Theories of Animal Memory


Book Description

First published in 1986. This book is concerned with the transition of animal learning from a strict stimulus-response (S-R) approach to a more cognitive approach. In response to noted past research that was guided by some perspective or theoretical framework based partly on a combination of research results and individual opinions about what animals can do. This volume was thus conceived as a collection of chapters in which animal memory researchers could publicly state their opinions about animal memory, with little concern for substantiating them with test data. This volume is organized in three main sections of three chapters each. The first section, The Grand Approach, is a collection of chapters with a meta-theoretical perspective. The second section, Memory Processes, presents three chapters concerned with the processes, properties, and mechanisms of short-term memory in animals. The third section, Theoretical Issues, presents two highly developed theories of animal memory, one based on pigeon short-term memory experiments and one based on delayed alternation in the rat




The Cognitive Animal


Book Description

The fifty-seven original essays in this book provide a comprehensive overview of the interdisciplinary field of animal cognition. The contributors include cognitive ethologists, behavioral ecologists, experimental and developmental psychologists, behaviorists, philosophers, neuroscientists, computer scientists and modelers, field biologists, and others. The diversity of approaches is both philosophical and methodological, with contributors demonstrating various degrees of acceptance or disdain for such terms as "consciousness" and varying degrees of concern for laboratory experimentation versus naturalistic research. In addition to primates, particularly the nonhuman great apes, the animals discussed include antelopes, bees, dogs, dolphins, earthworms, fish, hyenas, parrots, prairie dogs, rats, ravens, sea lions, snakes, spiders, and squirrels. The topics include (but are not limited to) definitions of cognition, the role of anecdotes in the study of animal cognition, anthropomorphism, attention, perception, learning, memory, thinking, consciousness, intentionality, communication, planning, play, aggression, dominance, predation, recognition, assessment of self and others, social knowledge, empathy, conflict resolution, reproduction, parent-young interactions and caregiving, ecology, evolution, kin selection, and neuroethology.




In the Light of Evolution


Book Description

Humans possess certain unique mental traits. Self-reflection, as well as ethic and aesthetic values, is among them, constituting an essential part of what we call the human condition. The human mental machinery led our species to have a self-awareness but, at the same time, a sense of justice, willing to punish unfair actions even if the consequences of such outrages harm our own interests. Also, we appreciate searching for novelties, listening to music, viewing beautiful pictures, or living in well-designed houses. But why is this so? What is the meaning of our tendency, among other particularities, to defend and share values, to evaluate the rectitude of our actions and the beauty of our surroundings? What brain mechanisms correlate with the human capacity to maintain inner speech, or to carry out judgments of value? To what extent are they different from other primates' equivalent behaviors? In the Light of Evolution Volume VII aims to survey what has been learned about the human "mental machinery." This book is a collection of colloquium papers from the Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium "The Human Mental Machinery," which was sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences on January 11-12, 2013. The colloquium brought together leading scientists who have worked on brain and mental traits. Their 16 contributions focus the objective of better understanding human brain processes, their evolution, and their eventual shared mechanisms with other animals. The articles are grouped into three primary sections: current study of the mind-brain relationships; the primate evolutionary continuity; and the human difference: from ethics to aesthetics. This book offers fresh perspectives coming from interdisciplinary approaches that open new research fields and constitute the state of the art in some important aspects of the mind-brain relationships.




Human and Animal Minds


Book Description

Claims about consciousness in animals are often made in support of their moral standing. Peter Carruthers argues that there is no fact of the matter about animal consciousness and it is of no scientific or ethical significance. Sympathy for an animal can be grounded in its mental states, but should not rely on assumptions about its consciousness.




Processes of Animal Memory (PLE: Memory)


Book Description

Originally published in 1976, this volume contains new and original contributions of the time addressed to a related set of ideas concerning processes of memory in animals. The theme is that animals remember and that theories of animal learning must take this into account as well as the coding processes that have been assumed to be specific to human beings. The focus of the book is on processes, and some progress is reported in differentiating types of memory. The emphasis in applying animal work to studies of human memory is made not in terms of paradigms but in terms of processes implicated via performance in a variety of tasks. Also, many of the chapters reflect the usefulness of applying a memory framework to a variety of "nonmemory" paradigms. This work will be essential reading for all those interested in animal as well as human memory, and provided the most up to date and broadest examination of animal memory processes at the time, from both a theoretical and conceptual framework.




Social Learning In Animals


Book Description

The increasing realization among behaviorists and psychologists is that many animals learn by observation as members of social systems. Such settings contribute to the formation of culture. This book combines the knowledge of two groups of scientists with different backgrounds to establish a working consensus for future research. The book is divided into two major sections, with contributions by a well-known, international, and interdisciplinary team which integrates these growing areas of inquiry. - Integrates the broad range of scientific approaches being used in the studies of social learning and imitation, and society and culture - Provides an introduction to this field of study as well as a starting point for the more experienced researcher - Chapters are succinct reviews of innovative discoveries and progress made during the past decade - Includes statements of varied theoretical perspectives on controversial topics - Authoritative contributions by an international team of leading researchers




Molecular Basis of Memory


Book Description

This special volume of Progress in Molecular Biology and Translational Science provides a current overview of how memory is processed in the brain. A broad range of topics are presented by leaders in the field, ranging from brain circuitry to synaptic plasticity to the molecular machinery that contributes to the brain's ability to maintain information across time. Memory systems in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala are considered as well. In addition, the volume covers recent contributions to our understanding of memory from in vivo imaging, optogenetic, electrophysiological, biochemical and molecular biological studies. - Articles from world renowned experts in memory - Covering topics from signaling, epigenetic, RNA translation to plasticity - Methodological approaches include molecular and cellular, behavioral, electrophysiological, optogenetic and functional imaging




Animal Rationality


Book Description

In Animal Rationality: Later Medieval Theories 1250-1350, Anselm Oelze offers the first comprehensive and systematic exploration of theories of animal rationality in the later Middle Ages. Traditionally, it was held that medieval thinkers ascribed rationality to humans while denying it to nonhuman animals. As Oelze shows, this narrative fails to capture the depth and diversity of the medieval debate. Although many thinkers, from Albert the Great to John Buridan, did indeed hold that nonhuman animals lack rational faculties, some granted them the ability to engage in certain rational processes such as judging, reasoning, or employing prudence. There is thus a whole spectrum of positions to be discovered, many of which show interesting parallels with contemporary theories of animal rationality.




Animal Memory


Book Description

Animal Memory is based on the proceedings of a symposium held at Dalhousie University in the summer of 1969. Each of the seven chapters provide broad coverage of the topic with which it is concerned, and the experimental work reported is representative of the most significant developments in the field. The book includes two studies on associative memory—the memory of one event which is essential to its association (over a delay) with subsequent events. One study shows that shows that animals can remember events from one learning trial to the next and that their behavior will be determined largely by the sequences of trials with differing outcomes; the other presents research on the association of flavors with toxicosis in a conditioning paradigm. Separate chapters deal with retentive memory—the retention and forgetting of learned behavior over time; and the physiological basis of memory in terms of consolidation theory. These studies demonstrate that animals do forget and examine theories of forgetting. The final chapter provides a critical discussion based on all of the foregoing material in which the topics covered in the book are related to current work on human retention and forgetting.




Contemporary Learning Theories


Book Description

This unique two-volume set provides detailed coverage of contemporary learning theory. Uniting leading experts in modern behavioral theory, these texts give students a complete view of the field. Volume I details the complexities of Pavlovian conditioning and describes the current status of traditional learning theories. Volume II discusses several important facets of instrumental conditioning and presents comprehensive coverage of the role of inheritance on learning. A strong and complete base of knowledge concerning learning theories, these volumes are ideal reference sources for advanced students and professionals in experimental psychology, learning and learning theory, and comparative physiology.