COGNITIVE CONTROL OF BEHAVIOR

Chapter 11

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Animal Cognition2

Aristotle

Born 384 BC

•Scala Naturae•God•Angels and Demons•Man•Wild Beasts•Domesticated Beasts•Plants•Minerals

Charles Darwin

Evolution by Natural Selection

Mental continuity between humans and animals.

1809-1882

Descent of Man

“Nevertheless the difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind.”

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Georges Romanes

1848-1894

Animal Intelligence (1888)

Relied heavily on anecdotes to buildan uncritical view of animal intelligence

Criteria for Mind:1. Not a reflex2. Individual Choice3. Report by a Reputable Person

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Some Examples

Horses and inclined planes Earwig “Tim” comes to breakfast Cats and mechanical understanding Scorpions commit suicide Sympathetic ants

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Excerpted from George Romanes' book Animal Intelligence (1888)

           One day, watching a small column of these ants, 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 tugged with such force that I thought the legs would be pulled off, but they persevered until they got the captive free.         This observation seems unequivocal as proving fellow-feeling and sympathy.

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Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny

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Romanes Evolution of Intelligence

15 Months 12 Months 8 Months 4 Months 7 Weeks 3 Weeks

Morality Tool Use Understand Words Recognize People Similarity Contiguity

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Caveat Emptor

Anthropomorphism: unthinkingly giving human qualities to animals, especially when the data are anecdotal

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Teaching Signs to Washoe11

Edward Thorndike

Criticized Romanes’ views as unscientific.

1874-19494. Do not know history of the animal

Problems with anecdotes:

1. Only a single case is studied. Does it apply to whole species?

2. Observations are often not repeated or repeatable

3. Conditions under which observations are made are not well regulated

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Lloyd Morgan and Tony

1852-1936

“Tony”

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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 one which stands lower in the psychological scale.”

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Caveat Emptor

Anthropomorphism: unthinkingly giving human qualities to animals

Equality of Condition: assumption that it is possible to truly equate test conditions, and thus place species on a scale

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Speed of learning and intelligence

Are infants dumber than bees? Are bees smarter than rats?

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Caveat Emptor

Anthropomorphism: unthinkingly giving human qualities to animals

Equality of Condition: assumption that it is possible to truly equate test conditions

Evolutionary Scale: assumption that living species are close genetic relatives, with organisms of lesser complexity having evolved into more complex ones.

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Evolution of Intelligence18

Brain Size 19

Dumb and dumber20

Tree of life21

Caveat Emptor

Anthropomorphism: unthinkingly giving human qualities to animals

Equality of Condition: assumption that it is possible to truly equate test conditions

Evolutionary Scale: assumption that living species are close genetic relatives with organisms of lesser complexity having evolved into more complex ones.

Homology or analogy: Common genes or common environmental pressures?

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Learned Helplessness Theory

Seligman – depression is learned. Depression occurs when people believe:

Failures are due to uncontrollable events. Failure will continue as long as events are

beyond their control. Depression arises from helplessness.

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Animal Research

Step 1 -- three groups of dogs: Inescapable shock – no control. Escapable shock -- terminated if the dog

pressed a panel. No shock

Step 2 – 10 trials of signaled avoidance training in shuttle box.

2/3 of inescapable shock dogs did not learn to jump during step 2.

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Characteristics of Helplessness

Motivational – unable to initiate voluntary behavior. Mice in water maze. Nonspecific – carries over to a variety tasks

and test situations. Learning– incapable of benefiting from

future experience – even if they jump, don’t learn.

Emotional– negative affect, ahedonia (sad)

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Helplessness in Humans

Hiroto – three groups of college students: Uncontrollable group – wrongly told that

pushing button would end noise. Escapable group – pushing button ended

noise. Control – no noise.

Tested using finger shuttle box. Uncontrollable group did not escape

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Cognition and helplessness It is important to appreciate that

although cognition is at the heart of Seligman's theory, learned helplessness affects other psychological processes

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A Cognitive View Of Depression

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Seligman believed that depression is learned

He proposed that depression occurs when people believe that they are helpless to control their own destinies

Studies of Depressives

Show similar results to learned helplessness studies.

Depressed individuals do not escape noise, responding like inescapable non-depressed individuals.

Depressed individuals do not adjust likelihood of succeeding upward when they experience success. They credit chance not skill.

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Parallels (Symptoms)

Helplessness Response initiation

deficit Reinforcement

ineffective in changing behavior

Attentional shift (Turn Outward)

Emotionally passive Recall aversive Reduced Aggression Lose Weight Norepinephrine depletion Glutamate overactivity

Depression Unresponsive, slow Disrupted thinking,

negative expectations Attentional shift (Turn

Inward) Flat Ruminations Occasional Angry

Outbursts Anorexia Norepinephrine

depletion Glutamate overactivity

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Parallels (Treatments)

Antidepressants ECT Forced escape Time

Antidepressant ECT Behavioral Efficacy

Treat Time

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Criticisms of Seligman’s Theory

May be due to attributions, not everyone who experiences uncontrollable events becomes helpless.

Failure to replicate performance deficits in humans – facilitation of performance instead (Get Mad).

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Depressed individuals attribute their success to external factors of luck and task ease

Depressed individuals attribute their failures to internal factors of lack of effort and ability

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Non-depressed individuals attribute successes to internal factors and failures to external factors

Learned helplessness models cannot explain such observations

Attribution Theory

Causal attributions of failure have three dimensions: Internal-external – internal traits or

characteristics vs environmental forces Stable-unstable – past causes will persist vs

new forces will determine future outcomes Global-specific – outcome relates only to

one task vs outcome effects everything.

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Attributional Model of Depression

Internal External

Dimension Stable Unstable Stable Unstable

Global I’m unattractive to all men

My conversation sometimes bores men

Men are overly competitive with intelligent women

Men get into rejecting moods

Specific I’m not his “type”

My conversation bored him

He’s overly competitive with women

He was in a rejecting mood

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Severity of Depression

Depression can be transient if attributed to global but changing conditions.

Severe depression occurs when attributions are: Internal Global Stable

Unlikely if external, specific, unstable.

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Two Kinds of Helplessness

Personal helplessness – an individual’s inability causes failure.

Universal helplessness – the environment is structured so that no one can control future events.

Abramson -- both kinds lead to depression. Vary on external-internal dimension. Low self-esteem only with personal.

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Both personal and universal helplessness produce the expectation of an inability to control future events and a lack of an ability to initiate voluntary behavior, which are characteristic of depression Individuals who are personally depressed

make internal attributions for failure (MANY PEOPLE)

Individuals who are universally depressed make external attributions for failure (LIKE DOGS & RATS)

Severity of Depression41

Severe depression typically appears when a person attributes their failure to internal, global, and stable factors

The depression is intense because they perceive themselves as incompetent (internal) in many situations (global) and believe the incompetence is unlikely to change (stable)

Hopelessness Theory of Depression

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The hopelessness theory suggests that attributional style AND/OR environmental circumstances together contribute to hopelessness

Hopelessness Depression

Hopelessness – the expectation that desired outcomes will not occur. Learned helplessness -- no control over

undesired outcomes. Accounts for anxiety without depression.

Anxiety – possibility that a person may have no control over negative events.

Depression occurs when certain.

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Negative Life Events and Hopelessness

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Hopelessness: The belief that negative events are inevitable Occurs when a negative life event is attributed

to stable and global factors Hopelessness Theory of Depression:

The view that whether a person becomes hopeless and depressed depends upon a person making a stable and global attribution for negative life events and the severity of those negative life events

A Negative Attributional Style and Vulnerability to Depression

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Negative attributional style:A belief system that assumes that negative

life events are due to stable and global factors, which makes the person vulnerable to depression

A Positive Attributional Style and Hopelessness Depression

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Positive attributional style:A belief system that negative life events

are controllable, which leads to hopefulness and a resilience to depression

Hopefulness:The belief that negative life events can be

controlled and are not inevitable