PSY2304 Biological Basis of Behaviour Lecture 9 PDF

Lecture 9Theory of MindPSY2304Biological Basis of BehaviourTo h e a r t h e p r e s e n t a t i o n a s y o u g o t h r o u g h t h e s l i d e s , p l e a s e g o t o t h e S l i d e S h o w m e n u a n d c l i c k on “play from start”. You can also start from t...

Lecture 9Theory of MindPSY2304Biological Basis of BehaviourTo h e a r t h e p r e s e n t a t i o n a s y o u g o t h r o u g h t h e s l i d e s , p l e a s e g o t o t h e S l i d e S h o w m e n u a n d c l i c k on “play from start”. You can also start from the slide you are on using “play from current slide”. If you want subtitles, then click “always use subtitles”. Finally, you can just look at the slides without hearing me by using the up and down arrows after you open it.What I say in this presentation is either on the slides or in the notes that accompany them (see the notes page in PowerPoint on the View menu). Please click on the slide to advance after I’ve finished speaking or use the forward (and back) arrows to navigate. Deception Tactical Deception•Dishonest signals might derive from operant conditioning•Anecdotes of primate dishonesty•Deception and intention•Understanding the intentions of the individual to be deceivedèsome kind of Theory of Mind... Theory of Mind in Primates•3 levels of evidence about animals’ apparently deceptive actsØLevel 0: Unintentional -the result is a "windfall gain" ØLevel 1: Activities apparently directed towards a goal that can only be achieved if the receiver is deceived (but is learned, not understood)ØLevel 2: "Mindreading", involving the attribution of intentions to another animal “Mindreading”•Ability to infer what another animal can and cannot see•Attributes mental states to others•Acquired by age 5 in most children•The second Tutorial will focus on this issue. Theory of Mind (TOM)A typical TOM problem is illustrated below. In it two observers are depicted, one of whom knows what is in the box. Which one should a child select to learn what is in the box? The ability to answer this question correctly would suggest that the respondent had some idea that one observer possessed mental states that differed both from their own and from other observers. Now think about this...qHow would you determine if one of your friends had a theory of mind if you couldn’t use language?qWhat would you be able to come up with? You don’t have to pretend to be any less intelligent than you are –you just aren’t allowed to speak to one another or use written language. Self-Concepts in Primates•Here’s one approach to this problem.•Theory of others' minds ètheory of their own minds èconcept of the self •The mirror self-recognition experiment–chimpanzees, orang-utangs, (some) gorillas = pass –dolphins = pass–parrots = not demonstrated so far Gallup’s Mirror Test•Gallup (1970) studied the reactions of chimpanzees and macaques to their mirror reflections (8 hours per day for 10-14 days)•Over time, chimpanzees showed an increase in the number of self-directed behaviours that relied on the use of the mirror–Grooming parts of the body that would otherwise be visually inaccessible–Picking bits of food from the teeth whilst looking in the mirror •The monkeys, however, reacted to the mirror socially, as if treating it as a conspecific (as indeed had the chimpanzees during the first couple of days of exposure) The Mark Test•After the exposure period, all subjects were anesthetised and bright red marks were placed on visually inaccessible locations on the body –one eyebrow ridge –the opposite ear •Upon re-exposure to the mirror, chimpanzees touched the mark more than other parts of their body•The monkeys did not touch the marks any more than any other part of the body •Epstein, Lanza and Skinner (1981) trained a pigeon to peck at a mark on its breast using a mirror•Gallup (1982) has criticised this experiment for the artificiality of the training and also the lack of any other evidence of mirror self-recognition•Thomson and Contie(1994) reported difficulty replicating this resultMSR in Other Species Dolphin MSR•Reiss and Marino (2001) exposed two dolphins to reflective surfaces•Using a mark test procedure, they claim that the dolphins showed clear evidence of using the mirror to investigate marked parts of the body Te s tControl Self awareness and Theory of Mind?–The mark test gives interesting results across different species -but is it truly an index of self-awareness?–As I’ve remarked before, learning to control one’s actions on the basis of feedback in a mirror is undoubtedly a skill (e.g. shaving) but does it imply self-awareness?–Each time you shave do you think about it? Do you have to go through some process of recognising “that’s me” before you can begin?–We might be better off trying to discover why some species pass the mark test quite easily and others don’t without getting bogged down in issues of awareness and self-concept.–As for ToM-there is little evidence of this in animals other than human -there is more on this in the Tutorial. ReferencesGallup, G. G. (1970). Chimpanzees: Self-recognition. Science, 167, 341-343.Povinelli,D.J.,Nelson,K.E.&Boysen,S.T.(1990).Inferencesaboutguessingandknowingbychimpanzees(Pantroglodytes).JournalofComparativePsychology,104,203-210.Reiss,D.&Marino,L.(2001).Mirrorself-recognitioninthebottlenosedolphin:Acaseofcognitiveconvergence.Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci.,98,5937-5942.