COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY Animal Cognition

1. COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGYAnimal Cognition Memory in non – human animals EXAMPLES OF THE IMPORTANCE OF MEMORY IN ANIMALS Navigation – involves the orientation and movement towards different locations in the environment. Memory enables animals to move between locations associated with different activities such as, sheltering, hiding, breeding, nesting and feeding. Tinbergen’s (1952) field experiments on digger wasps illustrated the importance of memory for the spatial arrangement of landmarks in locating home sites after absence, by shifting and altering them around digger wasp’s burrow. Tolman (1946) demonstrated spatial memory in rats navigating through mazes. CONT… LANA CROSBIE

2. COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGYAnimal Cognition Memory in non – human animals EXAMPLES OF THE IMPORTANCE OF MEMORY IN ANIMALS CONT. Foraging – is seeking of food from the environment. Memory is important for foraging animals to remember where safe and productive food sites are located and where they may have previously hidden food (food caching) Balda and Kamil (1992) found that captive Clark’s nutcrackers, birds that each hide thousands of seeds in autumn, were able to remember their cache locations up to 40 weeks later. Menzel (1973) found chimpanzees carried around an enclosure while a researcher hid food, could later remember where most of it had been buried and collect it using efficient shortcuts. LANA CROSBIE

3. COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGYAnimal Cognition Memory in non – human animals EXPLANATIONS OF NAVIGATION AND FORAGING MEMORY PHYSIOLOGICAL THEORY (HIPPOCAMPUS) – The hippocampus seems to have ‘place cells’ that respond to movement into specific ‘place fields’ in the environment, and appears to regulate spatial memory through the use of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Research studies: Case studies – humans with hippocampus damage have problems finding their way around. Surgical removal / drug inhibition – within rats affect their ability to learn new radial or Morris water mazes. Microelectrode recordings – of rats’ hippocampal cells has found that particular (place) cells will repeatedly respond when the rat moves into a particular part (place fields) of a maze and /or carries out particular behavioural acts, e.g. feeding (O’ Keefe and Nadel, 1978). LANA CROSBIE

4. COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGYAnimal Cognition Memory in non – human animals EXPLANATIONS OF NAVIGATION AND FORAGING MEMORY COGNITIVE THEORY (COGNITIVE MAPS) – Is a powerful memory of landmarks that does not just represent spatial arrangement but also allows novel (not previously experienced) short cuts to be made between locations. Research studies: Some tests on rats in mazes, chimpanzees in areas of hidden food and bees moving between nectar patches have appeared to show that animals can take short cuts and arrange optimal routes between locations, thus indicating the use of cognitive maps. Bennett (1991, 1996) argued that none had yet conclusively ruled out all alternative simpler explanations such as, guaranteeing that the short cut had not been taken before or that the locations had not just been visually recognised from new angles. LANA CROSBIE

5. COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGYAnimal Cognition Memory in non – human animals EXPLANATIONS OF NAVIGATION AND FORAGING MEMORY EVOLUTIONARY THEORY (ADAPTATION) – Sherry et al (1992) suggests that spatial memory evolves in species whose existing behaviour and environmental niche requires this adaptation. Thus a species with a greater need to explore its environment for food, mates, nesting sites etc. will evolve greater memory abilities in order to survive. Research studies: Tests of spatial memory have shown that bird species that cache food perform better than closely related species that do not cache. Not all studies have revealed similar result, indicating that the need to use memory for other purposes may lead to the evolution of general memory abilities. LANA CROSBIE

6. COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGYAnimal Cognition EXAM QUESTIONS Critically consider research (explanations and/or studies) relating to the role of memory in navigation and foraging in non-human animals. (24 marks) (a) Describe two or more explanations of memory in non – human animals. (12 marks) (b)Assesthe importance of memory in foraging behaviour. (12 marks) Describe the importance of memory in navigation (e.g. spatial memory) behaviour in non - human animals. (24 marks) LANA CROSBIE