Animal Cognition

Wes O'Hara, Nathan Hershberger, Eric Walker, Ladera Shutes

Defined briefly, cognitive ethology: refers to the comparative, evolutionary, and ecological study of animal thought processes, beliefs, rationality, information processing, and consciousness in an organism's natural environment. In studying animal cognition, it is good consider the history, perception, memory and behovior, and communication.

HISTORY
- Charles Darwin
  - Evolution
  - The first person to suggest the possible continuity of cognitive processes among diffferent species.
- Ivan Pavlov
  - Discovered classical conditioning
- Edward Thorndike
  - First empirical and theoretical analyses of animal learning.
    - Operant conditioning and behaviorism
- Wolfgang Kohler
  - Developed the first real cognitive analysis of learning in animals
- Konrad Lorenz
  - Founder of Ethology
- B.F. Skinner
  - The Behavior of Organisms
    - Operant conditoning
ANIMAL PERCEPTION
- Visual perception
  - Perception of light in animals vs humans
- Cognitive aspects of stimulus control
  - The perception of the extended stimulus
  - Three psychophysical principles in the processing of spatial and temporal information
  - Animal perception and memory
  - The perception of Pitch constancy in birdsong
  - The visual perception and processing of textures\
- Physical Stimulus - Robert Tufts
- Bat Ecolocation
COGNITON AND MEMORY
- Since we cannot normally understand or communicate directly with most other species has with animals in the same way that we communicate with other people, humans have developed three major ways of working with animals for an better understanding of their mental processes: (1) Ethological studies, (2) Behavioral studies, and (3) interspecific communication.
- Ethology - the study of animals in a natural setting.
  - migration patterns
  - Following animal in wild to see social behavior and learning trends. (ie Jane Goodall)
  - Rat taste aversion
- Cognition and Behavior
  - Concepts of what behavior is according to Species of Mind
    - Behavior vs Action - Is behavior mindful or simply reflexive?
    - Form vs Function - classification of behavior by historical cause or primary purpose.
  - Consciousness and recognition is a key mechanism for which scientists search in these studies.
    - This type of research is considered anthropomorphic.
    - Dolpins show elements of self awareness when they see themselves in a mirror or on a television.
    - Pigeons have been found to distinguish between different places using land marks
  - Short term memory is shown in DMTS tests which Skinner developed
  - Bird Brains
    - Alex
      - Effectively uses over 100 words to represent his environment.
      - Can make requests for items or relocation.
      - Know to respond in the negative when he wants something different.
      - Knows the alphabet and can count to six
  - Dog domestication
    - Border Collie
      - stop is the first thing learned
      - one of the built in behaviors is to circle the prey item
      - acts as if the shepard is another dog
      - hardest thing to learn is to keep sheep away from shepard
    - Sheep dog
      - Old English Sheep doges
      - Imprinted as sheep when sheep.
      - No radar lock on prey
  - Dolphins
COMMUNICATION
- The basis of social organization is communication, a process by which the behaviour of oneindividual affects the behaviour of others. Its purpose is to convey emotional state and thereby control the behaviour of others. Communication serves to coordinate activities, provide access to resources and to enhance mating success.
- Bee communication
  - Von Frisch Experiments
    - Step experiment
    - Fan experiment
- Dolphin Communication
- Chemical Communication
  - Ant Communication
  - Moth Communication
- Bird Song
  - Functions
    - Territorial defense by males
    - Reproduction
    - Alarm
- Primate Communication
  - Central Washington University Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute
    - Washoe
    - FAQ's
- Primates
  - Kanzi and Panbanisha - chimpanzee
  - Koko and other gorillas
  - Orangutans

URLs

Historical Sites
- A Brief Historical Account of Classical Ethology and Cognitive Ethology --adv., long, text
  - This site considers some major strands in the history of approaches to the study of animal behavior and cognition. These range from the "anecdotal cognitivism" of the late nineteeth century to the present-day cognitive ethology via behaviorsim and classical ethology. http://logic.tamu.edu/~colin/SpeciesofMind/chapter2.html
Perception
- Visual Perception
  - http://www.bssc.edu.u/tl/learning/science/wigney/catstuff
- Vision, mood, and Grobstein's cat : perceptiion and reality
  - http://www.students.haverford.edu/drakoff/nb/final.html
- Perception: Abstracts
Communication
- Communication--interm., medium, text
  - Editorial on the communication of animals and how it relates to human communication http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds1-2/backup/editorial.html
- Course Resources: Animal Communication--basic, short, links, search
  - Site lists links in various areas of animal communication. http://www.georgetown.edu/cball/ling001/intro-resources-animals.html
- Animal Communication Chart--basic, short, graphics, chart
  - This site explains in table form the simmilarities and differences between several species of non-human and human communication. http://regweb.unc.edu/~rfbryan/ling/compare.html
Learning and Memory
- Animal Learning Outline--index, long, interm., links
  - Chapter outline on learning from the beginnings of the study of learning to the present. Http://ucnet.canberra.edu.au/~packrat/Psychology.101/chapter6.html
- Animal Memory -- Long, basic, text
  - http://frank.mtsu.edu/~pyskip/ltlec13.htm
- Animal Concept Learning -- Long, basic, text
  - http://frank.mtsu.edu/~pyskip/ltlec14.htm
Books
- Animal Cognition (Vauclair)--short, basic, links,text
  - http://www.hup.harvard.edu/S96_Books/S96_Long/animal_cog.html
- Species of Mind index, basic, short
  - Allen, entire book is on-line http://snaefell.tamu.edu/Philosophy/Faculty/Colin/SpeciesofMind/
Articles
- Journal of Comparative Psychology (description of journal, editor's name, and type of articles wanted)--short, basic, text
  - http://www.apa.org/journals/comjnlde.html
- Cued and detached representations in animal cognition (Gärdenfors)--short, text
  - http://lucs.fil.lu.se/Abstracts/LUCS_Studies/LUCS38.html
- Assessing animal cognition: Philosophical and ethological perspectives (Allen)--long, text, adv.
  - http://snaefell.tamu.edu/~colin/asas.html
- Communicattion--Short, basic, text
  - http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds1-2/backup/editorial.html
- Conceptual abilities of pigeons (Wasserman)--basic, short, graphic, links
  - http://www.sigmaxi.org/amsci/articles/95articles/eawasserman.html
- Natural intelligence in artificial creatures (Balkenius)--index, basic, short, links
  - http://lucs.fil.lu.se/Staff/Christian.Balkenius/Thesis/
- Cognitive ethology: Slayers, skeptics, and proponents (Bekoff and Allen, abstract) short, basic, text
  - http://snaefell.tamu.edu/~colin/Abstracts/slayers.html
- Significance of animal behavior research (Snowdon)--basic, medium, text
  - http://www.cisab.indiana.edu/ABS/valueofanimalbehavior.html
- What children and animals know that we don't (Giglioti)--intermediate, medium, text
  - http://www.uiah.fi/bookshop/isea_proc/high&low/j/18b.html
- Concerning animal perception (Mead, 1907)--interm., medium, text
  - http://paradigm.soci.brocku.ca/~lward/PUBS/MEAD_029.html
- Introduction to comparative psychology (Morgan, 1894)--interm., medium, text
  - http://paradigm.soci.brocku.ca/~lward/SUP/COMP_PSY.html
Index Pages
- Other Works (these are authors and their publications mentioned in George H. Mead's writing, interface is unfriendly but there are some gems buried within. http://paradigm.soci.brocku.ca/~lward/OTH_BIB.HTML
Organizations
- Program in Animal Behavior at Indiana University --basic, short, text, links
  - contains links to archives and to other WWW resources in animal behavior
- Animal Behavior Society (ABS)--short, links
  - http://www.cisab.indiana.edu/animal_behavior.html
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Comparative Behavioural Research--basic, short, links
  - http://www.oeaw.ac.at/~klivv/klivv.html
- Nebraska Behavioral Biology Group--short, basic, links, index
  - Comprehensive index page http://cricket.unl.edu/NBBG.html
- Sea World/Busch Gardens Animal Information Database--index, basic, short, links, graphics.
  - The home page of Sea World and Busch Gardens, has links to a variety of information on animals and their behavior. http://www.seaworld.org/infobook.html
Personal Home Pages
- Steve Haggbloom (Arkansas State University)
  - http://www.astate.edu/docs/acad/coe/cep/personal/haggblom.html--basic, short, text
- Colin Allen (Texas A & M University)--short, basic, links
  - http://snaefell.tamu.edu/~colin/
- Mark Rilling (Michigan State University)
  - http://eyelab.msu.edu/graduate_program/faculty/rilling.html
- Edward Wasserman (University of Iowa)--short, links, text, graphics, basic
  - http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/faculty/Wasserman.html
- Stewart Hulse (Johns Hopkins University)--text, short
  - http://www.psy.jhu.edu/faculty/hulse.html
- Christian Balkenius (University of Lund)--basic, short, index, links
  - http://lucs.fil.lu.se/Staff/Christian.Balkenius/
Odds and Ends
- A2Z Science and Learning Store's Super Neat Experiments for Kids & Adults --- basic, tutorial, graphics, links, short
- (contains a few experiments for sale related to animal behavior and cognition among others) http://www.a-two-z.com/page_e.html
- Annual Skinner Box Rat Training Competition -- basic, tutorial, long, links
  - http://outcast.gene.com/ae/AE/AEC/AEF/1996/banister-marx_rat.html

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