9.19.2022

Animal Minds: Trapped in the Present?

AGENDA
  1. Can animals "time travel"?
  2. Do animals have reason/intelligence?


WHAT IS TIME TRAVEL?
  • thinking about the past (episodic memory)
  • thinking about the future
Episodic memory vs. other forms of memory 
  1. Episodic memory (recalling sequence of events, like movie in your mind)  
    • recalling your high school graduation
  2. Behavioral memory
    • I can ride a bike
    • Trained dog stays doesn't jump up
  3.  Information storage 
    • You know who the first president was
    • Dog knows his name
Example: Is this episodic memory or one of the others?
Inside the Animal Mind is a PBS video released in 2000 but still excellent. You can't find it anywhere but the SMU library has made us a copy. You can find parts I, II, and III at Canvas along with a password you'll need to watch.




Thinking about the future vs. other kinds of future-orientation
  1. Thinking about the future = imagining a future event 
    • imagining what you'll be doing in 5 minutes, or an hour, or in 5 years or 50 years
  2. Behavior with an outcome in the future
    • squirrels caching food
      • DeWaal (p. 215-16): shouldn't see squirrels as necessarily thinking about the future when they hoard nuts
    • lion hunting for food
    • bird building a nest
    • beaver building a dam



DOES IT MATTER ETHICALLY IF ANIMALS TIME-TRAVEL?
Peter Singer, p. 53; also Kagan?




METHODOLOGY (from last time and chap. 1)
  1. Anthromomorphism not taboo, esp. when animals are evolutionarily close to us
  2. Anthropodenial is a bad, distorting bias
  3. Morgan's canon doesn't need to be obeyed
INFERENCE TO THE BEST EXPLANATION
1. X is observed in animals.
2. The best explanation for X is Y.
Therefore,
3. Probably, Y.


EPISODIC MEMORY IN ANIMALS?

CHIMPS
DeWaal p. 210:  chimps on a long multi-day trek to eat at fig trees "would get up earlier for trees far from their nests than for those nearby, arriving at about the same time at both. This suggests calculation of travel time based on expected distances. All this makes Janmaat believe that Tai chimpanzees actively recall previous experiences in order to plan a plentiful breakfast."
1. The chimps get up earlier when they're going to the farther fig tree.
2. The best explanation for this is that they think about past trips to the far away fig tree (episodic memory).
Therefore,
3. Probably, they think about past trips to the far away fig tree (episodic memory).



WESTERN SCRUB JAYS

You go to the fridge for a snack and see both pizza in a box and yogurt. Your choices: relatively fresh pizza > yogurt > old pizza. How do you decide what to pick? 
 
You try to remember when you put the pizza in the fridge  (episodic memory). Three days ago! You pick the yogurt. Do animals do anything like that?

Nicky Clayton's research (De Waal p. 211):  

 

1. Western scrub jays dig up worms cached 4 hours ago > peanuts > worms cached 120 hours ago. 
2. The best explanation is that they have episodic memories of the two cachings.
Therefore,
3. Probably, the jays have episodic memories of the two cachings.



FUTURE THOUGHTS

CHIMPS

Storing a tool for future use 


CROWS




WORKBOOK
Do you see evidence of "time travel" in your pets?



INTELLIGENCE/REASON

Who says it matters?

Do animals have it?


Next: self-awareness