PSYCH 486: ANIMAL MIND WINTER 2012 12 March 2012

Prof. Michael Beecher (Guthrie 327, 543-6545, beecher@u.washington.edu)

MGH 278 Tues Thurs 12:30-2:20

Class website: http://courses.washington.edu/anmind/

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 related fields, 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 find answers to 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: There is no textbook for the course. The readings in the course will mostly be from the research literature and will be posted to 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) The instructor leads the class. Instructor-led classes will often be used to provide an overview of a particular area. (e.g., history of the field, or self-awareness, or emotional expression). (2) 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) A research paper is presented seminar-style by two 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 2010) are off limits for seminar presentations this time.

Student-led seminars: These will be led by 2 students working as a team, and should be given in PowerPoint (ppt) format. Each student will participate in one of these group-led seminars. The seminars will typically focus on one particular research paper but if the paper is short, or if there are two related papers, two papers can be covered. The presenters should assume that the audience has read the paper/s and should therefore concentrate on boiling down and summarizing the main points of the research. The presenters 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 quizzes, 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.

Guidelines for seminar ppt presentations

SEMINAR TOPICS/TEAMS

Student emails and seminar topics

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 3 exams, each one covering the most recent papers we’ve read and discussed in class. The first two will be take-home, and only the better of the two will be counted (which means you can skip one or the other, but see below). The third exam will be in the final class period and cannot be replaced. Note: should you do more poorly on exam 3 than on the first two, I will EITHER count the best of the first two exams plus the third exam (as stated above) -OR- I will average all three exams (I will automatically compute the grade both ways and give you the higher grade).

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.

	Points	Points to Grade Point
Attendance	35	200	max poss
Participation	35	185	4.0
Seminar	30	175	3.8
Exams	100	165	3.6
SUM	200	155	3.4
		145	3.2
		135	3.0

► Access our Dropbox (Catalyst)

Schedule: starred (*) readings are optional!

Week	Day	Topic	Readings / Videos
1	Tu 03 Jan	Introduction lecture notes	How Smart are Animals?
	Th 05 Jan	History	Gould 2004a Gould 2004b Wynne 2007
2	Tu 10 Jan	Dogs vs Wolves	Hare et al 2002 Viranyi et al 2008 Jigsaw Udell, Dorey & Wynne 2008
	Th 12 Jan	Theory of Mind 1 lecture notes	Call & Tomasello 2008
3	Tu 17 Jan	NO CLASS
	Th 19 Jan	NO CLASS – SNOW DAY
4	Tu 24 Jan	Social theory of intelligence lecture notes	Herrmann et al 2007 critique & reply Jigsaw Link to videos
	Th 26 Jan	Theory of Mind 2 lecture notes	Hare, Call & Tomasello 2006 Kaminski, Call & Tomasello 2008
5	Tu 31 Jan	Theory of Mind 3 "Wild Chimpanzees Inform Ignorant Group Members of Danger"	EXAM 1 KEY (due by midnight 31 Jan): Hare et al 2010 Udell & Wynne 2010 Schmeltz et al 2011 video supp material Class Reading: Crockford et al 2012
	Th 02 Feb	Do animals care about others ? 1	Paukner et al 2009 (Christine, Patricia B.)
		Mirror self-recognition & awareness

: starred (*) readings are optional!

6	Tu 07 Feb	Do animals care about others? 2
		Do animals care about others? 3	Horner et al 2011 (Bryan, Breana)
	Th 09 Feb	Dolphins	Bender et al 2009 (Juliann, Kate)
		Episodic Memory
7	Tu 14 Feb	Episodic Memory	Martin-Ordas et al 2010 (Geoff, Emily)
		Humans talk to animals and vice-versa
	Th 16 Feb	Interspecific Communication	Kitchen et al 2010 (Maeghyn)
		Elephants	EXAM 2 KEY Thornton 2008 *Skoyles *Horner et al reply to Skoyles *Haun & Call
8	Tu 21 Feb	Elephant insight	Foerder et al 2011 (Raleigh, Anna)
		Empathy	[de Waal 2008]
	Th 23 Feb	Chimps – Bonobos – Humans	Herrmann et al 2010 (Ariel, Patricia C.)
		Emotion 1	*Nesse & Ellsworth 2009 *Dawkins 2008 *Parr & Waller 2006
9	Tu 28 Feb	Measuring emotional state	Sandem et al 2002 (Russell, Saethra)
		Emotion 2	*Bekoff 2000
	Th 01 Mar	Reintroduction/Conservation	Russon 2009 (Kim, Ellen & Audrey)
10	Tu 07 Mar	Cultural Transmission	Dindo et al 2011 (Maddy, Briana)
		Signals of Aggressive Intent
	Th 09 Mar	EXAM 3 (take-home, due Friday midnight)	KEY Range et al 2009 on dog jealousy