Are animals capable of observation? Save humans, the power of observation is said to be deficient in animals. However, past and recent evidences gathered from studies on primate cognition show that chimps and gorillas have the capacity to observe, and learn from their observations. Any new studies on animal learning and behaviour that points to this theory?
Certainly they have. Most people do not believe it but it is absolutely true. The power of observation varies from animal to animal though we can not say that they have no power of that. This is clearly reflected from their behavior.
There is a documentary series by BBC about Africa. In this documentary, there is such a scene: a mother ape (or chimp) uses purposefully broken branches as tools to knock off tree barks to acquire honey (the bees build their hive within the tree trunk), her baby down on the ground observes carefully and then imitates his mother by using miniature branches on tree barks, that is how the skilles of using tools are passed from generation to generation, the same is true for human beings. So my answer as for your question is YES, animals do have the ability to observe and learn.
Very interesting question & discussion. I'm not expert in this area - but want to ask If animal's observation power is the precursor before mimicry, do animals also observe first before they can perform special job / function e.g. forewarn the natural disaster is coming like earthquake, tsunami etc, seizure alert dogs warn people with epilepsy of an oncoming attack, dogs that can smell cancer etc?
Another words, do animals observe first before they act / react or they can act / react without observation as they have the in-built capability?
I extend my thanks to all the expert members of this forum for their insightful answers, and links that you have provided. From the on-going discussion, new avenues of research ideas are being generated, that is, not just higher animals, but birds also have the capacity to observe and learn from observations. Also, Susan Bachus pointed out about mimicry, to which I would add, such mimicry is a "learned behaviour", if am not wrong. As also, Dr. Fung has raised an interesting point about animals forewarning natural disasters, since, this behaviour precedes observation. How that is possible is in fact, a matter of further investigation.
Thanks to Profs. Kausel, Chakraborty, Susan, Yu and Dr. Fung.
Best regards, Sidharta
Dear George,
your quote sounds funny, but you know your pets better.
What I want to know is, how can you differentiate between animal observation from human observation? Actually, the fact that animals observe is grounded on the notion of how we observe them (animals) when they are observing. Which means, the way animals perceive and observe is dependent on our interpretation of their behaviour, not their interpretation of their own behaviour, since they can't interpret.
One of the primary requirement to assess animal observation is to learn how to observe animals. Then, using these observational cues, we may interpret how they observe, if any. It is easy to say that they observe, feel, have passion, have motivation, etc., but what about any expert scientific view on this subject?
This classic study may help.
Pavlov's Dogs
During the 1890s Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov was looking at salivation in dogs in response to being fed, when he noticed that his dogs would begin to salivate whenever he entered the room, even when he was not bringing them food. At first this was something of a nuisance (not to mention messy!).....Pavlov knew that somehow, the dogs in his lab had learned to associate food with his lab assistant. This must have been learned, because at one point the dogs did not do it, and there came a point where they started, so their behavior had changed. A change in behavior of this type must be the result of learning.
http://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html
It is said so that dogs have a good power of observation .From the smell & sound they can recognize outcome of action & follow the same accordingly .It is generally belief that crying of dogs in its peculiar way confirmed the death of nearby residence .
In other way Cat also follows the the observation with the silence noise for grabbing the observation ..In other way almighty for the protection of animal have made that ways clear by method of observation
I'm not well acquainted with the research literature on animal psychology, but many of the key questions for pursuing research - including investigating animal perception and possible powers of observation - and methodological issues were proposed and discussed by David Katz in his 1937 book, Animals and Men: Studies in Comparative Psychology (Longmans, London). It was highly regarded by Karl Popper and is still worth a read today. It's available on Questia:https://www.questia.com/library/72512774/animals-and-men-studies-in-comparative-psychology
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