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Carolyn A Ristau

Carolyn A Ristau
formerly Barnard College of Columbia University, New York City, USA. Retired. Now Associate of the University Seminars Columbia University. · Psychology

PhD University of Pennsylvania

About

38
Publications
7,090
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411
Citations
Additional affiliations
September 1977 - June 1992
Rockefeller University
Position
  • Research Associate

Publications

Publications (38)
Article
Full-text available
Donald Griffin co-discovered bat sonar and founded the field of echolocation. He studied bird migration and founded Cognitive Ethology, the study of animal awareness and mental experiences. In all these endeavors, he faced hostile opposition. The biography (Ristau 2024) examines Griffin's life and the scientific explorations by him and others in th...
Book
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The book is both a biography of the revolutionary scientist, Donald R. Griffin and an associated history of science. As undergraduates, he and Robert Galambos discovered that bats could make ultrasonic sounds to navigate and, later, as Griffin determined, even to find and catch insect prey. This stupendous discovery was met with hostility and disbe...
Article
Full-text available
Donald Griffin’s writings, beginning with The Question of Animal Awareness (1976), strove to persuade scientists to study the possibility of animal sentience, the basis of Rowan et al.’s efforts to promote animal well-being. Facing great hostility (but also some acceptance) for his ideas, Griffin initially avoided animal welfare advocacy, fearing i...
Article
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Reviews the book, New York After 9/11 edited by Susan Opotow and Zachary BaronShemtob (2018). Both the sense of community and hostility to the enemy or, unfortunately, Muslims in general, are apparent in Opotow and Shemtob’s collection of articles. Their intended audience is those who “care about cities and their resilience,” are interested in the...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
To study cognitive aspects of parental responses to chick distress calls, 21 pairs of Piping Plovers (Charadrius melodus) on barrier island beaches in Eastern USA were observed over three field seasons. The procedure involved placing a Sound Source (SS) for pre-recorded distress calls from unknown chicks in either open or hidden terrain. 120 trials...
Article
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Thread Colin A. Chapman and Michael A. Huffman, Why do we want to think humans are different? Abstract As Chapman & Huffman state, creating divisive human categories has rationalized atrocities committed against the “other.” Labeling neighboring warring villagers as “animals” is considered a despicable insult. Yet contemporary scientific views of...
Article
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Abstract Peña-Guzmán makes a strong case, using examples from the media and scientific literature, that many captive animals suffer severely. In examining the possibility of animal suicide, he dismisses the need for “reflective self-subjectivity” and “intent” in suicidal behavior. He claims that at least some animals understand “death,” citing exam...
Article
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Abstract According to Reber’s model, Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC), sentience had its origins in a unicellular organism and is an inherent property of living, mobile organic forms. He argues by analogy to basic physical forces which he considers to be inherent properties of matter; I suggest that they are instead the stuff of scientific inv...
Article
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To counter human ultrasociality, alternative communities can arise (ongoing), and, unlike insects, lower echelons can unite and rebel. Examples include movements such as: “Black Lives Matter,” “Fight for $15,” “Occupy,” and the “Village Movement.” To strengthen ultrasociality, a surplus bottom echelon can be reduced: for example, by means such as i...
Article
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Two authors embrace unusual methods to shed light on the lives of other species
Article
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An attack such as 9/11 engenders both increased in-group solidarity and other prosocial responses and increased hostility to out-group(s) including those perceived as similar to the presumed perpetrators. We report retrospective data collected from 5 to 11 months after 9/11, from 209 New York City taxi drivers. Judgments of their patrons by the tax...
Article
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Cognitive Ethology, the field initiated by Donald R Griffin, was defined by him as the study of the mental experiences of animals as they behave in their natural environment in the course of their normal lives. It encompasses both the problems defined by Chalmers as the ‘hard’ problem of consciousness, phenomenological experience, and the ‘easy’ pr...
Article
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Carey's superb discussion of the origin of concepts is extended into the field of cognitive ethology. I also suggest that agency may be a default mechanism, often leading to over-attribution. The problem therefore becomes one of specifying the conditions in which agency is not attributed. The significance of attentional/focusing abilities on concep...
Article
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Previous papers have described the process facilitated by Pro-Natura International - Nigeria, an NGO working in the Niger Delta: in 1997 entering the Ijaw swamp community of Akassa, staying to learn from them, befriending them, helping them to understand the problems they described and potential solutions; and, assisting them to build the instituti...
Chapter
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Interpreting the data on the cognitive and linguistic abilities of non-human species needs to be done with care. The results of particular studies need to be understood in the light of (1) the ontogeny of the ability in question and the specific training procedures involved in demonstrating it; (2) the settings within which abilities are observed?l...
Article
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Interest in the cognitive capacities of animals has led me to study anti-predator behavior of birds, specifically plovers, through observations and experiments in natural environments. I asked: 1) Do injury-feigning parent plovers want to lead an intruder/predator away from the nest? What data could provide pertinent evidence? 2) Are plovers’ respo...
Article
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Cognitive ethology began with Donald R. Griffin's 1976 publication of The Question of Animal Awareness. More recently mutual influences can be found between cognitive ethology and comparative, developmental, experimental and cognitive psychology and philosophy of science and of mind. Present scientific work emphasizes: 1) animal cognitive capacitie...
Conference Paper
Research from laboratory experiments provides evidence for avian cognitive abilities, including category formation as well as significant communicative capacity. Field research yields results strongly suggestive of purposive behavior by birds and an ability by at least some parent birds to learn rapidly to distinguish between dangerous and benign i...
Article
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REVIEWS DOLPHIN COGNITION AND BEHAVIOR: A COMPARATIVE APPROACH. Ronald J. Schusterman, Jeanette A. Thomas and Forrest G. Wood, eds. 1986. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ. 393 pp. Imagine a creature living in the sea, without arms or hands to manipulate objects in the tasks we set creatures to test their intelligence; communicating by be...
Article
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Responds to the E. S. Savage-Rumbaugh et al (see record 1984-22384-001) article on nonhuman artificial language learning in chimpanzees. The present author expresses concern with the experimental paradigm used, focusing on (a) the naming/request distinction and (b) a need for testing in nonroutine situations that can permit spontaneous, varied, fl...
Chapter
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This chapter provides history of the ape language research, indicating past and current work. It raises some relevant theoretical issues and relates the research to investigations or issues in the fields of experimental and developmental psychology, linguistic analysis, anthropology, and ethology. The ape language projects are best considered in th...
Chapter
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Results from the ape language projects can be interpreted as revealing cognitive abilities. Some of the work begins to deal with the question of meaning. Does the ape use individual lexical items in "word-like," conceptual way, and can he combine the words in meaningful ways, utilizing some simple grammatical rules? The distinction is raised betwee...
Chapter
This report examines ways in which studies of animal communication can increase our understanding of animal minds. The report begins by offering working definitions of two particularly difficult concepts, consciousness and intentionality. Second, the report examines whether the use of such definitions helps to understand the mental events that may...
Article
Full-text available
review my evidence suggesting that plovers exhibit purposeful behaviour / field studies were undertaken to investigate the plovers' use of 'injury feigning' or broken wing displays / 'injury feigning' is among the most intense of a repertoire of anti-predator behaviours deception / attentiveness to the gaze of another (PsycINFO Database Record (c...

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