Animal cognition: History and some big ideas. Evolution by natural selection (Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, 1859)

Transcription

1 Animal cognition: History and some big ideas From Aristotle to Descartes Are animals mindless machines or do they think and reason as people do? Darwin and evolutionary continuity Psy 362 S 2007, Lecture 1.2 slide 1 Evolution by natural selection (Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, 1859) Variation among individuals of a species This variation is heritable (kids are like their parents) More kids produced than survive Therefore individuals with characteristics that make them better able to survive and reproduce will come to predominate. Psy 362 S 2007, Lecture 1.2 slide 2 Evolutionary trees or cladograms: represent inferences about divergence over time Extinct species Hypothetical common ancestor Psy 362 S 2007, Lecture 1.2 slide 3

2 Cladogram of evolutionary relationships of humans, extinct homids, and great apes Last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans. (we did not descend from modern-day chimpanzees) Psy 362 S 2007, Lecture 1.2 slide 4 Evolution also leads to convergence of distantly related species with similar environmental requirements. Psy 362 S 2007, Lecture 1.2 slide 5 Back to Darwin and Comparative Psychology The Origin of Species (1859). All animal species are related to each other through evolution. Psychological as well as physical characteristics evolve through natural selection. Psychology will be securely based on the acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. (The Origin of Species )

3 Darwin (1871) emphasized mental continuity My object in this chapter is solely to shew that there is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties. (Darwin, 1871 The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. Chapter III) Similarities include Senses, basic instincts, emotions (e.g. pleasure and pain), learning by imitation, tool using, memory, attention, reasoning Psy 362 S 2007, Lecture 1.2 slide 7 If a hand can do it, why not a paw? Anecdotal Early research -- George Romanes (1892) Animal Intelligence Anthropomorphic Psy 362 S 2007, Lecture 1.2 slide 8 E. L. Thorndike (American, 1890 s): The experimental approach Test plausible alternatives to anthropomorphic interpretations Puzzle box experiments Learning by trial and error, not imitation or insight Psy 362 S 2007, Lecture 1.2 slide 9

4 Morgan s Canon In no case may we interpret an action as the outcome of the exercise of a higher psychical faculty, if it can be interpreted as the outcome of the exercise of one which stands lower in the psychological scale. (C. Lloyd Morgan, 1894) Problems Why should we think it s correct? What are high and low? In practice, low often means resulting from instrumental or classical conditioning. Psy 362 S 2007, Lecture 1.2 slide 10 History, continued Rise of behaviorism General processes emphasized, not comparisons Clever Hans (1900) Tolman (1948) Early cognitivist The cognitive revolution in psychology (1960 s) Information processing replaces S-R associations Animal research follows along (1970 s) BUT cognition is inferred from behavior. Psy 362 S 2007, Lecture 1.2 slide 11 Recent trends Cognitive ethology (Donald Griffin, 1976) Should try to study animal consciousness Problems discussed in next lecture Cognitive ecology (Real, 1993) Role of cognition in natural behaviors in the wild Evolutionary psychology The adapted mind (Cosmides, Tooby, et al.) Relationship to primatology and anthropology Interface with cognitive and behavioral neuroscience Psy 362 S 2007, Lecture 1.2 slide 12

5 Two current approaches to animal cognition Anthropocentric (centered on humans) Uses animals to help understand humans. A few species used as animal models Experiments in the lab Traditional in psychology Ecological (animal in its environment) How do animals solve problems in nature? Looks at a lot of different species. More biological Becoming more popular Much exciting research combines both approaches.