HPS 2365 - Fall 2021

version 2021-11-04

NOTE: THIS SYLLABUS IS A LIVING DOCUMENT. THE READING LIST WILL BE ADJUSTED AS WE GO

HPS 2365 Animal Cognition — Fall 2021 Schedule and Syllabus

Class meetings: M 3:00-5:25 in CL 1008C and on Zoom via link in Canvas

Instructor: Colin Allen <colin.allen@pitt.edu>

Office: CL 1109H
Office hours (no appointment necessary): Wed 12:30-1:30 and Fri 1:45-2:45 (Zoom or CL 1109H). (Email me for Zoom link or appointments at other times.)

Course Description

This course will examine theoretical and methodological challenges and controversies in the scientific study of nonhuman animal cognition. Current topics will be framed by the history of psychological and ethological approaches to animal behavior, with their different and sometimes opposing concerns about general laws of learning, the importance of experimental methods, the ecological validity of laboratory and field studies, and the significance of phylogeny and ontogeny for scientific understanding of animal behavior and cognition. We will sample current work in comparative animal cognition treating topics such as concepts, communication, reasoning and rationality, episodic memory, self-awareness, imitation, mind reading, consciousness and emotions, to investigate the challenges arising from the apparent subjectivity of mental states, the danger of anthropomorphic projection by researchers, the contestable relevance of neuroscientific evidence, and the so-called "logical problem" facing experimental tests of cognitive hypotheses.

Course Objectives

Beyond the objective of gaining broad knowledge about the historical and philosophical dimensions of scientific work on animal cognition, students taking the course for credit are expected to develop a research interest in a specific subtopic of the course. HPS graduate students also have the option of using the course to satisfy the Departmental distribution requirement in either History of Science or Philosophy of Science (but not both; see below for specific details). If you are enrolling in the course for S/NC credit, or just as auditor, please make an appointment with me between the first and second meetings to discuss what's expected.

Assessment

There are two approaches to receiving a letter grade for this course. However, if you wish to satisfy the departmental distribution requirement you must use the second option::

annotated bibliography and class presentation, plus three short papers;
annotated bibliography and class presentation, plus term paper

Student presentations will be scheduled for the second half of the semester, based on the bibliographic assignment. That assignment should cover at least four thematically-related articles, one book*, or an equivalent amount of archival material, beyond the assigned readings on the syllabus. (*Yes, books are often longer than four articles, but you may choose to focus your bibliography on a 30,000-50,000-word portion. Everyone is encouraged to consult with me about the choice of materials. Recommended or optional readings from the syllabus are fair game, but distribution credit seekers should see specific instructions below). Aim to write 1 paragraph for each article-sized chunk, summarizing its significance for the issues raised in class. You will assign one article-sized chunk of the material you read to the class and lead a discussion of the issues it raises. (You should bring your other reading to bear on this presentation without assuming that those items have been read.)

Important dates

Friday October 1
First short paper due (2-3 pages). Required for Plan 1; optional but recommended for Plan 2. This piece should react to any assigned reading or issue raised in class so far. Summarize the issue for a "naive" reader, and outline your response to it. For Plan 2, this assignment could be a good opportunity to start working out a term paper pitch; completing this assignment also preserves the option to revert to Plan 1.
Friday October 8
(HPS Students) Commitment day if you wish to use this course for the departmental history of science or philosophy of science distribution. If declaring, you should consult with me about appropriate materials for the bibliography according to your chosen path. You may include one or two scientific papers in your reading list, but you should fill out the rest with relevant history of science or philosophy of science sources, according to they distribution credit you wish to receive.
Friday October 29
Required for Plan 1 and Plan 2. Annotated bibliography due.
Friday November 5
Bonfire day (UK) and last day to let me know that you want to revert to Plan 1 if you previously opted for Plan 2.
Friday November 19
Plan 1. Second short paper due, 3-5 pages. Similar instructions to the first paper, but try to synthesize ideas from more than one of your readings.
Plan 2: You should meet with me no later than this date to discuss your term paper progress.
Monday December 13
Plan 1: Third short paper due (4-6 pages) on any course-related topic of your choosing.
Plan 2: Term paper due (~5000 words). If writing a for philosophy of science distribution credit, a philosophical thesis should be stated clearly and argued for cogently. If writing for history of science distribution credit, attention must be given to the appropriate historical context and appropriate sources used. Whether or not you are writing for the distribution requirement, your paper should mention course readings where these are relevant, and you are also expected to discuss readings that were not required for the course, such as those surveyed in your bibliography, but you are not expected to provide a comprehensive survey of relevant literature.

Texts

There are no required texts for this course. Required readings will be provided via links in the reading schedule below. Some items are provided to you via the Canvas site under fair use principles.

Schedule of Readings and Presentations

We are going to adjust this as we go along. Note that the suggested reading list is aiming for breadth more than depth; you should follow citations for more depth. You should find accessible copies on all the required reading links. For the suggested/further readings I've provided links where I have them, but sometimes you'll find just the publisher's page.

NOTE: SOMETIMES LINKS BREAK. IF SOMETHING CAN'T BE REACHED, PLEASE LET ME KNOW IMMEDIATELY.

Topics	Date
Required Readings [+ Student Presenters]	Further reading suggestions
The long arc of history	Aug 30
Read at least one of these: Stephen Crowley & Colin Allen 2008 "Animal behavior" Colin Allen 2004 "Is anyone a cognitive ethologist?"	19th/early-20th C original sources Histories of 19th/20th C developments
Labor Day NO MEETING	Sep 06
Extracurricular event	Sep 10
	Suggested readings for Tecumseh Fitch's 12:15pm Center Talk "Evolutionary functions of consciousness". First two are suggested by Fitch, the other by me. Tecumseh Fitch 2007 "Nano-intentionality: a defense of intrinsic intentionality" Nicholas Humphrey 2017 "The invention of consciousness" Jonathan Birch, Simona Ginsburg, and Eva Jablonka 2020 "Unlimited Associative Learning and the origins of consciousness: a primer and some predictions"
Morgan's Canon and Anthropo****ism	Sep 13
Read at least three of the following Simon Fitzpatrick & Grant Goodrich 2017 "Building a Science of Animal Minds" Hayley Clatterbuck 2016 Darwin, Hume, Morgan, and the verae causae of psychology Cameron Buckner 2013 "Morgan's Canon, meet Hume's Dictum" Fred Keijzer 2013 "The Sphex story: how the cognitive sciences kept repeating an old and questionable anecdote" [preprint version] Greg Radick 2000 "Morgan's canon, Garner's phonograph, and the evolutionary origins of language and reason"	Further Morgan's canon readings
Consciousness	Sep 20
Read the first couple of chapters from either Morgan's or Washburn's textbook and at least two of the following: Eileen Crist 2002 — “The inner life of earthworms: Darwin’s argument and its implications” Jonathan Birch, Simona Ginsburg, and Eva Jablonka 2020 — "Unlimited Associative Learning and the origins of consciousness: a primer and some predictions" Todd Feinberg & Jon Mallatt 2013 — "The evolutionary and genetic origins of consciousness in the Cambrian Period over 500 million years ago" [See also Dylan Black & Colin Allen 2017 — "Review of Feinberg & Mallatt 2016"]	Further readings on consciousness
Ethology & Comparative Psychology	Sep 27
Read the first three of these and one of the others. Konrad Lorenz 1937 — "On the concept of instinctive action" Daniel Lehrman 1953 — "A critique of Konrad Lorenz's theory of instinctive behavior" Niko Tinbergen 1963 — "On the aims and methods of ethology" Richard Burkhardt 2016 — "Niko Tinbergen: A Message in the Archives" Ingo Brigandt 2005 — "The Instinct Concept of the Early Konrad Lorenz" Paul Griffiths 2004 — "Instinct in the ‘50s: the British reception of Konrad Lorenz’s theory of instinctive behavior"	More on ethology/history See also items in General Histories, esp. Donald Dewsbury 1992 — "Comparative psychology and ethology: a reassessment"
Reasoning and Rationality	Oct 04
Read at least two of these three items and at least one of the other articles in Rational Animals [available online through Pitt library] . Colin Allen 2006 — "Transitive inference in animals: reasoning or conditioned associations?" David Papineau & Cecilia Heyes 2006 — "Rational or associative? Imitation in Japanese quail" Cameron Buckner 2019 — "Rational inference: the lowest bounds"	Other rationality & reasoning readings
Self and Others	Oct 11
Let's see how far we get with this in one session, but try reading them all, in the order shown... Katja Guenther 2017 — "Monkeys, mirrors, and me: Gordon Gallup and the study of self-recognition" Jon Crystal & Allison Foote 2009 — "Metacognition in animals" Hanna Joo et al. 2021 — "Rats use memory confidence to guide decisions"	Other readings on metacognition and mindreading
Skeptics and the null hypothesis	Oct 18
First two items are unfinished business from last week: Derek Penn & Daniel Povinelli — "On the lack of evidence that non-human animals possess anything remotely resembling a ‘theory of mind’" Chris Krupenye et al. 2016 — "Great apes anticipate that other individuals will act according to false beliefs" Irina Mikhalevich 2015 — "Experiment and Animal Minds: Why the Choice of the Null Hypothesis Matters" Kristin Andrews & Brian Huss 2014 — "Anthropomorphism, anthropectomy, and the null hypothesis"
Oct 25	Communication
Dejan's primary selection is the Cheney & Seyfarth paper, but he also would like to discuss four highlighted paragraphs in the Chomsky piece also listed. Also read either Munz's or Crist's article controversy over bee dance language. Dorothy Cheney & Robert Seyfarth 2018 — "Flexible usage and social function in primate vocalizations" Noam Chomsky 2018 — "Mentality Beyond Consciousness" Tania Munz 2005 — "The Bee Battles: Karl von Frisch, Adrian Wenner and the Honey Bee Dance Language Controversy" Eileen Crist 2004 — "Can an Insect Speak? The Case of the Honeybee Dance Language"	Other readings on animal communication (Note that Dejan's selections also include Cäsar et al. 2013 and Schlenker et al. 2016. I also recommend Marler 1961 if you have time to skim it.)
Nov 01	Reversal Learning / Learning experiments and mechanisms
Jenny would like everyone to read the first item (Cauchoix et al.) and optionally look at the second (Rygula et al.) and third (D'Cruz et al.) items. For my part I've added two other learning-related papers. Read Zambetti et al. and look at Grau & Joynes if you have time. Cauchoix et al. 2017 — "Cognition in the field: comparison of reversal learning performance in captive and wild passerines" Rygula et al. 2010 — "Differential Contributions of the Primate Ventrolateral Prefrontal and Orbitofrontal Cortex to Serial Reversal Learning" D'Cruz et al. 2011 — "Human reversal learning under conditions of certain versus uncertain outcomes" Peter Zambetti et al. (preprint/2021) — "Pavlovian fear conditioning does not readily occur in rats in naturalistic environments" James Grau and Robin Joynes 2005 — "A Neural-Functionalist Approach to Learning"
Nov 08	Emotions // the Religious Context of early Comp Psych (no relation)
Mara is going to introduce us to some historical issues in Jaak Panksepp's turn towards questions about emotions in animals: Panksepp & Burgdorf 2000 — "50-kHz chirping (laughter?) in response to conditioned and unconditioned tickle-induced reward in rats: effects of social housing and genetic variables" Eric wants us to read parts of chapter 8 from R. Richards Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior (1987), focusing on one or both of the following chunks: pages 346-363 and/or 375-404. "Darwinism and the Demands of Metaphysics and Religion: Romanes, Mivart, and Morgan"
Nov 15
Jordan & Clara have provided the following items respectively: Ingo Brigandt 2003 — "Gestalt Experiments and Inductive Observations Konrad Lorenz’s early Epistemological Writings and the Methods of Classical Ethology" Laland & Hoppitt 2003 — "Do Animals Have Culture?" Optional material: "Born to be cultured" (Many Minds podcast)
Nov 22	Thanksgiving break - NO CLASS
Nov 29
Caitlin on Instinct; Joshua on Lorenz on Kant Robert Richards 1977 — "Lloyd Morgan’s Theory of Instinct: From Darwinism to Neo-Darwinism" Konrad Lorenz 1941/tr.2009 — "Kant’s Doctrine of the A Priori in the Light of Contemporary Biology"
Dec 06	[Term paper workshop]

Everything below is not specific to this course, but required/recommended for all Pitt syllabi.

Statement about Academic Misconduct

Students in this course will be expected to comply with the University of Pittsburgh’s Policy on Academic Integrity. Any student suspected of violating this obligation for any reason during the semester will be required to participate in the procedural process as outlined in the University Guidelines on Academic Integrity. When you submit assignments with your name on them in this course, you are signifying that the work contained therein is all yours, unless otherwise cited or referenced. Any ideas or materials taken from another source for either written or oral use must be fully acknowledged. If you are unsure about the expectations for any assignment be sure to seek clarification beforehand.

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Health and Safety Statement

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