COGNIZIONE ANIMALE

Lucia Regolin
SITO DOCENTE :
http://didattica.unipd.it/offerta/docente/EB004FC53DB558D133F1FA95ED7EBA6A

Email del Corso :

[email protected]

Email del docente da utilizzarsi esclusivamente

per questioni NON inerenti il Corso :
[email protected]

Ricevimento: giovedi ore 14.00

Via Venezia, 8
6° piano, studio n° 6-13
tel. 049/8276650
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 COGNIZIONE ANIMALE
LEZIONI:
MERCOLEDI 10.30-12.15 GIOVEDI 10.30-12.15
AULA 2A
Informazioni circa il Corso:
http://didattica.unipd.it/offerta/2013/PS/PS1091/2013/000ZZ/1094940

LIBRO DI TESTO ADOTTATO : Altre Menti (G. Vallortigara), articoli

forniti a lezione per chi frequenta.

Nb il materiale sarà prevalentemente in lingua Inglese.

MODALITA’ ESAME : 3 domande aperte.

Slides/articoli saranno resi disponibili sul sito del corso

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 SCHEDULE OF THIS LESSON

Introduzione allo studio della cognizione animale:

Cos’è e cosa studia la cognizione animale

Obiettivi della disciplina

Alcuni cenni storici

I principi fondamentali e metodi di indagine

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 What is «ANIMAL COGNITION»?
...the term "COGNITION" refers to all processes
by which the sensory input is transformed,
reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and
used. It is concerned with these processes even
when they operate in the absence of relevant
stimulation, as in images and hallucinations...
Ulric Neisser
Percezione
Memoria
Categorizzazione
Rappresentazione oggetti fisici e sociali
Nozioni rudimentali di tempo, spazio, numero e causalità
Problem solving
Linguaggio
Pensiero
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 What is «ANIMAL COGNITION»?

The study of cognitive processes in all species of animals,

humans included.
Goal: to compare the findings to those known from
humans, understand species, their differences and how and
why they might have evolved.

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Comparative psychology is by nature an interdisciplinary
science that lies at the crossroads of psychology and
biology but also draws from other fields in the natural,
social, and cognitive sciences.

The study of the psychology of animals has been labeled

animal cognition, comparative cognition, animal
learning, animal psychology, and animal intelligence.

The primary goal of comparative psychology is

to understand the cognitive, emotional, and
motivational processes of the animal mind.

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Comparative psychology both provides a window into their
minds, as well as offers a unique perspective on the human
mind.

Which aspects of our psychology do animals share?

Human uniqueness is constantly challenged as we learn
more about the psychology of animal minds.
What if distinctive human abilities – such as tool use,
language, and mental time travel – appear, at least to a
degree, in other species?

Though other species exhibit elements of these abilities, the

central question for comparing humans and animals
remains, do humans and other animals share the same
psychological mechanisms?
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Charles Darwin
(1809-1882)

1859 L’origine
delle specie per
mezzo della
selezione naturale
IL MECCANISMO
dell’evoluzione è la
selezione naturale

L’essere umano
non è una
creazione speciale
ma è un animale

Il comportamento
è una fonte di
adattamento
all’ambiente.
 C. Darwin (1872) “The Expression
of the Emotions in Man and Animal”
Darwin, C. R. 1872. The expression of the emotions in man and animals.
London: John Murray. 1st edition. 11
C. Darwin (1871) “The Descent of Man,
and Selection in Relation to Sex”
 The difference
in mind between
humans and the
higher animals,
great as it is,
certainly is one
of degree and
not of kind.
C. Darwin, 1882
There is “no fundamental difference between man and the
higher mammals in their mental faculties” on the basis of his
belief that all living species were descended from a common
ancestor.

“There is a much wider interval in mental power between one

of the lowest fishes … and one of the higher apes, than
between an ape and man” (though the “difference in mental
power between the highest ape and the lowest savage” is
“immense”)

Forerunners of human intelligence could be found in “higher

mammals”, including “similar passions, affections, and
emotions, … [such as] … jealousy, suspicion, emulation,
gratitude, and magnanimity”.

The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, 1971, Darwin 14

Differenza uomo-animali?

1. ereditarietà dei caratteri acquisiti, che

nell’uomo sarebbe riferimento alla
trasmissione di info e competenze
attraverso cultura ed educazione.

2. seconda ipotesi è legata alla selezione

sessuale: lo sviluppo di un grande
cervello ed abilità mentali nella nostra
specie è l’analogo della coda del
pavone o del palco del cervo: sono
caratteri pleonastici frutto della
selezione sessuale.
16
IS IT SHARED ANCESTRY OR CONVERGENCE THAT ACCOUNT
FOR SIMILAR COGNITIVE OUTCOMES IN DIFFERENT SPECIES?

Different species may have arrived at similar solutions to cognitive

problems because they have experienced similar selection pressures,
not because they are closely related.
Evolutionary convergence may be more important than common
descent in accounting for similar cognitive outcomes in different
animal groups.
Es.
Magpies and self-directed pecking in the mirror mark task (some degree of self-
recognition), while in apes it indicates a deeper level of self-consciousness

Caledonian crows outperforming monkeys at retrieving food from a trap tube

Crows using one tool to obtain a second one which is used to retreive food (apes and
monkeys find it hard)

Language acquisition in parrots and songbirds vs apes…….

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 OTHER PROBLEMS:

Tendency to overlook the importance of culture in shaping the

human mind.

Assumption that all traits evolve as a result of natural selection,

whereas they may be inconsequential, or by-products of selection
acting on some other trait.

The most serious problem with this perspective is that cognitive

traits of past generations leave little trace in the fossil record (we
can only GUESS the selection pressures faced by our hunter-
gatherer predecessors).

Evolutionary analyses are analyses of history, and are therefore not

suited to answer questions concerning the underlying causal
mechanisms (remember Niko Tinbergen’s 4 issues in behavioural
biology: development, evolution, function, mechanistic cause). Only
causal analysis are suited to tackle the causal mechanisms of a
phenomena. 18
 SOME CONCLUDING REMARKS

When reconstructing the evolutionary history of cognitive traits, there is

no a priori reason to assume that convergence will be more important
than common descent or vice versa.

Evolutionary theory may suggest hypotheses about the mechanisms of

cognition, but it cannot be used to actually study these mechanisms.

As long as researchers focus on identifying human-like behaviour in other

animals, the job of classifying the cognition of different species will be
forever tied up in thickets of arbitrary nomenclature that will not advance
our understanding of the mechanisms of cognition.

For comparative psychology to progress, we must study

animal and human minds empirically, without naive
evolutionary presuppositions.

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TORNANDO ALLA PSICOLOGIA COMPARATA : ORIGINI

George John Romanes

(1848-1894)

ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE
(1882)

USO DEL METODO ANEDDOTICO…

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Excerpted from George Romanes' book Animal Intelligence (1888)

But that some species of ants display marked signs of what we may call sympathy even
towards healthy companions in distress, is proved by the following observation of Mr. Belt. He
writes: -

One day, watching a small column of these ants (Eciton hamata), I placed a little stone on one of
them to secure it. The next that approached, as soon as it discovered its situation, ran backwards in an
agitated manner, and soon communicated the intelligence to the others. They rushed to the rescue; some
bit at the stone and tried to move it, others seized the prisoner by the legs and rugged with such force that
I thought the legs would be pulled off, but they persevered until they got the captive free. I next covered
one up with a piece of clay, leaving only the ends of its antennae projecting. It was soon discovered by its
fellows, which set to work immediately, and by biting off pieces of the clay soon liberated it. Another time I
found a very few of them passing along at intervals. I confined one of these under a piece of clay at a little
distance from the line, with his head projecting. Several ants passed it, but at least one discovered it and
tried to pull it out, but could not. It immediately set off at a great rate, and I thought it had deserted its
comrade, but it had only gone for assistance, for in a short time about a dozen ants come hurrying up,
evidently fully informed of the circumstances of the case, for they made directly for their imprisoned
comrade and soon set him free. I do not see how this action could be instinctive. It was sympathetic help,
such as man only among the higher mammalia shows. The excitement and ardour with which they carried
on their unflagging exertions for the rescue of their comrade could not have been greater if they had been
human beings.

This observation seems unequivocal as proving fellow- feeling and sympathy, so far as
we can trace any analogy between the emotions of the higher animals and those of insects.
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 Funzioni psicologiche Gruppi tassonomici

Vergogna, inganno Scimpanzé, cani

Rabbia Elefanti

Odio Carnivori, roditori

Orgoglio Uccelli
Sviluppo
Affetto emozionale Crostacei

Gelosia, rabbia Pesci

Curiosità Insetti

Sorpresa, paura Larve di insetto, vermi

 Interpretazione erronea:
l’evoluzione come scala uni-lineare
 L’albero di Darwin:
l’evoluzione come struttura multi-lineare
Possibly the main problem with the study of animal cognition / behaviour

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaPepCVepCg

In Italian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvTGGnPaBGo 25
What is it?

What is its origin?

Drawbacks of a.

Are there any good points?

…..
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 Donald Griffin, The Question of Animal Awareness, 1976

Griffin push for more tolerance for mentalistic anthropomorphism has found
much
support from the fields of Cognitive Ethology and Animal Cognition:
MODERN ANTHROPOMORPHISM (Gordon Burghardt, Frans de Waal,
Edward Tolman, Mark Bekoff, Timberlake)

Naïve a. vs. critical a.

Animal centered a. (Theromorphism)
Biocentric a. 27
Concept of a. by omission / or anthropodenial
DOES THE REINTRODUCTION OF
ANTHROPOMORPHISMS RISK BRINGING
BACK THE DIRTY BATHWATER AS WE RESCUE
THE BABY ?
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 LA PSICOLOGIA COMPARATA : ORIGINI
Conwy Lloyd Morgan
(1852-1936)

“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”

INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY

(1894) 29
 Il canone di Morgan:
”In nessun caso possiamo interpretare un’azione come il
risultato dell’esercizio di una facoltà superiore, qualora ci sia
possibile interpretarla come il risultato dell’esercizio di una
facoltà che si trova più in basso nella scala psicologica”

LE IPOTESI DI ROMANES SAREBBERO

INTERPRETABILI IN MANIERA PIU’
ELEGANTE ED ECONOMICA:
spiega con apprendimento per prove ed errori i
comportamenti strabilianti descritti da romanes
nel suo libro, es. aprire chiavistelli per liberarsi.
 the lifting of the latch was
unquestionably hit on by
accident, and the trick was only
rendered habitual by repeated
association in the same situation
of the chance act and the happy
escape. Once firmly established,
however, the behavior remained
constant throughout the
remainder of the dogs life, some
five or six years.

And, I may add, I could not succeed, not withstanding much

expenditure of biscuits, in teaching him to lift the latch more
elegantly with his muzzle instead of the back of his head.

Excerpted from C. L. Morgan's book The Animal Mind

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33
La MODERNA SINTESI di etologia e psicologia nella
scienza del comportamento animale
I due approcci alla base di comportamentismo americano ed
etologia europea si confrontano riconoscendo rispettivi limiti e
punti di forza:

Il concetto di LIMITI BIOLOGICI SUI PROCESSI DI

APPRENDIMENTO viene riconosciuto dalla comunità degli
psicologi americani

Dal canto loro gli etologi riconoscono l’importanza dei processi

di apprendimento (e non solo degli “istinti” o meccanismi
filogeneticamente adattati) nella comprensione dell’ontogenesi
del comportamento

Affiancare l’osservazione del comportamento a metodologie di

ricerca adeguate di tipo sperimentale.
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La moderna scienza del comportamento
animale è una combinazione della tradizione
etologico-naturalistica di derivazione
zoologica e della tradizione laboratoristico-
sperimentale di derivazione psicologica.

Ma sono comunque presenti due filoni di

ricerca, pur non in opposizione tra loro:
Ecologia comportamentale
Behavioural ecology

Cognizione animale
Animal cognition
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DALLA PSICOLOGIA COMPARATA ALLO STUDIO
DELLA COGNIZIONE ANIMALE

VI SONO DIFFERENZE NELLE CAPACITA’ COGNITIVE DELLE

DIVERSE SPECIE

MA

NON VI E’ UNA SCALA LINEARE EVOLUTIVA OVE LE INTELLIGENZE

DEI VIVENTI POSSANO ESSERE RAPPRESENTATE

NO SPECIE “INFERIORI” E “SUPERIORI”

TUTTE LE SPECIE ATTUALMENTE VIVENTI SONO UGUALMENTE

COMPLESSE ED EVOLUTE IN BASE ALLE ESIGENZE DELLA LORO
NICCHIA ECOLOGICA

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DALLA PSICOLOGIA COMPARATA ALLO STUDIO
DELLA COGNIZIONE ANIMALE

COMPARATIVE COGNITION=
PSICOLOGIA DELL’APPRENDIMENTO ANIMALE + SCIENZE COGNITIVE
+ PSICOBIOLOGIA E IN GENERE NEUROSCIENZE.

STUDIARE E CONFRONTARE I PROCESSI COGNITIVI

(APPRENDIMENTO, MEMORIA, ATTENZIONE, ECC) NELLE VARIE SPECIE
ALLO SCOPO DI RICOSTRUIRNE LA STORIA EVOLUTIVA DELLE VARIE
MENTI, ma focalizzandosi su CAUSE PROSSIME ED ONTOGENESI.

RIGORE METODOLOGICO, APPROCCIO SPERIMENTALE, CAPIRE

L’EVOLUZIONE DELL’INTELLIGENZA E DEI PROCESSI COGNITIVI E LE
DIFFERENZE TRA LE VARIE SPECIE NEI PROCESSI MENTALI.

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DALLA PSICOLOGIA COMPARATA ALLO STUDIO
DELLA COGNIZIONE ANIMALE

CONCETTO DI CONTINUITA’ DEI PROCESSI MENTALI (INTESI COME

FENOMENI BIOLOGICI PRODOTTO DELL’EVOLUZIONE).

L’ESSERE UMANO, IN QUESTA PROSPETTIVA, NON E’ NULL’ALTRO

CHE UN ANIMALE.

CHE COSA DIFFERENZIA LA MENTE UMANA DA QUELLA ANIMALE?

IL LINGUAGGIO VERBALE ?
E’ POSSIBILE PENSARE ED AVERE UNA COGNIZIONE ANCHE IN
ASSENZA DI LINGUAGGIO E SIMBOLIZZAZIONE? E SE SI, CHE
COSA QUESTI PROCESSI AGGIUNGONO ALLA COGNIZIONE?

TUTTI GLI STUDI DI COGNIZIONE ANIMALE INDICANO CHE MOLTI

DEI PROCESSI COGNITIVI “SUPERIORI” POSSONO ESSERE
REALIZZATI MEDIANTE STRATEGIE PRELINGUISTICHE SVILUPPATE
ANCHE DA ANIMALI MOLTO SEMPLICI.
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RIVISTE SCIENTIFICHE
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes

Animal Learning and Behavior

Animal Cognition

Journal of Comparative Psychology

Learning and Motivation

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

Behavioural Processes
COMPRENDERE (SPIEGARE)
IL COMPORTAMENTO

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 NIKO TINBERGEN and his
FOUR QUESTIONS

Book: “On aims and methods of Ethology” (1963)

Argued that in order to fully understand a behaviour, four questions had to be put forward and
answered:
Causation – What are the stimuli that produce the response?
Survival Value – How does the behaviour contribute to the animal’s survival and
reproductive success?
Ontogeny – How does the behaviour develop during the animal’s lifetime?
Evolution – How did the behaviour arise in the species?

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Cause prossime
(qual è il meccanismo)

Sviluppo
(ontogenesi, come si sviluppa
nell’individuo)

Storia evolutiva
(qual è la sua filogenesi)

Cause remote o ultime (qual è la sua

funzione)
43
 44
Why do infants cry ? (from Zeifman 2001)
Comparative psychology explores many of the same topics
as human psychology.

From learning and memory to communication and decision

making, the field investigates a number of key questions, for
example:

• How do animals understand causal relationships in their environments?

• Can animals represent the perceptions, intentions, and beliefs of others?
• Do animals plan for the future?
• Can animals use referential communication?
• How do animals track time and number?
• Do animals maintain a cognitive map of their environment?
• Do animals attend to the well being of others?
• How do animals categorize objects in their world?
• Which emotional and motivational factors underly animal behavior?

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With rare exceptions, we cannot ask animals directly about
their psychological states. Instead, we must make inferences
about the psychology of animals based on their behavior.

Inferring internal mechanisms from external behavior results

in a number of challenges for comparative psychologists.

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THE ISSUE OF COMPLEXITY (of investigated mechanisms)
vs. PARSIMONY (of explanations)

Making inferences about internal mechanisms poses a

challenge.
This has been faced by adopting either of 2 general
approaches to studying cognitive aspects of animal behavior:

The animal learning approach emphasizes the general

learning principles, such as instrumental, and Pavlovian
conditioning, espoused by Hull, Spence, Tolman, and Skinner.

The cognitive approach examines other forms of cognition

such as perception, attention, memory, categorization,
navigation, timing, number, communication, decision making,
and social cognition.
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Learning mechanisms often are considered simpler
explanations
(Some) cognitive mechanisms are more complex, requiring
an organism to generate a mental representation.

If a simpler, learning account can explain the data, then we

should not invoke a more complex explanation
(Morgan,1903).
Researchers in the cognitive tradition aim at rejecting
simple learning explanations.

BUT

How complex does a parsimonious explanation need to

be before we accept a representational one? How do
we define the complexity of a mechanism?
48
Even after excluding simpler explanations for phenomena,
the question arises, under what circumstances do animals
use the more complex form of cognition?

Possessing a particular psychological ability does not

imply using it at every opportunity. In many cases, animals
may use simpler mechanisms, reserving the more complex
mechanisms for situations in which the simpler
mechanisms do not work.

The circumstances under which animals use different

mechanisms remains an open question in comparative
psychology.

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 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

A hallmark of data in comparative psychology is variation

across individuals. Despite this, we have very little
understanding of the sources of variation in psychological
mechanisms.
Evolutionary models predict individual differences in
behavior, but few models explore why cognition and
emotion should vary across individuals.

Researchers of animal behavior investigate individual

differences under the headings of animal personality,
behavioral syndromes, and temperament. We must now
extend this study of variation at the psychological level and
explore the sources of such variation.
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 PUTTING THE COMPARATIVE “BACK IN”

Despite the name and origins of the field, comparative

psychology lacked many comparative studies during much
of the twentieth century. Only a handful of species acted
as the workhorses of the field: the pigeon, the rat, and the
rhesus macaque.
Comparative psychologists have lamented this lack of
diversity for decades, and, more recently, researchers
have tested a number of interesting questions in a wide
variety of species.

Cataloging the abilities of various species provides a

necessary first step in understanding the psychology of
animals, however, active comparisons across species are
needed. Not just between a single animal species and
humans. 51
The comparative method allows the testing of evolutionary
questions regarding the origins of and ecological pressures
on psychological mechanisms.
Do phylogenetically closely related species share similar
psychological mechanisms?
What kinds of evolutionary pressures shape psychological
mechanisms across species?
Does the social environment play a special role in shaping
psychology?
How can we test whether species share actual mechanisms
rather than just general psychological abilities?

Comparisons across species pose difficulties and require

great care regarding the species tested and the experimental
methods used.

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 ECOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Studies of comparative psychology frequently face criticism

for overly artificial task environments.

Using simple stimuli in impoverished apparatuses offers

clear advantages in terms of reducing the likelihood of
confounding variables. Though simple artificial stimuli offer
complete control over the features presented to animal
subjects, more naturalistic stimuli of intermediate complexity
can offer a reasonable balance between control and
ecological relevance.

In addition, we must consider the natural ecology of the

species to develop appropriate experimental tasks.

The right balance starts with asking ecologically relevant

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questions.
 STRONG INFERENCE

Much of comparative psychology is based on existence

proofs: Do animals have theory of mind, metacognition,
episodic memory, empathy, or other-regarding
preferences?

Currently, many behavioral scientists rely on testing a

single hypothesis against a null hypothesis, despite the
pitfalls of this approach.

To further mature, however, the field needs to develop

more sophisticated models of how psychological
mechanisms work, not just whether they are
present and what influences them.

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Strong inference (Platt, 1964) = development of multiple
hypotheses and design of critical experiments allowing for
alternative outcomes that will exclude some of the
hypotheses. Rather than only testing for the presence or
absence of a psychological ability or for factors that
influence an ability, we need to explore how the processes
work. To this end, testing a series of formal process-based
models allows a precise understanding of psychological
mechanisms. Though formal models are common in the
animal learning tradition (e.g., models of timing), other
areas of comparative psychology have yet to use these
models to their full potential.
Developing and testing multiple hypotheses yields more
careful inferences because more powerful statistical
techniques can be used. Instead of relying on the weak null
hypothesis testing paradigm, we can use competitive model
testing techniques to discriminate between hypotheses. 55
 REPLICATION AND REPRODUCIBLE RESEARCH

The typically small sample sizes used in comparative

psychology can make replication difficult.
Nevertheless, we should encourage the general
practice of replicating our work and publishing these
replications, even if they result in different findings.
As one solution to facilitating replications, we can grant
free access to experimental methods.

Es. Supplementary materials on Journals’ websites.

Posting experimental protocols, example videos, data
files, and analysis code maintains the transparent
nature of science.

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 THE COMPARATIVE MIND DATABASE

http://www.compcog.org/index.php?option=com_content&view
=article&id=48&Itemid=29=

Aim= archiving experimental protocols and video clips of

experimental sessions.

This database facilitates comparative studies by standardizing

experimental procedures. 57
 REPLICATION AND REPRODUCIBLE RESEARCH

1. exact replications of methods

2. replicate studies using different methods

Accounting for the environment = ensuring that our

findings generalize across multiple experimental
environments is crucial.

Replicating work within laboratories, between

laboratories, and across methodologies strengthens the
integrity of conclusions.

58
 SUMMARY

Issues in the study of comparative psychology

parsimony and complexity,
exploring individual differences,
posing careful comparative questions of
psychological mechanism.

More practical challenges are shared with other areas

in behavioral science and beyond, including :
developing more naturalistic experimental paradigms,
implementing strong inference techniques, and
producing reproducible and transparent research.

No single piece of scientific work will likely address all

of these challenges.
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