Animal Senses

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how Herman, Pack and Hoffman-Kuhnt performed relatively rigorous experiments to determine the source of dolphin recognition of objects and how they wanted to discover, among other things, whether dolphins attained the shape discrimination (of objects) through associative learning or direct perception. It also looks at how Fukuzawa, Mills and Cooper sought to determine the mechanism by which domestic dogs responded to commands. Finally it examines how Greenberg wanted to discover the facts about depth perception in two species of Asian rodents, the Mongolian gerbil and two varieties of spiny mice.

Outline
Dolphins
Dogs
Gerbils and Mice
Commentary

From the Paper:

"This experiment sought, above all else, to avoid a Pavlovian response in the dogs. In short, when setting up the experiment, Fukuzawa et al. went to enormous trouble to ensure that their subjects were not influenced in any way by reward, not even so small a reward as the warmth of a human voice. They first trained the dogs in the experiment to two commands-come and sit-and thereafter used a sort of disembodied voice to issue those commands in their experiments. The handler wore dark glasses so the dogs could not make eye contact and perform on that basis, and the commands themselves were issued by a voice recorder situated near the handler."

More papers on Animal Senses:

• Term Paper # 58515 : "Animal Rights and Abuse"
• Book Review # 112024 : "Ernest Seton's "Wild Animals I Have Known"
• Essay # 4091 : "The Electric and Magnetic Sense of Animals"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: