Module 6

• associative learning (classical conditioning): 2 stimuli are linked to produce new learned response
• operant conditioning: association made between behavior and consequence (reward/punishment)
• inferential reasoning by exclusion: selecting correct alternative by logically excluding other options
• example of inferential reasoning by exclusion: dog learns names of toys and can select new toy and name by excluding known toys and names
• aristotle's thesis: only humans have reason, animals have intelligent minds but lack reason and therefore moral status
• common ethic is that an individual is a person if they have cognition (perception, memory, thinking and linguistic ability)
• what are the arguments that animals should have moral status?

  1. some nonhuman primates have cognitive capacities
  2. some animals have non-cognitive mental capacities like sensation and emotion
• DHARMA philosophies:

  • man and animals have many commonalities
  • man and animals depend on nature
  • should conform to basic rules to live in harmony with fellow beings and nature
• immanuel kant believed the ability to reason gives moral standing, humans can use natures as a means to ends because nature can't reason
• charles darwin believed there are no differences in kind between humans and animals, only differences in degree
• what did charles darwin think about nonhuman apes?

  they are intelligent, show emotional responses, similar character traits and systems of communication
• viruses have goals, minimalist mind
• why do colonial insects have high mind?

  they have communication and cooperativity, cognitive capability
• what are the factors necessary for rapid word learning in children?

  • awareness that words refer to object
  • awareness of social cues to map words on object
• how did chaser show awareness that words refer to objects?

  responded successfully to random combinations of names and commands
• what were the arguments against the exclusion learning experiment?

  • lack of control for base novelty preference
  • reward after exclusion choice
  • in children, words become symbols that refer to categories
• what was chaser's base novelty preference?

  0
• did chaser receive reward after exclusion choice?

  minimal positive feedback
• did chaser demonstrate understanding of categories?

  demonstrated one-to-many name object mappings
• why is the exclusion learning experiment not based on associative learning?

  because the name and object aren't presented together
• what did the exclusion learning experiment find about retention?

  • can depend on associative learning, reinforcing consequences of selecting novel object
  • chaser's retention declined over time, may be improved by play with objects
• what capacities for learning human language did chaser show?

  • ability to discriminate between sounds representing names
  • ability to discriminate objects
  • vocabulary
  • memory system to map auditory stimuli to visual stimuli
• some researchers think animal's number sense is an evolutionarily inherent skill
• advanced numerical abilities are thought to be unique to humans and based on language skill
• grey parrot (evolutionarily distant from humans and primates) demonstrates advanced abilities like counting strategy and concept of 0
• grey parrot demonstrated ability to remember quantities and combine them to form total
• grey parrot demonstrated concept of 0 similar to young children and apes, understands none but not 0 as a quantity