PSYCH 486: ANIMAL MIND
Winter 2014
20 March 2014
Prof.
Michael Beecher (Guthrie 327, 543-6545, beecher@u.washington.edu)
MGH
271 Tues Thurs 12:30-2:20
Class website: http://courses.washington.edu/anmind/
(Note: always
refresh your browser on opening website to get
updated version)
How similar are animal minds to
ours? Can we ever really know animal minds? Do animals have conscious
experience and feelings like we do? How smart are animals? These kinds of
questions have fascinated and bedeviled scientists back at least to Aristotle.
Throughout the history of psychology and biology, the questions have resurfaced
repeatedly, and we are now in the midst of the latest revival of hopes that we
may actually be able to answer them.
The
course will encourage a critical, skeptical examination of research and theory
in the study of animal thinking. For background, a prior course in animal
behavior (e.g., 200 or 300) is recommended but not required.
Reading: We will use a ‘primer’ (it’s only 124 pages)
by Sara Shettleworth, “Fundamentals of Comparative Cognition,” to give us a
common base. Most of the reading in the course, however, will be of original
research papers. These will be posted on this website.
Format: The course will
be mostly in a discussion or ‘seminar’ format, with lecture minimized. Classes
(a ‘class’ generally refers a 50-min segment of our 1:50-hour class period)
will follow one of the following three general formats. (1) Instructor-led: Instructor-led classes will often be used to
provide an overview of a particular area. (e.g., history of the field,
‘self-awareness’, ‘emotional expression’).
(2) “Jigsaw” format: The
readings (either a longer paper or more often a group of papers) will be parted
out to students (usually in groups of 2 or 3) so that each group will be the
‘experts’ on some part of the readings. We orient the discussion around
mini-presentations by the group. I will usually leave time at the outset for
the groups to confer and make sure they understand their piece of the jigsaw. (3) Seminar format: A research paper is
presented seminar-style by a student, or a pair of students; the seminar format
is described further in the next section. Most (but not all) of the papers we
read will be of original research, rather than a review or a theoretical paper.
I will suggest papers but am also happy to take suggestions from students, so let
me know (pretty soon) if there’s a particular paper that interests you. Note:
papers from the last time the course was given (Spring 2012) are off limits for
seminar presentations this time.
Student-led seminars: These should be
given in PowerPoint (ppt) format. Each student will participate in one of these
seminars. The seminars will typically focus on one particular research paper. The presenter should assume that the
audience has read the paper and should therefore concentrate on boiling down
and summarizing the main points of the research. The presenter should leave
room for discussion, both during and after the presentation. A seminar’s
effectiveness can be judged (in part) by the amount of discussion it generates
(though the paper itself of course must get a lot of the credit/blame). These
research papers are the main content of the course, and will be the major items
covered on the exams, so I will post the ppt presentation after the class
(presenters give their ppt to me before, during, or right after the class).
Hints for students in the audience on how to make the most of these seminars:
First, read the paper before the class. If you are pressed for time, at least
skim it for its essence. Ask questions about the paper in the seminar. Try and
relate it to what you’ve learned to that point in the class, and to your
knowledge of psychology or biology generally.
Links:
·
Guidelines for
seminar ppt presentations
Lecture notes: Lecture will be minimized and provided only where I feel the need to supply background. In those cases, I will post lecture notes on the website (follow the links in the Topics column) after the class.
Exams: There will be 2 take-home exams, each one covering its part of the
course but because the class is cumulative to some degree, Exam 2 will be
somewhat longer (and be worth more). The exams will be open-book, but you will
be expected not to consult with anyone else (honor system). I will ask you to
make a statement to this effect. You will have approximately 72 hours for each
exam; for both exams there will be no class during the take-home interval. You
get your exam to me by dropping in the class Catalyst dropbox (link will be
provided), and I return it to you the same way.
Grading: Grade
weights are given below. Attendance
scale: figuring 18 class periods, 36 points (2 per class) if you make every
class, 35 if you miss just one, -2 for every miss beyond one. Seminar grades: 30 points for perfection
(requires a really novel presentation that makes the paper much clearer than it
was when we read it); 28 points for near-perfection, 26 points for really good
but containing a flaw. Unless something really bad happens (e.g., you fail to
show up), I expect everyone to get 25 points or more on their seminar. (If you
read all of this carefully, you will see it is hard to get a bad grade in this
course so long as you come to class and do the work!)
|
|
Points |
|
Points to Grade Point |
|
|
Attendance |
35 |
|
200 |
max poss |
|
Participation |
35 |
|
185 |
4.0 |
|
Seminar |
30 |
|
175 |
3.8 |
|
Exam1 |
40 |
|
165 |
3.6 |
|
Exam 2 |
60 |
|
155 |
3.4 |
|
SUM |
200 |
|
145 |
3.2 |
|
|
|
|
135 |
3.0 |
► Access our
Dropbox (Catalyst)
Tentative
Schedule. This is incomplete (especially
the second half) and will be filled out as we go along. (But exam dates are
fixed.)
|
Week |
Day |
Topic |
Readings / Videos |
|
1 |
Tu 07 Jan |
Course
organization |
|
|
Th 09 Jan |
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|
2 |
Tu 14 Jan |
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|
Th 16 Jan |
Different perspectives
on the field and its history |
Gould primer article on animal cognition 2004a Gould
on Griffin’s revolution 2004b
|
|
|
3 |
Tu 21 Jan |
Shettleworth
Chapt 2 |
|
|
Mirror self recognition – two classic studies and a more recent one |
|||
|
Th 23 Jan |
Shettleworth
Chapt 3 |
||
|
“Are
Animals Intelligent?” |
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|
4 |
Tu 28
Jan |
||
|
Th 30 Jan |
Corvid mind: tool use & insight learning |
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|
5 |
Tu 04 Feb |
Theory of mind (cont.) |
|
|
Th 06 Feb |
(posted Weds 8 am, due Sat 8 am) |
optional
readings are red-starred (*)
|
6 |
Tu 11 Feb |
*Morey
1994 *Trut
1999 on Russian foxes *Wang
et al 2013 on parallel positive selection in dogs & humans |
|
|
Th 13 Feb |
Range
& Viranyi 2013 (Alexis) |
||
|
Viranyi
et al 2008: dogs read pointing better than wolves (Anne-Lise) *Udell
et al (2008): wolves read pointing better than dogs (mdb) |
|||
|
7 |
Tu 18 Feb |
Range
& Viranyi 2014 (Alisia) |
|
|
Th 20 Feb |
|||
|
8 |
Tu 25 Feb |
Bruck
(2013) – decades-long social memory in dolphins (Robert) |
|
|
Fiorito
& Scotto (1992) – Octopus observational learning (Dominic) |
|||
|
Th 27 Feb |
|||
|
Jensen
et al 2006b (Becca) |
|||
|
Warneken
et al 2008 (Jen) |
|||
|
Tu 04 Mar |
|||
|
Th 06 Mar |
|||
|
10 |
Tu 11 Mar |
Wrap-up
with pizza |
Shettleworth Chapt 5 |
|
Th 13 Mar |