Questions and Answers of Methods Behavioral Research

17. What have been the general findings regarding attempted demonstrations of language learning in chimps and in dolphins? What is the overall conclusion regarding language learning in animals?
16. Distinguish between ASL and artificial language studies. What was the reasoning behind trying to teach animals these languages?
15. Define three features of language and give an example of teach. What is reference?
14. Define communication. Define language.
13. Describe an experimental task used for assessing cooperation in animals as well as a task used to assess deception. What results have been obtained?
12. Describe the false belief task used with children and the hidden banana task used with chimps to assess their ability to infer the thoughts of others. What results have been obtained?
11. What is a theory of mind? Define self-awareness and describe how it is commonly assessed in children.
10. What is the simplest form of tool use in animals? Give an example. Outline two examples of more sophisticated tool use in animals.
9. Outline Herrnstein’s (1979) experimental demonstration of concept learning in the pigeon.
8. Define transitive inference. Outline a research study in which transitive inference was displayed by animals.
7. Define numerosity. Outline a research study in which animals were shown to display numerical ability.
6. Briefly describe the case of Clever Hans and its eventual outcome.
5. Outline two research findings that are indicative of evolutionary adaptation in the memory abilities of food-storing birds.
4. Using a diagram, describe the delayed matching-to-sample procedure used to study memory in pigeons.
3. What is the biophilia hypothesis? What is anthropomorphism, and how do comparative researchers guard against it?
2. Outline Tinbergen’s four questions. Be sure to include the distinction between the ultimate cause and the proximate cause of a trait.
1. Define the term comparative cognition. What are two alternative terms that are sometimes used for this field of study, and why is comparative cognition generally preferred?
4. BALL FETCH BASKET means the opposite of BASKET FETCH BALL to languagetrained dolphins. This suggests that, unlike many of the language-trained chimps, these dolphins can understand the gr rules of
3. Results of the dolphin language experiments suggest that the dolphins mastered the (reference/productivity) aspect of language.
2. Dolphins have been taught to communicate acoustically as well as gesturally, which is evidence that they may be able to use sym language.
1. Dolphins, gorillas, and parrots are all (social/solitary) species that have relatively (complex/simple) brains, which makes them good candidates for studying language acquisition.
4. Results of the artificial language experiments strongly suggest that many of the chimpanzees mastered (reference/grammar) , but there is less evidence that they mastered (reference/grammar) .
3. One of the first artificial languages created was called “Yer .”
2. These studies allowed researchers to systematically assess the language abilities of chimpanzees in a (more/less) controlled setting than was the case with the sign language cross-fostering
1. Studies of animals’ ability to use symbolic languages created by researchers in a laboratory setting are known as (artificial/cross-fostering) language experiments.
8. Almost all apes that have been trained in ASL can demonstrate r , the ability to associate particular signs with particular objects or actions.
7. Simply rewarding correct signs with f tended to produce ref -type behavior that was oriented more toward producing signs than communicating with the researchers.
6. Researchers found that mod was the easiest way to teach sign language to the chimpanzees. They also found mol , which involves physically placing the ape’s hands in the correct position, to be
5. W was the first chimpanzee trained in ASL.
4. In c -f experiments, apes are raised in human environments.
3. Studies by the Gardners and others looked at whether chimpanzees could learn a symbolic, gestural language called A S L .
2. Early attempts to teach chimpanzees to speak failed miserably, probably because chimps (have / do not have) the v apparatus to produce speech.
1. Our closest relatives are chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas, known as the g a .
5. The alarm calls of vervet monkeys provide evidence that they are (capable / not capable) of r .
4. If you change the word “happy” to “unhappy”, you have altered the s content.
3. The phrase “the dog bit the man” differs in s from the phrase “the man bit the dog”.
2. Shelly sees a door that has a sign on it with a stick figure wearing a skirt. She knows that this is a women’s washroom because the picture is a s that many people use and understand.
1. The process of sending and receiving s is known as c .
5. There is a great deal of a evidence of misinformation among chimpanzees, but further controlled testing is necessary to determine whether this behavior is i .
4. Chimps can learn to point toward an empty container when interacting with an u trainer. This is evidence that chimps are capable of d .
3. Bonobos are (more/less) successful in cooperative tasks than chimps, which is likely related to that species being (more/less)competitive over food.
2. In the r task, two animals must c by pulling at the same time in order to get food.
1. Intentional cooperation or deception requires a t of m .
3. Using the “hidden banana” task, it has been demonstrated that chimps (can/cannot) use information about what dominant chimps know to make good decisions in a competitive task.
2. Julie knows that someone placed Billy’s teddy bear in a box, but Billy doesn’t know. When asked where Billy would look, Julie says he will look in the box.Julie is likely (older/younger) than
1. The f b task is used to determine whether a child can use information correctly to i what someone else would know.
4. There is considerable v within a species for many high-level cognitive abilities. This means that (all / not all) individuals within a species will show evidence of the ability.
3. Aside from primates, others species that show evidence of self-awareness include do , el , and mag .
2. Poppy the chimp is using a mirror to look at her teeth and her ears. Poppy is likely older than (24/28) months.
1. The m and m task is a classic test of s -a that has been used with a variety of species including humans.
2. Sharing or concealing information requires that you understand that you are s from others, and that the c of your mind is different from others’.
1. Camilla sees a spider near her sister Rory. Camilla knows that Rory is afraid of spiders, so she intentionally steps on the spider before Rory sees it. This intentional behavior could only occur
4. In order for tool use to start, there is likely some form of in that occurs where an item is used in a new way for the first time.
3. It appears that chimps learn to crack nuts through a long, gradual process of s l .
2. Chimps have also shown the ability to cr tools as well as mo existing tools.
1. Saving a tool for later use is common among p including chimpanQUICK QUIZ G zees, gorillas, and bonobos, but is (also/not) seen among other species.
3. Buzzards and vultures show (no/some) preference for the weight of rocks they use to crack open eggs. This is evidence of (more/less)cognitive complexity than basic tool use?
2. The simplest form of tool is an ex item like a stick or a rock.
1. Tool use by a species is evidence of understanding relationships between objects QUICK QUIZ F and their e .
4. When lemurs are tested for their ability to understand relationships among items, the species with the rigid social hierarchy is (more/less) skilled at relational decisions than the less social
3. Trevor is taller than Leah, and Leah is taller than Jeff. If you know that Trevor is taller than Jeff, then you have successfully made a t i .
2. Herrnstein’s study revealed that pigeons could g their discrimination to novel pictures of trees, which suggests that they had learned the c of tree.
1. Herrnstein (1979) trained pigeons to peck at pictures of trees, and not at nontrees. This is a d t procedure.
6. Although small numbers seem to be tracked and understood by a variety of species, larger numbers seem to be only understood by older h .
5. Using the same bucket task, lemurs seem to track differences between placed versus found items based on (proportion / absolute quantity) .
4. Using a bucket with a false bottom, researchers have determined that human infants will (continue / not continue) to search if 3 items were placed in the bucket but only 2 items can be seen.
3. Results from Koehler’s studies indicate that some birds can distinguish q from vo or s .
2. Koehler used a direct m - to-s task in order to determine whether parrots could match cards with different n of items on them.
1. The case of C H reminds us that it is often important QUICK QUIZ D to have testers or experimenters who are b to the conditions or expectations of the test.
3. The h is an area of the brain that is important for spatial memory, and food storing birds tend to have (greater/lesser) volume in this area.
2. In a test comparing chickadees to juncos, it was found that chickadees pay more attention to the l of an item than to the c .
1. When comparing Clark’s nutcrackers to other corvids, the nutcracker has better QUICK QUIZ C sp m , which is important for food storing.
4. On directed forgetting tasks, pigeons are (less/more) likely to select the correct stimulus following exposure to the forget cue.
3. In a directed forgetting task, the pigeon is shown a cue during the period, which signals whether the s stimulus needs to be r or can be f .
2. A useful procedure for studying memory is a d m -tos task. In it, the animal is first shown a s stimulus and then, following some d , is required to select that stimulus out of a group of
1. Memory is often a matter of s d in which one is first QUICK QUIZ B exposed to a stimulus and is then required to respond to that stimulus at a later time.
3. Humans have a tendency to be interested in animals and nature. According to the b h , this is an i p .
2. Tinbergen’s “four questions” are related to the u c of a trait and the p c of a trait.
1. Comparative cognition is the study of i p across a variety QUICK QUIZ A of species.
17. Define behavior systems theory. Describe the results of sign-tracking studies in rats that indicate the importance of environmental cues.
16. List two implications for treatment and four implications for prevention that have grown out of activity anorexia research.
15. What type of chemical substance in the brain seems to play a role in the development of anorexia? Briefly describe the evolutionary explanation for the occurrence of activity anorexia.
14. List three similarities (other than low food intake) between activity anorexia in rats and anorexia nervosa in humans.
13. Define activity anorexia. What is the basic procedure for inducing this behavior pattern?
12. What are displacement activities? What are two benefits that may be derived from such activities?
11. List four characteristics of adjunctive behaviors.
10. What is schedule-induced polydipsia, and what is the specific procedure for experimentally inducing it in rats?
9. Define adjunctive behavior. What other term is used to refer to this class of behaviors?
8. Define autoshaping and describe the procedure used to produce it.Describe the research result that seems particularly supportive of a stimulus-substitution interpretation of autoshaping.
7. What is sign tracking? Describe the experimental example of sign tracking in dogs.
6. What is instinctive drift? Describe (or diagram) one of the Brelands’examples of instinctive drift.
5. Describe two examples of the role of preparedness in operant conditioning.
4. Describe (or diagram) the results of the full experiment by Garcia and Koelling that illustrates the role of biological preparedness in classical conditioning.
3. Outline three ways in which taste aversion conditioning differs from most other forms of classical conditioning.
2. Define taste aversion conditioning and diagram an experimental example.
1. Define preparedness and CS-US relevance.
3. In the sign-tracking experiment with dogs, the light that predicted food seemed to activate the (predatory/consumatory/social) component of the dog’s feeding system.
2. In terms of behavior systems theory, Bolles’ notion of sp-sp d reactions (SSDR) is concerned with responses that appear to be driven by the defense-against-predators system.
1. According to theory, an animal’s behavior is organized QUICK QUIZ N into a number of s , such as feeding and mating, each consisting of a set of relevant responses that can be activated in
2. Specific suggestions (derived from activity anorexia research) for minimizing the risk of anorexia in humans include eating (several/one) meal(s)per day, increasing exercise levels

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