Animal Cognition

Different animals are thought to have different kinds of cognitive processes.

fig. 1

Animals and Culture

Animals develop their own cultural habits and share these patterns with one another through life processes, for example nesting and eating in birds.

KEY POINTS

Non-human animals possess intelligence Links to an external site.. Baboons possess the skills to remember each member's voice in their large troops (Jolly, 2007), sheep can remember and recognize faces (Morell, 2008), marmosets can learn from and imitate others, and pigeons can sort into categories (Wasserman, 1995).
Studies have shown that animals such as great apes are able to engage in concept formation tasks and successfully sort like stimuli (Morell, 2008).
Animals are reinforced by food, and will also create their own ways to attain that food, such as making a special tool to hunt food with (Sanz et al., 2004).
Some animals, such as chimpanzees, have great numerical ability and are able to remember briefly viewed numbers and place them in order (Matsuzawa, 2007). Parrots have also shown similar abilities with numbers (Pepperberg, 2006).
Animals are considered to be capable of communication, transmitting knowledge to one another, thinking and having insights, working with numbers, and reading human intent.

TERMS

Cultural transmission Links to an external site.
The sharing with others of knowledge, norms, customs, and other content among a group that persists over time.
intelligence Links to an external site.
Capacity of mind, especially to understand principles, truths, facts or meanings, acquire knowledge, and apply it to practice; the ability to learn and comprehend.
Different animals seem to have different kinds of cognitive processes, which are better understood in terms of the ways they are cognitively adapted to their different ecological niches than by positing any kind of hierarchy Links to an external site.. One question that is often asked is how the cognitive processes of other species are similar to humans. Not surprisingly, our closest biological relatives, the great apes, tend to do best on such an assessment Links to an external site.. It is less clear whether the species traditionally held to be intelligent do unusually well against this standard, though among the birds, corvids and parrots are typically found to perform above average.

Domesticated animals also tend to perform well, but the unintentional human bias toward obedience and the conditioned response associated with domestication makes the value of these assertions dubious. There are many studies that have assessed the intellectual aptitude of non-domesticated animals, and their findings suggest evidence of intelligent life on four legs.

For example, sheep have been found to recognize individual human and ovine faces, and remember them for years. In addition, sheep can differentiate emotional states through facial characteristics. If worked with patiently, sheep may learn their names, and many sheep are trained to be led by halter for showing and other purposes.

Pigeons have also featured in numerous experiments in comparative psychology, including experiments concerned with animal cognition. As a result, we have considerable knowledge of pigeon intelligence. For example, available data show that pigeons can discriminate between other individual pigeons and can use the behavior of another individual as a cue to tell them what response to make. Pigeons can also remember large numbers of individual images for a long time (e.g., hundreds of images for periods of several years). Additionally, pigeons can be taught relatively complex actions and response sequences, and can learn to make responses in different sequences.

One of the prominent findings from the research done on apes is that chimpanzees are capable of problem solving and that they do not arrive at their methods through trial and error Links to an external site.. The apes exhibit insight and demonstrate the intelligent behavior common in humans. Köhler states that these findings hold true for every member of the species. He wrote that “the correlation between intelligence and the development of the brain is confirmed."

The Use of Tools

One of the evidentiary components of animal intelligence is their use of tools. Tools are used by some animals, particularly primates, to perform simple tasks such as getting food or grooming. Originally thought to be a skill only possessed by humans, tool use requires some level of intelligence. Primates have been observed using sticks and stones as tools to accomplish tasks. Numerous bird species have also been noted as capable of using tools. The behavior has also been observed in dolphins, elephants, otters, and octopuses. Tools may also be used by animals for construction.

Recognition and Memory

A 30-year study at Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute has shown that chimps are able to learn to recognize the numbers one through nine and their values. The chimps further showed an aptitude for photographic memory, demonstrated in experiments in which the jumbled digits one through nine were flashed on a computer screen for less than a quarter of a second. Afterwards, the chimp, Ayumu, was able to correctly and quickly point to the positions where they appeared in ascending order. The same experiment was failed by world memory champion Ben Pridmore on most attempts.

The Teaching of Skills

Until recently, teaching was a skill that was thought to be uniquely human. Now, partially as researchers have become more sensitive to the transmission of culture in animals, the role of teaching among animal groups has become apparent. Teaching is not merely limited to mammals either. Many insects have been observed demonstrating various forms of teaching in order to obtain food. Ants, for example, will guide each other to food sources through a process called "tandem running", in which an ant will guide a companion ant to a source of food.

Cultural Transmission Links to an external site.

Culture, when defined as the transmission of behaviors from one generation to the next, can be transmitted among animals through various methods. The most common of these methods include imitation, teaching, and language Links to an external site.. Imitation has been found to be one of the most prevalent modes of cultural transmission in non-human animals, while teaching and language are much less widespread, with the possible exceptions of primates and cetaceans (Figure 1). Recent research has suggested that teaching, as opposed to imitation, may be a characteristic of certain animals who have more advanced cultural capacities, though this is debatable.
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Animal Cognition

Animal Cognition

Different animals are thought to have different kinds of cognitive processes.

Animals and Culture

KEY POINTS

TERMS

The Use of Tools

Recognition and Memory

The Teaching of Skills

Cultural Transmission Links to an external site.