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Psychology 26
Animal Cognition Term Paper

Description  Deadlines  Help in writing term papers  Topic information

wdpckerfinch.JPG (28438 bytes)   Your have the option to select the topic of your final paper. It should be focused on a specific area or question in the general area of animal cognition. It should be about 2000 words in length (about 8 pages),  double spaced and typed. In addition, you will need to hand in a copy of the empirical article that you found most helpful in preparing your paper. Finally, you need to include in your paper references to a minimum of five (5) empirical research papers from the primary peer-reviewed literature related to your topic. The paper should use the concepts we have developed in class to understand and evaluate the experimental and theoretical content of your selected topic. Questions that might be addressed include:

  • What are the psychological mechanisms hypothesized to explain the observed behaviors?
  • What is evolutionary significance of the behavior and/or psychological processes involved?
  • Are there competing theoretical explanations in this area? What evidence is provided for each position?
  • What psychological changes take place in the animal as a function of training or different experimental conditions?
  • What is the effective stimulus controlling the animals' behavior? How is this determined?
  • How did the animal come to acquire the critical information guiding any particular behavior?
  • How does this animal behavior relate to human behavior and thinking?
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    You are neither limited to these questions nor required to address each one -- they are suggestions to focus your thinking. Other aspects of each topic can be examined and discussed in the paper. You should strive, however, to go beyond a simple cataloging of experimental results (very boring and which will eat up your 2000 words quickly). Instead concentrate on the key analytical questions, observations, arguments, and explanations that make your topic important and interesting.  Neuropsychology issues are welcome, but should not be the primary focus of your paper.

    Try to imagine that your peers are the audience for this paper. Make it interest for them and educate them about a critical issue in animal cognition.

    Important Deadlines

    November 17th: Hand in a preliminary title and  list of four primary journal-based references that you intend to use in your paper. If you want you can briefly list a backup topic.

    December 2nd (5:00 in my mailbox) : Hand in a two paragraph abstract of your paper. This should have a clear description of your  topic, the main thesis or issues you intend to discuss, and specifically what the reader will learn from it. 

    December 16th: Due at 5:03 pm in Dr Cook's mailbox in the Psychology Building. Term papers  can be submitted by email, if desired (Word documents of PDFs only)

    Journals that you will find helpful in your research:

    Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes
    Learning & Behavior (formerly Animal Learning and Behavior)
    Journal of Comparative Psychology
    Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
    Learning & Motivation
    Animal Cognition
    Behavioural Processes
    Animal Behaviour
    Psychological Review

    Books that might be helpful to look at:.

    Cook, R. G. (2001). Avian visual cognition. [On-line]. Available: www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/avc/

    Honig, W. K. & Fetterman, J. G. (1992). Cognitive aspects of stimulus control. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Roitblat, H, Bever, T, & Terrace, H. (1984) Animal cognition. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Mackintosh, N.J. (1994). Animal learning and cognition. Academic Press

    Mackintosh, N.J. (1974). The psychology of animal learning. Academic Press

    Zentall, T.R. (1993) Animal Cognition: A tribute to Donald A Riley. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Hulse, S, Fowler, H, & Honig, W (1978). Cognitive processes in animal behavior. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Just a few of the hundreds of potential paper topics (with a starting reference)

    Insight Learning
    Epstein, R., Kirshnit, C. E., Lanza, R. P., & Rubin, L. C. (1984). "Insight" in the pigeon: Antecedents and determinants of an intelligent performance. Nature, 308, 61-62.

    Comparative Perception
    Blough, D.S. (1982). Pigeon perception of letters of the alphabet. Science, 218, 397-398

    Language in Animals
    Terrace, H. S., Petitto, L. A., Sanders, R. J., & Bever, T. G. (1979). Can an ape create a sentence? Science, 200, 891-902.

    Selective Attention
    Lamb, M.R. (1988). Selective attention: Effects of cueing on the processing of different types of compound stimuli. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 14, 96-104

    Counting
    Boysen, S.T., Berntson, G.G., Shreyer, T.A., & Quigley, K.S. (1993) Processing of ordinality and transitivy by chimpanzees. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 109, 47-51.

    Concept Learning
    Wright, A.A., Cook, R.G. Rivera, J., Sands, S., & Delius, J. (1988). Concept learning by pigeons: Matching-to-sample with trial-unique video picture stimuli. Animal Learning and Behavior, 16, 436- 444.

    Serial Pattern Learning
    Hulse, S. H. (1980). The case of the missing rule: Memory for reward vs. formal structure in serial-pattern by rats. Animal Learning & Behavior, 3, 305-311.

    Observational Learning
    Davis, J. M. (1973), Imitation: A review and critique. In Perspectives in Ethology. New York: Plenum Press.

    Spatial Memory and cognitive maps
    Poucet, B. (1993). Spatial cognitive maps in animals: New hypotheses on their structure and neural mechanisms. Psychological Review, 100, 163-182.

    Laws of Association
    Rescorla, R. A. & Cunningham, C.L. (1979). Spatial contiguity facilitates Pavlovian second-order conditioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 4, 152-161.

    Natural Concepts
    Herrnstein, R. J., Loveland, D. H. & Cable, C. (1976). Natural concepts in pigeons. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 2, 285-311.

    Behavior in insects
    Menzel, R. M. & Erber, J. (1978). Learning and memory in bees. Scientific American, 239, 80- 88.

    Intelligence in parrots
    Pepperberg, I. M. (1987). Acquisition of the same/different concept by an african grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus): Learning with respect to categories of color, shape, and material. Animal Learning & Behavior, 15, 423-432.

    Foraging Behavior and Cognition
    Reid, P. J. & Shettleworth, S. J. (1992). Detection of cryptic prey: Search image or search rate? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 17.

    Links to help on writing and term papers

  • Purdue University On-Line Writing Workshop
  • General writing concerns
  • APA style resources
  • On Writing Research Papers
  • On paraphrasing and summarizing information
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    Links to references and search information