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The Cognitive Ethology course represents a comparative approach to cognitive aspects of animal behaviour. Cognitive Ethology integrates diverse approaches to the study of mechanisms involved in acquisition, processing, storing, and using information from the environment, with an accent on ecological and evolutionary context of cognitive mechanisms. Lecture is intended for MSc students of zoology. Please note, the lectures are given in Czech language. English version of the course can be requested in advance if there are at least 5 students.
Last update: Exnerová Alice, doc. Mgr., Ph.D. (24.10.2019)
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Balda R. P., Pepperberg I.M. & Kamil A.C. (eds) 1998: Animal Cognition in Nature: The Convergence of Psychology and Biology in Laboratory and Field, Academic Press, San Diego. Dukas R. (ed.) 2009: Cognitive Ecology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London. Heyes C. & Huber L. 2000: The Evolution of Cognition. MIT Press, Cambridge Mackintosh N. J. (ed.) 1994: Animal Learning and Cognition. Academic Press, San Diego. Lieberman D. A. 2000: Learning, Behaviour, and Cognition. Wadsworth. Belmont. Ruxton GD, Sherratt TN, Speed MP. 2004. Avoiding Attack. Oxford University Press. New York. Shettleworth S. J. 2010: Cognition, Evolution, and Behaviour. Oxford University Press, New York. Pearce JM. 2008: Animal Learning and Cognition. Psychology Press. New York. Wynne CDL. & Udell MAR. 2013: Animal Cognition: Evolution, Behavior and Cognition. Palgrave MacMillan, New York. Last update: Exnerová Alice, doc. Mgr., Ph.D. (24.10.2019)
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Zkouška je ústní; rozsah požadovaných znalostí je dán rozsahem přednášky. Studenti mohou využít také doporučenou literaturu. Last update: Exnerová Alice, doc. Mgr., Ph.D. (24.10.2019)
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1) What is cognitive ethology? Definition of the discipline, its aims, methods and questions addressed. 2) Perception, sensory specialisation, object perception, perceptual completion, signal detection theory. 3) Attention, limited and divided attantion, searching images. 4) Learning, habituation, imprinting, associative learning, classical and operant conditioning, insight learning, adaptive specialisation, learning as phenotypic plasticity. 5) Recognition, discrimination, and categorisation, generalisation and peak shift, abstraction. 6) Memory, coding, storing, and retrieving of information, working and reference memory, short-term and long-term memory, episodic memory. 7) Spatial orientation, landmarks, routes, and cognitive maps, navigation. 8) Social learning, innovations, observation conditioning, emulation, imitation, traditions, teaching. 9) Physical cognition and tool using, tool manufacture. 10) Design and recognition of signals, coevolution of signals and recognition mechanisms. Last update: Exnerová Alice, doc. Mgr., Ph.D. (24.10.2019)
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After completing the course, students are able to define cognitive ecology as an interdisciplinary field and explain its position at the intersection of behavioural ecology and comparative psychology. They can critically assess the differences between laboratory and field approaches to the study of animal cognition and propose appropriate methods for testing specific hypotheses. They can explain the mechanisms of perception and attention, their influence on other cognitive processes, and describe the principles of signal detection theory and its application in animal decision-making in natural environments. They are able to characterize different types and mechanisms of learning (from habituation, to associative and discriminative learning, to insight learning) and interpret learning as a form of adaptive phenotypic plasticity. They can demonstrate the principles of discrimination, categorization, and generalization of stimuli and their adaptive significance using specific examples of coevolution of signals between predators and prey. Furthermore, they are able to classify memory systems (e.g., episodic, procedural, declarative) and give examples of their use in ecological contexts, such as food storing or migration. Students can explain the mechanisms of spatial orientation, including the difference between navigation by landmarks and complex cognitive maps. They can compare different mechanisms of social learning (imitation, emulation, observational conditioning) and evaluate their role in the emergence of traditions and cultural transmission in animals. They are able to discuss the evolutionary significance of tool use and the capacity for innovations in the context of cognitive complexity in different phylogenetic lineages. Overall, they can synthesize knowledge about the cognitive abilities of animals into a comprehensive view of how evolutionary pressures shape the mechanisms of information acquisition and use. They are able to interpret the results of scientific studies and propose their own experimental design for testing the cognitive abilities of a selected species. Last update: Exnerová Alice, doc. Mgr., Ph.D. (17.01.2026)
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