Animal Behaviour - Visual Perspective Taking and Metacognition
Visual perspective taking shows the ability to understand what another person can see from their viewpoint. It reflects an early form of theory of mind, demonstrating that someone can mentally put themselves in another’s position and recognize that others may have a different visual experience or perspective than their own.
What is visual perspective taking supposed to show?
Theory of mind - being able to put yourself in anthers shows and understand what they see
Key Terms
What is visual perspective taking supposed to show?
Theory of mind - being able to put yourself in anthers shows and understand what they see
Give 2 studies looking at visual perspective taking in chimps
Tomasello 1999
- only small proportion of chimps looked around barrier towards stimulus, but of these few the majority of them only did so wh...
Give a study looking at visual perspective taking in dogs
Miklosi 1998 - gesticulating/looking at bowls
perform better than monkeys probably due to prior experience of gesticulating
What is deemed to be a more ecologically valid approach to studying visual perspective taking?
Tomasello 2003 - Sub/dom looking at food hidden behind barrier
sub can see food being placed, dom cannot
only goes for food when thinks...
According to Povinelli and Vonk, 2003, how is behaviour predicted?
Contingencies and situational clues
may not necessarily require understanding of mental states of others, despite using very complex ways of ...
Does the presence of higher cognitive abilities influences likelihood of consciousness and ability to suffer?
Who knows?!
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
What is visual perspective taking supposed to show? | Theory of mind - being able to put yourself in anthers shows and understand what they see |
Give 2 studies looking at visual perspective taking in chimps | Tomasello 1999 - only small proportion of chimps looked around barrier towards stimulus, but of these few the majority of them only did so when the experimenter did too. Povinelli 1990 - bucket head blinded guesser and knower paradigm - didn’t perform well to being with indicating some learning occurred |
Give a study looking at visual perspective taking in dogs | Miklosi 1998 - gesticulating/looking at bowls perform better than monkeys probably due to prior experience of gesticulating |
What is deemed to be a more ecologically valid approach to studying visual perspective taking? | Tomasello 2003 - Sub/dom looking at food hidden behind barrier sub can see food being placed, dom cannot only goes for food when thinks dom hasn’t seen it ie. behind barrier other interpretations and corresponding controls > barrier = safety, perspex used, sub avoids food when barrier is see-through even though still protective. Only one monkey used, no preference for eating next to barrier in its own right. > “evil eye” - Dom intimidates sub by looking at food. Doms door kept shut while sub choses food. |
According to Povinelli and Vonk, 2003, how is behaviour predicted? | Contingencies and situational clues may not necessarily require understanding of mental states of others, despite using very complex ways of prediction eg. Don’t go after the food if the dominant has orientating to it [because he has seen it and knows where it is] eg. he was present and facing the food when it was placed [so he saw it being placed and knows where it is] therefore he is likely to go after it |
Does the presence of higher cognitive abilities influences likelihood of consciousness and ability to suffer? | Who knows?! |
What are the two types of memory? | Implicit - behaviour changed but subconsciously, subjects cannot verbally report on contents Explicit - can verbally report on contents |
Who investigated “do animals know what they remember?” ie. metacognition | Hampton 2001 - within study either forced to continue with memory trial or given the option to opt out and not receive such a good food reward performed better when choosing to do the task than if forced will choose to decline more often if time period between stimuli is increased (indicating more likely have forgotten and know they have forgotten?) > may still be subconscious just two levels |
How may cognitive complexity impact “feelings consciousness” based decisions if not directly linked? | May increase range of situations where animals are able to anticipate +/- events -> anxiety, expectancy Increase range and complexity of situations leading to socially induced stress eg. witnessing others suffering May increase COPING mechanisms - predicting behaviour of others, avoiding situations, learning that a procedure is only short lived i.e. could decrease stress |
Define metacognition | Cognition about cognition - thinking about thinking - knowing what we know! |