March 16, 2010 Psychology 485

 29pQBY 29pQBY  Introduction History & Definitions  Self-recognition Associative processes?  Metacognition Associative processes, modeling and Behavioral Economics

 Rene Descartes Cogito ergo sum I think, therefore I am  Dualism  Cartesian theatre A place in your head where “you” are watching things happen

 Humans are aware of ourselves as animate beings Control of own behaviour Mental representation of ourselves  Are animals self-aware? Mirror tasks

 Thinking about thinking  Primary vs secondary representations  Assessing internal states is not enough Knowing that you are hungry isn’t metacognition

 Assessing knowledge states Some people know a lot about baseball, some don’t know much  Do you know how much you know? e.g. “I really have to study for this midterm tomorrow, I don’t know anything!” Know a lot Know a little John is a moderate fan of baseball

 Do not interpret as higher cognitive process if lower process will suffice  Difficult to “show” secondary representations (especially without language) Can self-awareness and metacognition be explained through reinforcement history and/or associative learning?

 A test of self-recognition, self-consciousness  Stages: Time to adjust/experience mirror Tranquilize animal and paint 2 dots (visible and control- hidden) See if animal notices dot, compare to control dot  A nimals tested: chimps, dolphins, elephants, magpies, cats?magpies cats

 Epstein, Lanza & Skinner (1981) Trained pigeons to peck at blue dot Experience with mirror (see blue dot in mirror, peck at origin) Blue dot on pigeon, under bib Peck at bib  video video

 Skinner  Kinds of questions we ask children reinforces self-observation  e.g., “are you hungry?” “what are you doing?”  Accurate response likely results in some form of desired outcome (i.e., reinforcement of behaviour) 11

 Do animals know when they don’t know? Dolpins, pigeons, rats, non-human primates  Testing procedure Some trials include the option to ‘decline’ If animals know they don’t know, should decline to answer

Study phase: Short or Long tone Choice phase: 1/3 Forced Test 2/3 Choice Test phase: 6 pellets if correct 0 pellets if incorrect 3 pellets

 If animals have metacognition: Increase use of ‘decline’ option as task difficulty increases  Red-green  not much use of ‘decline’  Light green-dark green  more use of ‘decline’ Accuracy is higher on ‘chosen’ tests than ‘forced’ tests  You choose to take the test when you know the answer Accuracy difference increases with task difficulty  Can associative processes explain higher accuracy on ‘Chosen’ tests?

 Smith, Beran, Couchman, & Coutinho, 2008 Reinforcement of ‘decline’ options creates a “low frequency tendency” to decline Competes with generalization gradients for each stimulus

Subjective level of stimulus Response Strength High Low ShortLong Decline Threshold

 Reinforcement to decline option creates a constant response-strength tendency Competes with response-strength of stimuli  Winner-take-all mechanism  Since it is based on subjective view of stimuli, also accounts for difference between Chosen-Forced accuracy

 Shows associative processes can explain metacognition  Morgan’s canon?

 Jozefowiez, Staddon & Cerutti, 2009  Similar to quantitative model, but measures Probability of payoff Risk levels (is animal risk-prone or risk-averse?)

Subjective level of stimulus Payoff ShortLong Short responseLong response Probability of payoff at subjective equality is diminished

Subjective level of stimulus Payoff ShortLong Short responseLong response Correct 50% of time, average reward = 3 pellets Decline reward = 3 pellets Risk Neutral

Subjective level of stimulus Payoff ShortLong Short responseLong response Risk Averse Would rather guarantee payoff of 3 than risk no reward

 More on this next week...  When might an animal want to guarantee some kind of payoff?  When might they be willing to “risk it” for the larger payoff?  Model accounts for changing needs, and metacognition Still doesn’t assume metacognition

 es/2007/01/ html es/2007/01/ html  Is self- awareness/metacognition/consciousness necessary? Why learn to be self-aware? Evolutionary advantages?