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For example, several studies have shown that performance is better on, for example, a color discrimination (e.g. blue vs green) after the animal has learned another color discrimination (e.g. red vs orange) than it is after training on a different dimension such as an X shape versus an O shape.
The animal is then tested by being played an intermediate stimulus C, e.g. a 15 Hz tone, and observing whether the animal presses the lever associated with the positive or negative reward, thereby indicating whether the animal is in a positive or negative mood. This might be influenced by, for example, the type of housing the animal is kept in ...
On the one hand, one hypothesis proposes that some non-human animals have complex cognitive processes which allow them to attribute mental states to other individuals, sometimes called "mind-reading" while another proposes that non-human animals lack these skills and depend on more simple learning processes such as associative learning; [4] or ...
Mechanisms of inadvertent social learning relate primarily to psychological processes in the observer, whereas teaching processes relate specifically to activities of the demonstrator. [ 1 ] [ 12 ] Studying the mechanisms of information transmission allows researchers to better understand how animals make decisions by observing others ...
For example, many researchers focus on animals' understanding of intention, gaze, perspective, or knowledge (or rather, what another being has seen). Part of the difficulty in this line of research is that observed phenomena can often be explained as simple stimulus-response learning, since mental states can often be inferred based on observed ...
Naturally, some animals may not have as wide a range of personality as humans do. The species of the animal determines how the personality manifests itself. Likewise, a species may be predisposed to exhibit a category of personality more than other categories. So far, chimpanzees are the only animal shown to exhibit conscientiousness. [16]
For example, the genetic mutation for color vision allowed for a greatly increased efficiency in finding and foraging fruit. [1] Food caching behavior displayed in some birds and mammals is an example of a behavior that may have co-evolved with higher cognitive processes.
The ethological concept of species-typical behavior is based on the premise that certain behavioral similarities are shared by almost all members of a species. [1] Some of these behaviors are unique to certain species, but to be 'species-typical' they do not have to be unique, they simply have to be characteristic of that species.