What's Next?! - Object Permanence

The second part of the my study to is determine to what extent does animal intelligence compare to human intelligence. I will be using Piaget's 4 stage theory of cognitive development as a basis for my research. 
Jean Piaget's Stage Theory of Cognitive Development is a four-stage model of how the mind processes new information encountered. There are a few basic skills we learn during each stage.  The stages are as followed; sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. 

During the sensorimotor stage children (ages 0-2) gain an understanding of object permanence. Children comprehend that objects continue to exist even when they can not be observed.  

How to test if that animals have this ability; I will show the animal an object (in this case food, like bananas, apples, and peanuts) and then go hide it behind another object, such as a tree, fence post or bucket. If the animal perceives that the object has simply disappeared, then they do not have an understanding of object permanence. If the animal proceeds to go look for the object, then they demonstrate an understanding of this concept. Meaning that animals have the same cognitive abilities as young children.  

Here is a video of a child who does not yet understand the concept of object permanence. 

Here is another video. This child has a better understanding of object permanence and can find their toy after it was hidden under the blanket 

                          

I will be testing this with the goats! Stay tuned! 

Observation Studies from Scientists (Part 4)

Source 
Goodall, Jane. 1990.
Through a Window. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin

"Never shall I forget watching as, three days after Flo's death, Flint climbed slowly into a tall tree near the stream. He walked along one of the branches, then stopped and stood motionless, staring down at an empty nest. After about two minutes he turned away and, with the movements of an old man, climbed down, walked a few steps, then lay, wide eyes staring ahead. The nest was one which he and Flo had shared a short while before Flo died…in the presence of his big brother [Figan], [Flint] had seemed to shake off a little of his depression. But then he suddenly left the group and raced back to the place where Flo had died and there sank into ever deeper depression…Flint became increasingly lethargic, refused food and, with his immune system thus weakened, fell sick. The last time I saw him alive, he was hollow-eyed, gaunt and utterly depressed, huddled in the vegetation close to where Flo had died…the last short journey he made, pausing to rest every few feet, was to the very place where Flo's body had lain. There he stayed for several hours, sometimes staring and staring into the water. He struggled on a little further, then curled up—and never moved again."

(Goodall 1990, pp. 196–197)

 

Video: Emotions in non-human primates: Flint, Flo, and Grief 

Observational Studies from Scientists (Part 3)

Source 

Canfield J. Hansen M. V. Becker M. Kline C. 1998. 

Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul. Deerfield (FL): Health Communications.

I once observed a young elk in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, running across a snow field, jumping in the air and twisting his body while in flight, stopping, catching his breath and doing it again and again. There was plenty of grassy terrain around but he chose the snow field. Buffaloes will also follow one another and playfully run onto and slide across ice, excitedly bellowing “Gwaaa” as they do so (Canfield et al. 1998).

Video: Bison playing in the snow 

Observational Studies from Scientists (part2)

Source 

Poole J. 1998 .  

"An exploration of a commonality between ourselves and elephants."

Etica & Animali  (9/98) : 85 – 110. 

It is hard to watch elephants' remarkable behavior during a family or bond group greeting ceremony, the birth of a new family member, a playful interaction, the mating of a relative, the rescue of a family member, or the arrival of a musth male, and not imagine that they feel very strong emotions which could be best described by words such as joy, happiness, love, feelings of friendship, exuberance, amusement, pleasure, compassion, relief, and respect 
(Poole 1998, pp. 90–91). 

Video: Researchers from the Penn Museum visited Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in 2010 and watched baby elephants interact with each other. 

Video: Baby elephant playing. Once he falls, he finds comfort in going to his mother. 

Video: Don't worry, this one has a happy ending. Watch as the elephants promptly help their fellow elephant when it falls into the water. 

Video: Mama elephant helps her little one take a bath. You're Welcome :) 

Animal Intelligence Research from Bekoff

Interdisciplinary research conducted by Marc Bekoff on Animal intelligence provides compelling evidence that animals experience many emotions, including grief, joy fear and love. 

{Marc Bekoff is a professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, as well as co-founder with Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.  He has won numerous awards for his scientific research including the Exemplar Award from the Animal Behavior Society.}

In his research, Marc Bekoff suggests that in order to advance animal studies, you need to convince "the skeptics.” During research, scientific minds should be kept open to all points of view in order for humans to comprehend a real understanding of animal behavior and emotion. Since there seems to be a lack of consensus on the true nature of animal behavior, Bekoff argues that there is much evidence (and more continually accumulating) that supports animals have complex emotions. He felt that those that disagreed (i.e., Descartes and Skinner who believed that animals are like robots and are conditioned to automatically respond to stimuli), should share the burden of proof with those that argued their premise. 

His thought is by extending "research beyond the underlying physiological mechanisms that mask the richness of the emotional" part of animals is necessary in order to advance scientific knowledge on how emotions affects animals in their daily activities.

Continued on Next Blog Posts. 

Source:
Bekoff, Marc. “Animal Emotions: Exploring Passionate Natures .” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 1 Oct. 2000, academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/50/10/861/233998.

Smart Raccoons?

So while researching facts about animal intelligence, I ran across some very interesting facts about Raccoons! You know, that little nocturnal creature seeking midnight snacks. Yes, those raccoons, the ones with the bushy tails, the tiny human like hands and their bandit like face mask!  Who would ever think they were considered an intelligent animal with some pretty inquisitive cognitive abilities.

In fact, they were once considered as an alternative research lab animal, but lab techs had a difficult time keeping them in their cages. The raccoons would find ways to escape their cages in the evening and steal things! 

 Psychologist Lawrence W. Cole, established a colony of raccoons at the University of Oklahoma in 1907, experimenting with the learning, association and memory in raccoons.  Using E.L. Thorndike’s puzzle-box methodology, he placed animals in wooden crates with multiple latches in which the animals had to unlatch to escape.  Because of their tolerant nature, they independently concluded that raccoons bested the abilities of cats and dogs, most closely approximating the mental attributes of monkeys.

"Scientists such as Charles Darwin, William James and James Mark Baldwin all developed psychological theories based upon observations of their own children and pets." Cole kept his raccoons as both pets and research 'observational' subjects." 

Scientific naturalists characterize raccoons as cunning, mischievous and curious. Cole claimed that these characteristics possessed by the raccoons  " derived from complex forms of mental association, a quality that many scientists argued non-human animals did not possess. Psychologists considered curiosity a notable trait because it was a form of attention stripped of any utilitarian motive such as hunger or fear. It represented learning in its purest form". Of course, this drew criticism from others in the field of behaviorism.

Another experiment conducted by a critic of Coles, Walter S. Hunter involved placing the raccoons in competition with rats, dogs and children. Each had to recognize which of 3 light bulbs was going to turn on after a brief delay. The dogs were able to do so with a delay of 5 minutes. The raccoons took 25 seconds and were able to do it without even looking at the light bulbs. His conclusion was the raccoons like the children were able to identify the "correct stimulus" despite any changes or disruptions during the experiment. Still, this did not change Hunter's views on raccoons.

A recent paradigm test conducted by a group of researchers from the University of Wyoming and the USDA National Wildlife Research Center involved water displacement, a call back to the old Greek Aesop fable, "The Crow and The Pitcher" which tells about a thirsty cow figuring out how to obtain a drink from a low watered pitcher.  The researchers found the inquisitive nature of the raccoon solved a new approach on how to get to their prize (which was a floating marshmallow at the bottom of a long cylinder that had a low level of water). 

The researchers initially set stones on the rim of the cylinder. After the raccoons figured out how to put them in, they realized it would raise the water level. 2 raccoons were successful in acquiring the marshmallow by dropping in the stones, the 3rd 'innovative' raccoon decided to just tip the cylinder and obtain his marshmallow the easier way! 

The researchers concluded: "We suggest that raccoon performance in this paradigm reflected differences in tangential factors, such as behavior, morphology, and testing procedures, rather than cognitive deficiencies," They are just as cunning and investigative while captive as they are in wildlife.

Sources;

Pettit , Michael. “Raccoon Intelligence .” Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological Association, Nov. 2010, www.apa.org/monitor/2010/11/raccoon.aspx



For some further reading on these cuties, check out this fun article, "5 Reasons Why Raccoons Are Smarter Than You!" 
http://www.biotechpestmanagement.com/article.cfm?ArticleNumber=13