better for motion and range

binocular vision is eyes on the front of the face
Selection pressures linked to evolution of perceptual systems
hunting, reproduction, camouflage (both hunting and evading)

avoiding predation
identifying offspring
attracting a mate
Attention
focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events
Divided attention
concentrating on more than one activity at the same time
Confusion effect
Decreases predation when predators have difficulty in picking out a prey from the crowd
How differences in perceptual systems affects animal cognition research
Sensation: produced when physical stimuli activate sensory receptors

Perception: interpretation of signals within central nervous system

Stimulus Filtering:

filtering important information to pick out important info from the environment

sign stimuli-essential features of stimulus which are necessary to elicit a behavioral response (herring gull)
Sustained vs. Divided Attention
in this case, need to attend to multiple sources of information at one time

performance drops as attention is divided by more tasks, but experience helps to decrease this drop

prey animals must divide attention between foraging and being vigilant

confusion effect
Methods of studying memory
memory can be important for remembering the placement of hidden food and offspring.
Memory can help animals avoid bad locations and foods that could put them in danger.
Memory gives flexibility and aids in survival.

Ecologically based memory: certain animals have certain kinds of memory

Comparison of same species in different habitats.

STUDYING MEMORY
Encoding: conversion of incoming information into neural signals that will be used for later processing

Elaboration

Consolidation: process of modifying encoded representations so that they become more stable

retrieval: accessing what is stored

Recognition: identifying info as familiar

Recall: generation information from memory stores in absence of cues

Short-term memory (STM): temporary storage for input from the environment

Long-term memory (LTM): more permanent storage of information

Working memory: memory for events on a specific trial

Reference memory: memory for the unchanging characteristics of a task

Episodic Memory: memory of events in one's past

Semantic memory: memory or facts and ideas

Procedural memory: memory for how to do something

Declarative Memory: memory or facts

in humans, can test recognition and recall

Most tests of animal memory rely on recognition

Habituation tasks: repeating the same thing over and over again to see the decrease in response or excitement over time. they remember seeing it before

vary retention interval: showing them something and then asking them what they have seen

Delayed match to sample:
present picture of a triangle then wait a couple seconds and ask subject to recall which one it was


Chimps had to remember the pattern of numbers
Memory vs. Learning
Learning: acquisition

Memory: retention
Recognition vs. recall
Recognition: multiple choice exams;
Recall: free response.
You are more likely to do well on recognition
Encoding, consolidation, retrieval
...
Kinds of memory (procedural, declarative, episodic, short vs. long term)
...
Proactive and retroactive interference
-proactive: the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information
-retroactive: the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information
Serial position effect—recency and primacy
the first and last things someone reads (on a menu) are the things they remember

Regency: end of list

primacy: beginning of list
Habituation-dishabituation paradigm
a research method used to test babies' abilities to discriminate between a novel and familiar stimulus
Episodic vs. semantic memory
-Episodic: memory for events with time and place (episodes)
-Semantic: memory for facts or knowledge regardless of time and place
Procedural vs. declarative memory
Procedural: memory of motor skills (how to do an action e.g. tie your shoes), can not be explained in words
Declarative: memory that can be stated in words
Methods of studying memory: habituation tasks, delayed match-to-sample, radial mazes
...
Factors that affect memory
how big a deal is it?

chunking information

making info meaningful
Retroactive vs. proactive interference
(Forgetting)
Retroactive: Forgetting due to interference from NEWLY/RECENTLY learned information.
Proactive: Forgetting due to interference from PREVIOUSLY learned information.
Flashbulb memories
detailed recollections of when and where we heard about shocking events
False memories
memories for events that never happened, but were suggested by someone or something
Patient H.M.
A patient who, because of damage to medial temporal lobe structures, was unable to encode new declarative memories. Upon his death we learned his name was Henry Molaison.
Hyperthymesia
superior memory of autobiographical events
Classical conditioning
a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events
US, CS, UR, CR
Unconditioned stimulus, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned response

US: stimulus that innately elicits response

UR: reflexive behavior

CS: stimulus that is normally neutral (such as bell) that serves to predict presentation of US

conditioned preference
conditioned emotional reactions
conditioned taste aversion
Conditioned taste aversion
development of a nausea or aversive response to a particular taste because that taste was followed by a nausea reaction, occurring after only one association
Operant conditioning
a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

operant conditioning
puzzle boxes, operant chamber
Thorndike and puzzle boxes
established trial-and-error learning
similar to Darwin's notion of adaptive selection
Kinds of punishment and reinforcement
positive: adding something

Negative: taking it away

Pp: adding the word bad or yelling

Np: taking away something that the subject likes like toys or tv

Pr: adding something liked (give treat)

Nr: taking away something disliked (cleaning to end nagging)
Shaping
means of training animals or people to perform target behavior based process of "successive approximations"
Continuous vs. intermittent reinforcement
Reinforcement: stimulus that makes a behavior occur more often
Schedules of reinforcement (FI, VI, FR, VR)
continuous reinforcement: every response reinforced

Intermittent reinforcement: not every response is reinforced

Fixed Interval: reward given after a certain (fixed) amount of time
- EX: FI 30- every 30 seconds rat gets pellet for pressing bar
-shows scallop pattern

Variable interval: reward given for responding after an average amount of time has elapsed
-EX: VI-50 - rat rewarded on average every 50 second for every 50 seconds (interval varies between rewards) (pop quizzes, random inspections)

Fixed ratio: reward given after fixed number of responses
- EX: FR-20 - rat rewarded with pellet every 20 bar presses
- post reinforcement pause

Variable ratio: reward given after an average number of responses
- EX: VR-20 - rat rewarded with pellet average of 20 presses (press number changes)(slot machines)
Extinction
after learning association betweeen CS and US, can elliminate CR by presenting CS with out US
Partial reinforcement effect
animals trained with out continuous reinforcement are more resistant to extinction
Equipotentiality
idea that associations between stimuli could be formed with equal ease
Adaptive specializations
idea that learning an association between stimuli conferred an evolutionary advantage
Conditions of learning
Not only factor that affects strength of association

association between a "lucky pen" and good test will lead to using the pen on every test.

eating certain snack so your team will win

Associative strength - Rescorla Ragner model is an equation that allows you to plug in different stimulus variables to calculate how much association an animal/person will develop on a day to day basis.
Temporal contiguity
how close in time stimuli are paired
Blocking
a previous presentation of one stimulus blocks learning about another stimulus
Questions from "Don't Shoot the Dog!"
...
1. List an example which we haven't discussed for positive and
negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment.
Positive reinforcement: gold star for homework

Negative reinforcement: turning off an alarm clock to stop the noise

Positive Punishment:

Negative Punishment:
2. What is shaping and why is it important to put responding on a
variable schedule during training?
keeps the animal from stopping the behavior for not getting the treat.
3. What reasons are given that explain why punishment is often
ineffective?
because it often happens after the undesirable behavior and not during. the association is not there because the gap can be confusing. the time delay can be confusing

we don't usually reinforce the behavior we do like. we should do that more so that the good behavior gets reinforced.
4. Give an example of negative reinforcement.
...
5. Give an example of training an incompatible behavior to stop an
undesired behavior.
give the dog a bone if the dog is chewing on the couch

instead of telling a kid to stop doing something, give them something else.

dog shoves bone under couch repeatedly. train them to take the bone to the bed instead.
6. Give an example of putting a behavior on cue to stop an
undesired behavior.
make a command.

train a dog to bark on command and then they won't bark without the command
7. How does changing motivation play a role in decreasing an
unwanted behavior?
chore charts for cleaning room

sticker charts for memorizing prepositions

forest app

if you want to see a movie then study first
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