Pab L1

Front 1

What system was used by philosophers to rank animal species?

Back 1

Great Chain of Being, or the Scala Naturae

- rank on behavioural complexity, physiology, intelligence
- humans always top except in some cases god

Front 2

Dualism Theory
- Who's idea?
- What is it?

Back 2

Dualism (mind- body dualism)
- Descartes (1596-1650)
- two fundamental causes of human behavior: reflexes and free-will (reflx- auto reaction to env) free w (env stimuli not nec, conscious choice)
-animals only capable of reflexes

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Front 3

Descarte believed in nativism
- what is nativism and how did it affect other theories?

Back 3

Nativism- certain concepts (such as the concept of a God) were innate and shared by all humans
- British Empiricist theories against nativism began forming (contents of the mind were acquired as a result of our sensory experience)

Front 4

3 British Empiricists
- who were they?
- What were their theories?

Back 4

- John Locke - knwlge built from sens exp, beh influ by our exp
- Thomas Brown (1778-1820) - two sensations became more easily associated if they occurred close in time
- Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) - Hedonism - voluntary behavior was influenced by positive and negative consequences; people act in ways that have pleasurable outcomes and avoid acting in ways that have negative outcomes

Front 5

Descartes reflexes, what are the three main components?

Back 5

1 - a single set of nerves traveled from the sense organs to the brain and then traveled from the brain to the muscles
2 - ‘nerves’ were really hollow tubes carrying gases
3 - all reflexive behaviors were held to be innate and unalterable

Front 6

All three of Descartes theories of reflexes (in dualism theory) proved to be false. Who had the most important idea that differed? What was his theory?

Back 6

Ivan Pavlov(1849-1936)
Reflexive responses to stimuli could be learned - (his banished the 3rd point Descartes was making about reflexes being innate and unalterable.)

Front 7

Darwin challenged Descartes' view that humans were cognitive and animals were not with his theory of evolution. What three observations were key in developing his theory?

Back 7

1- individuals vary in their characteristics
2 - resources are limited
3 - not all individuals that are born will live long enough to reproduce

Front 8

Darwin proposed that present-day species “descended with modification” from a distant common ancestor
Darwin suggested we should expect to see both similarities and differences among species in physical characteristics.
What does this mean for cognition?

Back 8

- behavior and cognition are the products of the nervous system, we might expect to observe similarities and differences in cognitive and behavioral characteristics among different species ( the continuity hypothesis)

Front 9

What is the continuity hypothesis?

Back 9

This notion that we should expect to see similar types of cognitive processes in humans and nonhuman animals
- Darwin

Front 10

Psychologists are taking an “ecological” approach to animal learning and cognition.
- What is the 'ecological" approach?

Back 10

The study of the differences in cognition among species.
(are there adaptations in cognition just as there are in physical characteristics?)
-Second most popular area of study after continuity hypothesis

Front 11

How do we define learning for the purposes of this course?

Back 11

Learning - Having occurred when some experience with particular stimuli results in a relatively durable change in an individual’s behavior related to those or similar stimuli

Front 12

How can we measure learning?

Back 12

Evidence of learning comes in the form of a change in behaviour (however, behavior may change for many reasons other than learning)
- performance of a behavior involves many factors in addition to learning
- could be a change in stimulus (or environmental) cond. ex fatigue
- motivation can infl beh
Researchers thus often define learning in terms of mechanisms of behavior, rather than merely the performance of behavior, because of this learning-performance distinction.