COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND PRIMATOLOGY

John Rae

Comparative Psychology
Study of the behaviour of nonhuman animals Sometimes For the sake of understanding human behaviour Domestic animals Rats, pigeon, cat

Primatolology
Study of Primates Biology, Psychology, Anthropology Physical Anthropology branch specializing in genus Homo, especially Homo Sapien Primates

(1) Darwin and biological continuity (2) Some Historical and Cultural Understandings (3) Developing the systematic analysis of behaviour (4) Ethology in the wild (5) Primatology: what are primates? (6) Primatology & Evolutionary Anthropology (7) Some leading Primatologists (8) Can Chimpanzees (and other primates) be taught a language? (9) Michael Tomasello (10) Other perspectives on Evolution and human nature

(1) Darwin and biological continuity

Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 19 April 1882) Darwin Origin of Species by Natural Selection Chance variations occur, Nature selects the best ones NB This is a remarkable metaphor nature is not literally making choices! Evidence NOT laboratory experiments But a vast amount of observational data Darwin was aware that this SELECTION process wasnt the complete story. (You cant produce a hit song by combining musical ideas randomly into songs then Selecting the best ones)
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Evolution of Brain and Behavior Origin of Brain Cells and Brains

Despite the age of the Earth (4.5 billion years), brain cells and brains are quite recent adaptations First forms of life: 3.5 billion years ago First brain cells: 700 million years ago First brain: 250 million years ago First human-like brain: 6 million years ago Modern human brain: 200,000 years ago

(2) Some Historical and Cultural Understandings of Animal Behaviour

Many human societies attribute characteristic traits to animals.

Muhammed Ali - Dance like a butterfly - Sting like bee

Anthropomorphism Anthropos human Morphe shape/form

The attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman beings/entities

Aristotle 350 BCE

The History of Animals The Parts of Animals
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Al-Jahiz (Goggle Eyes) (Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri) CE 781 - 868/869

The Kitab al-Hayawan The Book of Animals

Food Chains Struggle for Existence Ant Communication

Lloyd Morgans canon

In no case may we interpret an action as the outcome of the exercise of a higher mental faculty, if it can be interpreted as the exercise of one which stands lower in the psychological scale. An example of Ockhams razor/ Occams razor Aka Law of economy Law of parsimony Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem Entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity. Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate; Plurality should not be posited without necessity. Keep it simple. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007m0w4 William of Ockham 12851347/49
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C. Lloyd Morgan British Biologist 1852-1936

Edward Lee Thorndike 1874-1949 Law of effect Trial and error learning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk6H7Ukp6To
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B.F. Skinner Learning theory Laboratory experiments Operant Conditioning (aka instrumental learning) Antecendent Behaviour Consequence Schedules of reinforcement Positive reinforcement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrHA
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black rat (Rattus rattus)

Joint winners of Nobel Prize 1973

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1973 Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz, Nikolaas Tinbergen

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1973/

Karl von Frisch Bee communication Konrad Lorenz Greylag Geese Jackdaws

Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen Wolfbee Herring Gull

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Influence of Ethology on Psychology

John Bowlby
Mary Ainsworth Attachment theory [draws on ideas from psychoanalysis and ethology to consider The basis of the close relationships between human infants and their Carers, proposing that these prototypical relationships form the basis of Relationships with others throughout the lifespan]

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(5) Primatology: what are primates?

Prosimians New World Monkeys Old World Monkeys Apes

(bushbaby, lemurs, lorises, tarsiers) (marmosets, tamarins,howler~ squirrel~ capuchin~ monkey (Baboons, Macaques, Langurs) (Chimpanzee, Gorillas, Orang Utans, Bonobos)

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Primatology

[Insert fig. 1-11]

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(6) Primatology & Evolutionary Anthropology Evolution of the Human Brain and Behavior Humans: Members of the Primate Order

Humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor 5 10 million years ago Hominids: Evolved 5 million years ago Primates that walk upright; includes all forms of humans, living and extinct

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Evolution of the Human Brain and Behavior Australopithecus: Our Distant Ancestor
Austral: southern; pithekos: ape Our distant ancestor Gave rise to the genus Homo, or human Evolved 4 million years ago Brains were 1/3 the size of ours Among the first primates to walk upright

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Evolution of the Human Brain and Behavior The First Humans

Homo habilis (handy human) 2 million years ago; in Africa Made simple stone tools Homo erectus (upright human) Migrated to Europe and Asia 1.6 million years ago Larger brain than H. habilis More sophisticated tools than H. habilis

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Evolution of the Human Brain and Behavior The First Humans

Homo sapiens Appeared within the last 200,000 years Until 30,000 years ago in Europe and 18,000 years ago in Asia, coexisted with other hominid species Example: Neanderthals in Europe, who had comparable or even larger brains than H. sapiens Exact reason why we replaced Neanderthals is unknown

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[Insert Fig. 1-13]

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Evolution of the Human Brain and Behavior Relating Brain Size and Behavior

Jerison (1973) Principle of Proper Mass: Species exhibiting more complex behaviors will possess relatively larger brains Jerison developed an index of brain size to allow comparisons among different species Used body size to predict brain size

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[Insert Fig. 1-14]

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[Insert Fig. 1-15]

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(8) Some leading Primatologists Robert Yerkes 1876-1956

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Wolgang Kohler 1887-1967 The Mentality of Apes (1917) Insight =unlike trial and error learning

J.M Coetzee 19402003 Nobel Prize for Literature - Nothing to do with the exam, or the programme but his economic prose is a model of penetrating clarity his Elizabeth Costello provides a lot of material on animal rights issues, including a thought provoking analysis of Kohlers work.

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Jane Goodall Chimpanzees Gombe Stream National Park Tanzania Preferred assigning names, rather than numbers to animals. David Greybeard Goliath Figan Mike Humphrey Passion, Pom2828 Mel and Darbee Spindle and Beethoven --- Has a cameo in The Wild Thornberrys
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Franz de Waal Chimpanzees Conflict Resolution Food sharing Morality

Donna Haraway Crystals, Fabrics and Fields: Metaphors of Organicism in Twentieth-Century Developmental Biology (1976), Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science (1989) Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (1991

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 St Andrews Univ Richard Byrne spatial memory, communication and deception, thinking and planning, intentionality, and the acquisition of complex, novel manual actions. Andrew Whiten non-human and human primates, including social ('Machiavellian') intelligence, deception, cooperation, social learning and culture. Portsmouth, Sussex, Roehampton

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(9) Can Chimpanzees (and other primates) be taught a language?

Cross-fostering studies Kellogg and Kellogg (1933) female chimpanzee, Gua Raised with their son Production: never produced recognizable words Comprehension: appeared to understand only a few. Hayes (1951) Female chimp, Viki raised as a Viki as a human child Aged 6 years Production: 4 words (mama, papa, up, and cup) using her lips. only understood by family Comprehension understood more words, and some combinations of words.

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American Sign Language (ASL) Project Washoe 1967 Allen and Beatrice Gardner University of Nevada

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Washoe brought up as a human child age of 4, Production: about 85 signs, Comprehension: more 85+ Later: vocabulary 150200 signs many syntactic categories, nouns, verbs, adjectives, negatives and pronouns over-generalizations like (e.g. hurt to refer to a tattoo) created a new words: duck water bird combined signs: ve-word strings Washoe sorry, Baby down, Go in, Hug hurry, Out open please hurry. Good at understanding questions starting with what, where, or who, but she Problems with questions involving how, when, and why. Adopted son, Loulis, learned signs from Washoe

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Nim Chimpsky (November 19, 1973 March 10, 2000) Herbert S. Terrace Columbia University taught 125 signs

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Kanzi Bonobo Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh Efforts to teach Kanzis (adoptive) mother to use a lexigram boardLimited success At the age of 2 1/2 appeared that Kanzi had been eavesdropping age 6 years old - 200 symbols -rudimentary sentences

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwm4FEB9LC8&feature=fvw

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 (10) Michael Tomasello Max Planck Institute, Leipzig, Germany Field work and lab experiments Evolutionary Theory & Cultural Psychology Difference between nonhuman &human primates Uniquely human cognitive capacities Human capacity for a symbol-based culture In this a specific kind of development occurs
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6 Million years ago (Last Common Ancestor or chimps and humans) (we share) 99% share of Genetic material Like horse/zebras, lions/tigers yet we are Fundamentally different from Chimpanzees (language, tool use, industry)

The fact is, there simply has not been enough time for normal processes of biological evolution involving genetic variation and natural selection to have created, one by one, each of the cognitive skills necessary for modern humans To invent and maintain complex tool-use industries and technologies, complex form of symbolic communication and representation, and complex social organizations and institutions. (Tomasello, 1999, p.2)

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[so whats going on?]

Humans can Learn from other humans [in way that chimps dont learn from other chimps] [this allows us to develop] Culture [e.g. symbolic languages, traditions of tool use] [we dont to reinvent the wheel for ourselves, we can build on other Humans discoveries this provides a: ] Ratchet effect So alongside Phylogeny development of species Ontogeny development of an an individual member within a species There is History humans have a cultural history whereby discoveries are passed on

How is this possible? by understanding each other as intentional agents

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[note the what it says on the tin titles!] Tomasello, M. (1995). Language is not an instinct. Cognitive Development, 10, 131-156. Tomasello, M., Call, J., & Hare, B. (1998). Five primate species follow the visual gaze of conspecifics. Animal Behaviour, 55, 1063-69. Itakura, S., Agnetta, B., Hare, B., & Tomasello, M. (1999). Chimpanzees use human and conspecific social cues to locate hidden food. Developmental Science, 2, 448 - 56. Moll, H. & Tomaselo, M. (2004). 12- and 18-month-olds follow gaze to hidden locations. Developmental Science, 7, F1-F9. Behne, T., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2005). One-year-olds comprehend the communicative intentions behind gestures in a hiding game. Developmental Science, 8, 492 - 499.
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(10) Other perspectives on Evolution and human nature Edward O. Wilson Sociobiology Investigates social behaviors -and seeks to explain them in terms of Evolved behaviours Mating, territorialism, pack hunting Controversial when applied to humans: Mechanistic, deterministic, Ignores environmental factors

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Evolutionary Psychology
Human nature: set of evolved psychological adaptations Buss, D. M. (1995). Evolutionary psychology: A new paradigm for psychological science. Psychological Inquiry, 6, 1-30. Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2005). Conceptual foundations of evolutionary psychology. In D. M. Buss (Ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology (pp. 5-67). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Swarm intelligence (SI) Type of Artificial Intelligences based on Collective behaviour in decentralized systems

Prototypically: ant colonies Also schools of fish, flocks of birds Gerardo Beni & Jing Wang 1989
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A recent local story

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.And a book by someone who claims to have a similar way of seeing the world That animals do but who denies that she is a horse whisperer Temple Grandin
Animals fear details that people do not notice - Hyperspecificity of Perception Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson When an animal or an autistic person is seeing the real world instead of his idea of the world that means he's seeing detail. This is the single most important thing to know about the way animals perceive the world: animals see details people don't see. They are totally detail-oriented. That's the key. It took me almost thirty years to figure this out. During all that time I kept a growing list of small details that could spook an animal without realizing that "seeing in details" was a core difference between animals and people. The first small detail I saw spook a cow was shadows on the ground. Cattle will balk at the sight of a shadow. Then the workers get out the electric prods, because they have no idea what's scaring the cattle, so they can't fix it. I first saw cattle get spooked by a shadow thirty years ago, and I've been seeing it ever since.
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Michael Tomasello Lots of publications can be downloaded see the publications button on the home page http://www.eva.mpg.de/psycho/index.html St Andrews Scotland http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/news/Title,21506,en.htmlnd Comparative Psychology http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/whatsnew.html Primate Info Net National Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin Madison

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Conclusion
For zoologists nonhuman animals are intrinsically interesting and important for human survival For psychologists: Comparative psychology has facilitated the study of specific processes (e.g. learning) Primatology has helped us to understand human cognitive and cultural capacities and how they developed Happy reading!

You can accomplish anything you put your mind to if you stay persistent and disciplined, Timothy Z. Mosley (aka Timbaland)
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