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Examples of animal intelligence
Examples of animal intelligence
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Ever wonder how animals know so much? It’s simple. It’s all according to how they act and what they know. When an animal is born it has instincts. These instincts help the creature survive and cause them to behave certain ways. This is called Innate behaviors. Although, some things animals have been taught. Unlike Innate behaviors whereas it comes from the genes, other behaviors have to be learned. They are called Learned behaviors. Together, Innate and Learned behaviors can prove that animals are smarter then most people think.
To begin with, it is an innate behavior when an animal has the instinct to know when to mate and to which species. This is known as a Courtship behavior. For example, I own a fish and a snail which live in the same tank. During the mating time, they both know not to mate with each other. They won’t mate because they aren’t the same species. When they find their correct mate, they may use dances, songs, colorful displays, or pheromones to attack their mate. Usually birds do a dance or song while peacocks show the colorful displays of their feathers. This r...
In primates such as chimpanzees it is imperative to look at their culture to understand their intelligence. Culture in this circumstance means a specific set of behaviors obtained through learning in a population/species. Chimpanzee’s intelligence is quite unique how they interact with their environment and use it to their benefit just like humans. They have the ability to overcome the obstacles of everyday life through learning and the ability to use tools to create a better quality of life. The complexity of their intellect is different from any other animal ever seen. A significant part of chimpanzee intelligence that sets them apart from other primates and puts them closer to humans is the way they exhibit social learning within their culture and interactions within their environment.
Eagleman talks about unconscious learning, and explores how much of what we do daily is learned and directed by the unconscious mind. The first example is changing lanes: when we’re driving, we do it without thinking. However, when asked to describe how they change lanes, many people are flummoxed. Changing lanes is so automatic that when the conscious mind tries to take control, it confuses our brains and our gears become out of sync. The second example is chicken sexers: people who can sort chick hatching even though male and female chicks look exactly alike. The third example is plane spotters: people who could distinguish between enemy and ally planes thousands of feet in the air. In both cases, the people just knew! They couldn’t explain how they knew. Rather, after trial and error, their unconscious picked up on the slight cues that allowed to them tell the difference. The conscious mind, on the other hand, was unaware of this
“Tool use is rare in animals, and the chimpanzees stand out as the most proficient tool users besides humans” (Boesh, Boesch-Achermann18). Some debate has taken place between researchers regarding how these chimpanzees learn to use these tools and whether or not there is a difference between wild chimps and captive chimp’s tool use. Some theories say that chimps do not actively teach or are taught, but rather learn by observation, trial, and error; as stated in the article Thinking Like a Chimpanzee by Jon Cohen. This article also suggests that some reaserchers do believe that chimps do poses the capability to be taught and understand what they are learning.
In order to understand the present lifestyles relating to different approaches and tactics applied by humans in mate choice preferences, there is the need to refer to Darwin (1859, 1871) evolutionary perspectives. Darwin (1871) sexual selection is the driving force for males and females reproductive quest for their genes survival. These driving forces have been classified into two categories as intra-sexual and intersexual mate selection.Intersexual selection is male sexual selection process whereby males compete with other males and the females choose the strongest as their ideal partner. Intra-sexual selection occurs when the male species fight among themselves and the strongest gain access to females for
Learning in its most basic form is our minds associating one thing with another. Digging deeper reveals that there are trends in how human beings and animals learn by association, usually this is done by a brain connecting one event to another. The two different ways a brain tends to learn is through either classical conditioning or operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is learning to associate one stimulus with another stimulus, and Operant Conditioning is learning by associating a response or behavior with a consequence. Knowing how people and animals learn is an important piece of knowledge if one is to help benefit the greater good.
In philosophy, “epistemology is the study of knowledge” (Truncellito). The study of innateness falls under the idea of epistemology and focuses on the idea that we are all born already having knowledge, rather than being born having to learn everything in life. The theory of innateness is one that has been argued for centuries and it is argued to various extents of presence in the human mind.
... are determined by the stimuli in the environment we are in. Behaviourists believe that all behaviour is learned and in turn can be unlearned by pinpointing the stimulus which is provoking the behaviour and changing the individuals learned response towards it.
In efforts to find truth, Descartes used only his logic to identify his existence. He also proved that there is some type of knowledge that we are born with. “Some of our ideas seem to be “born with me,” some “invented” by me, whereas others “come from without” (Descartes, 2008, p. 211). Which means Descartes believed that we enter this world with some innate ideas that overtime helps us to develop understanding of our sense (invented by me) and through our experiences (comes from without). Descartes was a dualist; he stated that there existed something outside of our bodies. Descartes suggested that at the “ghost in the machine” theory developed by Gilbert Ryle, which states that there is some mystical being, which we understand is the mind, that is primary to the machine (or the body). Which leads me to believe, innate ideas are active within our minds.
Learning is one of the most fundamental ideas humans can process. The ability of humans to learn(a) certain task is the key to what separates them from other organisms. The dictionary definition of learning was previously stated. But thi...
Biological Basis Of Behavior Primary Behaviors of Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is defined as a "devastating psychotic disorder that may involve characteristic disturbances in thinking (delusions), perception (hallucinations), speech, emotions, and behavior (Durand and Barlow 443). This disorder affects nearly 2.5 million people. The symptoms of schizophrenia are usually divided into two categories, positive and negative. The positive symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech or thinking, grossly disorganized behavior, and catatonic behaviors, which means that you suffer from motor immobility (schizophrenia.com). Delusions are defined as a strong disorder of thought and false beliefs of reality.
It is nearly impossible to say whether non-human animals are intelligent. Most studies, in this field of psychology, were carried out on primates, and it is thought that these animals are naturally superior. It seems most behaviour in the research discussed in this essay can be explained through association learning, therefore not actually a result of intelligence. It is difficult to falsify whether animals are intelligent or not because, although they are able to solve problems they only show some aspects to suggest ToM.
Therefore, according to the above a general process learning theory is sustainable even in the presence of biological constraints as behaviour can be reinforced and manipulated in most cases to acquire a desired behaviour.
When a person utters the word “intelligence,” people tend to think of a genius like Albert Einstein developing some obscure equation that the great majority of the population will never understand. The problem with the definition of intelligence is that people relate intelligence to words like “genius” which require intelligence but do not have the same definition as intelligence. Often, people try to use related words to define intelligence, but these words are unable to define intelligence since many are only different levels of intelligence. While many definitions try to encompass the meaning of intelligence and various definitions describe a small part of intelligence, no definition completely explains intelligence, because intelligence is a concept that is understood only after realizing that intelligence is based on three basic concepts: logic, growth, and emotion. Although many people believe that humans are the only creatures capable of intelligence, other animals exhibit intelligence and are capable of further demonstrate the complex concept of intelligence.
Until recently most of our knowledge of the psychology of mammals, as of other animals, was obtained simply by watching them. In this way has been accumulated a large fund of information concerning their instincts and habits, and to a certain extent their general intelligence (Holmes 232). Many scientists feel that animals have a level of intelligence which involves a thought process and others think that animals are simply driven by pleasure mechanisms. For example, a cat gets pleasure from eating therefore he eats. But animals have an incredible capacity for memory which can lead us to believe that animals can remember the past, are aware of the present, and based on their surroundings can predict the future. So far linguists and philosophers have been correct in linking human behavior of other species are bound to suggest conscious thought to roughly the extent that it shares essential features with human speech (Griffin 39).
Behaviorism is the point of view where learning and behavior are described and explained in terms of stimulus-response relationships. Behaviorists agree that an individual’s behaviors is a result of their interaction with the environment. Feedback, praise and rewards are all ways people can respond to becoming conditioned. The focus is on observable events instead of events that happen in one’s head. The belief that learning has not happened unless there is an observable change in behavior. “The earliest and most Ardent of behaviourists was Watson (1931; Medcof and Roth, 1991; Hill 1997). His fundamental conclusion from many experimental observations of animal and childhood learning was that stimulus-response (S-R) connections are more likely to be established the more frequently or recently an S-R bond occurs. A child solving a number problem might have to make many unsuccessful trials before arriving at the correct solution” (Childs, 2004).