University of California Davis
Animal Cognition PSY 127
Summer Sessions
Session 1 Section 1
Units: 4
CRN: 12345
Lecture: 184 Young Hall
Time: M-T-W-Th: 16:10-17:50
Instructor: Chris T. Tromborg, Ph.D.
Office: 268 F Young Hall
Assistant: To be announced
Time: M-T-W: 13:20-14:00
Phone: UCD 1-530-754-8298
Voice 1-916-558-2514
e-mail: cttromborg@ucdavis.edu
Website: christromborg.com
Course Assistant: Richard G. Coss
Contact Information: rgcoss@ucdavis.eye
Textbook: Cognition, Evolution, and Behavior (2nd ed.).
by Sara J. Shettleworth
Oxford University Press: 2010.
ISBN: 9780-1953-1984-2
Course Description
Animal Cognition is a 4 unit upper division course. Prerequisites include Psychology 1,
Psychology 41, Psychology 101, or consent of the instructor. The course format features three
two-hour lectures and one exam period each week. Lectures are augmented with extensive video
support. This course focuses on the processes of learning and memory which allow organisms to
adapt to constantly changing environments. The course begins with a historical retrospective into
the development of the philosophy of science, the scientific method, and early perspectives on
learning and memory. The course considers the importance of evolution, instinct, development,
learning, and experience in the acquisition and expression of behavior.
However, we emphasize learning and memory. The anatomy of the nervous system, short
term memory, long term memory, constraints on learning, facilitated learning, and unique
adaptations of the nervous system are explored.
Controversies related to the relative importance of innate versus acquired factors in
cognitive development and competency are considered.
The instructor will employ a comparative approach in surveying the course materials,
utilizing a multitude of cross-taxonomic examples to illustrate the fundamental principles of
cognition.
Upon completion of this course, students should possess an improved appreciation for the
complexity of the mechanisms underlying innate (evolutionary) and acquired (experiential)
processes and how their integration produces cognition.
More precisely, you should be able to:
> Articulate how the scientific method is used to investigate the relationships between the
nervous system and animal cognition.
> Differentiate between the various techniques and approaches employed by scientists
investigating animal cognition.
> Employ critical thinking skills to assess the merits of claims made by proponents and
opponents of research in animal cognition as presented in the popular press.
> Explain individual variation and species differences in patterns of cognition and behavior.
> Analyze and describe some of the current theories used to explain the complexity of nonhuman
cognitive processes.
> Connect the role of neurological structures and specific adaptations to related specialized
cognitive processes.
> Develop strategies for using your knowledge of cognition to advocate for more responsive
environments for captive animals in zoos and laboratories.
Evaluation Procedures
There will be five equally weighted 50 point exams. Please purchase form #2000. The
lowest score from exams two, three, or four will be dropped during the calculation of the final
grade. Exams absolutely must be taken on the Thursdays when scheduled except for
compelling reasons. The tests will consist of objective (multiple choice) items, derived from
both the textbook and the lecture.
There is simply too much material in the assigned readings to be covered during the time
allocated for lecture.
Consequently, students are expected to read all assignments before each lecture and are advised
to read beyond the minimum assignment. This facilitates more productive, illustrative discussion
in class.
Responsibilities and Suggestions for Success
Psychobiology, Biology, Physiology, Sensory Processes, Animal Cognition, or
Environmental Awareness would provide students with a useful background for this course.
Attendance is important. You are encouraged to attend class: Students who do not attend lecture
during the first week will be dropped from the course. Thereafter, students missing more than
eight hours of lecture may be dropped from the class. It is your responsibility to officially obtain
a withdrawal from this course. Failure to do so may result in a grade of F.
Please attempt to arrive to class on time and plan to remain for the duration of the lecture to
minimize disrupting others. Students should not engage in conversations unrelated to course
materials during lectures.
Students are encouraged to remain current in the readings in order to facilitate discussion in
class. Prepared students are able to present informed questions that can clarify points of
confusion for themselves and others.
You should consider bringing topical materials to class and then to participate in class
discussion. Failure to participate will be reflected in your performance on exams and in your final
grade.
Outside of class, students should attempt to work together on course materials, including
studying for exams. Students must take exams when they are scheduled. A student missing an
exam will receive zero points and this score will be treated as their low exam score, which is not
entered into the consideration of the final grade.
Students missing two exams or receiving a grade of D or lower on two exams are likely to be
automatically dropped from the class.
Students must arrive within fifteen minutes of the beginning of the exam, after which the exam is
closed: You have up to 60 minutes to complete exams. No active electronic devices may be used
within the context of exams unless authorized by your professor, and then only for compelling
reasons. Cheating on exams will be rewarded with a grade of F and subsequent disciplinary
actions.
Students with learning or other disabilities should speak to the instructor, who will place them in
contact with the Disability Resource Center or other advising services.
Please deactivate all casual communication devices in the classroom.
Grading Scale
There is no +/- or curved grading.
200-180=A; 179-160=B; 159-140=C; 139-120=D; 119 and below=F.
Tentative Course Schedule
The term begins at the beginning of summer and concludes at the end of summer. July
4th is a national holiday.
We reserve the right to alter schedules as the course proceeds.
Week One: Introduction to the course, Textbook, AND instructor's perspectives.
Introduction to Animal Cognition
A Question of Animal Awareness
Historical Background
Cognition and the study of behavior
Ch. 1 pg. 3
What is comparative cognition about; Types of explanations for behaviour;
Approaches to comparative cognition; Summary.
Evolution, Behavior, and Cognition: A primer
Ch. 2 pg. 26
Basic CONCEPTS IN NEUROANATOMY AND neurophysiology; Testing
adaptation; Mapping phylogeny; Evolution, Cognition, and the structure of
behaviour; Evolution and the brain; What does all of this have to do with
Comparative Psychology; Summarizing and moving ahead.
Review for Exam One
Week Two: Exam One
Perception and Attention
Ch. 3 pg. 57
Specialized sensory systems; How can we find out what animals perceive; Some
psychophysical principles; Signal detection theory; Perception and
evolution--Sensory ecology; Search and attention; Attention and foraging-the behavioral ecology of attention; Summary.
Week Three: Learning: Behavioral and Cognitive Adaptation
Introduction to Pavlovian conditioning
Ch. 4 pg. 96
General associative processes; evolutionary, developmental, and sensory
constraints on learning; A framework for thinking about learning; When
and how will learning evolve; Pavlovian conditioning--conditions for
learning; What is learned; Conditional control of behaviour--occasional
setting and modulation; Effects of learning on behaviour; Conclusions.
Recognition Learning
Ch. 5 pg. 136
Deviation from general associative learning models; One-trial learning;
Habituation; Sensitization; Imprinting; perceptual learning; The behavioral
ecology of social recognition--recognizing kin; Forms of recognition
learning compared; summary.
Discrimination, Classification, and Concepts
Ch. 6 pg. 167
Untrained responses to natural stimuli; classifying complex natural stimuli;
discrimination learning; stimulus generalization; categorical discrimination
and concepts; constraints on learning; Summary.
Memory
Ch. 7 pg. 210
Functions and properties of memory; capacity; durability; procedural and
episodic memory; Methods for studying memory in animals; Conditions
for memory; Species differences in memory; Mechanisms; What is
remembered and why is it forgotten; metacognition; Memory and
consciousness; Summary & conclusions.
Review for Exam Two
Week Three: Exam Two
Getting Around: Spatial Cognition
Ch. 8 pg. 261
Mechanisms for spatial organization; navigation; migration; Modularity and
Integration; Acquiring spatial knowledge: The conditions for learning; Do
animals have cognitive maps; Summary.
Week Four: Complex Cognition continued
Timing
Ch. 9 pg. 313
Circadian rhythms; circumlunar rhythms; circumannual rhythms; Interval timing:
Data; Interval timing theories; Summary: Two timing systems.
Numerical Competence
Ch. 10 pg. 340
Numerosity discrimination and the analogue magnitude system; The object
tracking system; Ordinal comparison: Numerosity, serial position, and
transitive inference; Labels and language; studies with parrots and marine
mammals; Numerical cognition and comparative psychology; Summary.
Review for exam Three
Week Five: Exam Three
Consequences of Behaviour: Planning, Instrumental Learning, and Using Tools
Ch. 11 pg. 371
Choosing a mate; foraging; Long-term and short-term maximizing; Do animals
plan ahead; problem solving in chimpanzees, parrots, and dolphins;
Causal learning and instrumental behaviour; Using and understanding
tools; On causal learning and "Kiljoy" explanations; Summary.
Social Intelligence
Ch. 12 pg. 417
The social intelligence hypothesis; The nature of social knowledge; Intentionality
and social Understanding; self recognition; The theory of mind;
Cooperation; Summary.
Week Six: Fundamental Cognitive Processes
Social Learning
Ch. 13 pg. 466
Animal Social learning in context; Mechanisms: Social learning without
imitation; Mechanisms: Imitation; Do non-human animals teach others;
observational learning and instruction; Animal cultures; Summary & conclusions.
Week Six: Complex Cognition continued
Communication and Language
Ch. 14 pg. 508
Some basic issues; Natural communication systems; Trying to teach human
languages to other species; can apes learn to create sentences;
Language, evolution, and animal communication: New directions;
Summary & conclusions.
The neurobiology of learning and memory
Brain remodeling during development and with experience
Evolutionary adaptation: encephaloization
Proximate adaptation: plasticity
Summing up and Looking Ahead
Ch. 15 pg. 548
The distribution of intelligence: The null hypothesis.
The adaptive value of intelligence
Concluding comments on the utility of studying animal cognition
Summary of issues in comparative cognition.
Retrospective and Review
Week Six: Exam Five
Week Six: End of Summer Session I
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