Animal Learning

Animal Learning

1. Classical conditioning

   • Before UCS->UCR NS->No response
   • Conditioning UCS+NS->UCR
   • After CS->CR
   • NS before UCS - strong conditioing
   • Longer delay after NS before UCS - weaker conditioing
   • NS with UCS - unpredictable conditioning
   • NS after UCS - ineffective conditioning
   • Extinction - CS-CR link disappears after removal of UCS
   • Spontanious recovery - UCS and CS paired again, rapid link
   • Stimulus generalisation - stimulus similar to CS produces CR
   • Stimulus discrimination - NS similar to CS does not produce UCR
   • Taste aversion
     • Doesn't require many conditionings
     • Doesn't require UCS and NS to occur closely

2. Operant conditioning

   • Spontaneous behaviour produces consequences
   • Reinforcement
     • Positive reinforcement - pleasant consequence from behaviour
     • Negative reinforcement - behaviour stops something unpleasant
   • Schedules of reinforcement
     • Fixed ratio - 1in10 reward
     • Variable ratio - rewarded 60%, unpredictable
     • Fixed interval - rewarded after 10min
     • Variable interval - time intervals 4 an hour
   • Punishment
     • Positive punishment - adding an unpleasant consequence
     • Negative punishment - removal of something pleasant

3. The behaviour of animals

   • Training animals for relsease
     • Simple conditioning, dolphins associate humans with food
     • Compound conditioning, adding appropriate stimulus i.e noise humans also come without food
     • Necessary to make sure animals don't learn behaviours making them endangered
     • Dependence on humans created through regular food intervals
   • Foraging - operant conditioning
     • Woodpeckers reinforced by pecking tree - receive food
       • Food extinguished - pecking slowly stops
     • Agetsuma - food patch quality manipulated, monkeys visited high quality areas more frequently
   • Positive reinforcement training
     • Desensitisation - fearful object & reward = less fearful
     • Cooperative feeding - dominant animals rewarded allowing subordinates to feed & them being brave enough to approach dominant animals
     • Enhances psychological wellbeing
       • Used to remove stressors associated with research
     • Clay et al - Macaques desinsitised fearing humans. Conditioned group less fearful than control

4. Intelligence in non human animals

   • Machiavellian intelligence
     • The ability to intentionally decieve another
       • Knowledge of ToM
     • Manipulation of others
       • Management of attention - diverting attention to profit the deciever
       • Creating an image - changing view of individual
         • Grooming an individual before snatching food
     • Apes form alliances
       • Weaker males with more powerful males
       • Sex with dominant male, more likely to protect offspring
     • Deag & Crook - subordinate macaques carry young approaching dominant male
       • Agonistic buffering - males less likely to attack
     • highly developed - selection pressure
     • Maestripieri - machiavellian intelligence in macaques
       • Unable to recognise themselves
   • Self recognition
     • Ability to recognise yourself seen as intelligence
     • Gallup - Chimps will use a mirror to touch a red mark on their forehead and ears
     • Reiss & Marino - Dolphins marked with black ink or water, inked dolphins spent longer in front of reflective surfaces
       • Delfour & Marten - Also found this in killer whales, they had cognitive ability needed for self recognition
     • Plotnik et al - Elephants used a mirror to touch a mark on their head
       • May not be intelligence, they just felt it on their skin
     • Heyes - Little evidence for self recognition in all primates
       • Not all passed mirror test
       • Don't have self concept (part of self recognition) like humans
     • Self recognition common in species that helps others - level of consciousness
       • Human ethical guidlines should be extended to these animals, protecting them
   • Theory of mind
     • Understanding others have different mental states & see the world differently
     • Allows inferences about mental states to be made
     • Premack & Woodruff - Sarah the chimp shown video of human solving problem. Video stopped before solution. Given two photos, one had right answer. Consistently chose correct answer.