Dadhaniya 1

Harshil Dadhaniya
Professor Lynda Haas
Writing 39C HCP first draft
April 22, 2016

Scientific Literature Review on Dolphin Cognition

Introduction
Cetacea, coming from the Latin cetus large sea creatures and Greek ketos sea
monster, are widely spread and disparate infraorder of carnivorous, aquatic mammals not
capable of surviving on land. Research has shown that cetaceans are an order of fully-aquatic
mammals who possess large complex brains, impressive intelligence, and social and
communicative sophistications. In this review of scientific literature I will be focusing on a
specific specie of the infraorder cetacea dolphins. Ill review the scientific research showing
that dolphins possess cognition, most which has been conducted in the last 30 years. I will be
talking about different sophistications that prove that dolphins possess cognition using various
experiments performed by esteemed scientist in the field like Louis M. Herman, Lori Marino,
Ronald J. Schusterman, Eduardo Mercado III and others.
Dolphin Cognition
Lori Marino, senior Lecturer in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory Center
for Ethics; and her colleague Toni Frohoff, behavior and wildlife biologist, in their article,
Towards a New Paradigm of Non-Captive Research on Cetacean Cognition, define cognition
as the thought processes of an individual; it typically comprises memory, problem-solving,
concept formation, self-awareness, and other abilities that involve information processing at

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various levels and in various domains. Its essential to understand the concept of cognition
before examining the various branches of intelligence that are present in dolphins. Research has
established that cognition can be evaluated through both direct tests and, indirect measures and
inferences. Postmortem studies of dolphins brain size, structure and complexity provide
information about a neurological base of intelligence and cognition which can be verified
through behavioral studies (Marino et. al 5938). As we move forward, we will talk about the
various behavioral experiments performed on dolphins to prove they show cognition.
Sentence Comprehension
It would be integral to study complexity of language, such as whether dolphins understand
and learn a new language, like a human baby, in inquiring more about the cognitive abilities of
the dolphin. Recent studies have shown that dolphins, like other primates, have shown the ability
to fathom sequences of gestural and acoustic codes or artificial languages and it has been
argued that this ability to process progressive information constitutes syntactic processing and
sentence comprehension (Herman 363-429). In 1961, John Lilly made the first attempt to
perform animal language research or ALR (Qtd by Ronald Schusterman 312-348). He tried to
teach a bottlenose dolphin English. He choose dolphins for his research based on two
interconnecting criteria:
1. Dolphins have a relatively large brain with a proportionally large neocortex, which can be
supported by their high encephalization quotient.
2. Dolphins are vocal and social creatures who show kindness towards humans. They show
signs of possessing semanticity in its vocal communication with members of its own
species. (Lilly 120).

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Lilly wasnt successful in his attempt of teaching bottlenose dolphins English as a medium of
communication with humans. Although Lillys research was unsuccessful, it inspired many
researchers to start working on ALR. In December 1967, Dwight Batteau performed another
study on bottlenosed dolphins with a different approach. To acquire high level of impetus control
over three different object-action commands, Batteau used Skinnerian shaping techniques. A
few examples of the object-action commands are hit ball with pectoral flipper, swim through
hoop, and retrieve bottle. These commands were regulated by the control of a whistle sound
projected by an underwater speaker. Schusterman says, In Batteaus experiments the dolphins
were trained to respond to holophrastic commands and not to separate elements of object and
action, unlike the chimp language studies about the results of Batteaus experiment
(Schusterman et al. 314). Louis M. Herman, emeritus professor at University of Hawaii at
Manoa, and his team, in 1984, performed another experiment to teach language to dolphin based
of the method of Batteau. He and his colleagues claimed that dolphins have a tacit knowledge
of syntactic rules and can grasp thousands of unique sentences up to five words in length.
Herman taught two bottlenose dolphins, Akeakamai and Phoenix, identical languages. He
imparted an acoustic language for Phoenix and a gestural language for Akeakamai. For
Akeakamai, Herman had form a basic structure for teaching the language. He has used Batteaus
format but, all the relationships were formed by singing in the following order: first a goal item,
next the item to be transported or acted upon and lastly the relation sign like HIT. This
concomitant sequence was referred to as an inverse grammar (Herman et al. 130). Herman also
used modifiers sometimes like a direction to go in. Herman and his team were training
Akeakamai to comprehend gestures about a relationship between one object and another by
accentuating on the functional significance of the syntax. This way, Herman and his coworkers

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were able to establish that Akeakamai could respond to sentence like commands. This study,
which taught language to a dolphin was the first step to show that these benevolent creatures
with such complex brains possessed cognition.
Self-Awareness of Behavior
Dolphins have also shown the ability to remember their own previous actions, by learning
to respond to a gestural signal to repeat a previous behavior (Herman 63-108; Mercado et al.
210-18; Mercado et al. 17-25). As two of the dolphins tested were able to repeat a behavior that
they themselves had selected, the finding therefore could not be explained by the dolphins
memories from earlier signal. One of the dolphins could perform a sequence of diverse behaviors
such as diveanyanyrepeat, deciphered as divenow do a different (self-selected)
actionnow do yet another (self-selected) actionnow repeat that most recent action (Herman
63-108). This particular experiment required that the subject remained continuously aware of its
own most recent action, and then use the mental image of that stimuli to select its next behavior;
and this is a sign that they are self-aware. Self-awareness alone is not enough to claim that
dolphins possess cognition. Next, we will talk about one of the most important and rudimentary
ability of an animal, to prove that they possess cognition.
Self-recognition
Self-recognition is the ability to recognize oneself in a mirror. In 1970, Gordon Gallup
Jr., Professor of psychology at University at Albany first conducted the classic test of selfrecognition in animals, the "mirror test," in which a visible mark is surreptitiously placed
somewhere on an animals body that can only be seen with a mirror (86-87). After looking in the
mirror, if the animal instinctively touches the correct spot on its own body, then it is taken as

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evidence of self-recognition. In the case of dolphins, they cant touch their own body because of
their streamlined body shape hence this test is void. In May 2001, Lori Marino and her
colleague Diana Reiss, a professor of psychology at Hunter College, in their research article,
Mirror self-recognition in the bottlenose dolphin: A case of cognitive convergence, showed
self-recognition in dolphins through an improvised mark test. Figure 1 shows the main
experimental set-up of Marino and Reiss. The
dolphins were either marked with a temporary
ink or sham-marked with water and their
behavior was recorded above and underwater
using cameras. They found that dolphins
performed more orienting and repetitive
behaviors when they were marked in
comparison to when they were sham marked.
Therefore, dolphins showed self-recognition.
Marino and Reiss write, Although our subjects
Figure 1: Experimental set-up of MSR in
Marino and Reisss experiment.

displayed clear self-orienting mark-directed

behavior after being marked or after late-sham

marking, neither one maintained a continuous orientation to the mirror throughout the entire
session. This may indicate habituation to the mark after inspection of it (5937-942). This
provides us further evidence on self-recognition and shows that dolphins adapt, hence it proves
that dolphins have the capability to show cognition. It is essential to know more about the way
dolphins use their natural abilities in analyzing whether they possess cognition.
Cross-modal abilities and Passive Learning

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Studies of shape differentiation by
bottlenose dolphins through echolocation have
been delimited chiefly to a few simple geometric
forms: cylinders versus cubes (Nachtigall et al. 4370), cylinders versus spheres (Au et al. 859-862),
and flat circles versus either flat triangles or
squares (Barta, cited in Nachtigall 71-95). Recent
studies have shown that dolphins possess crossmodal invidious abilities involving optical and
onomatopoeic stimuli, suggesting that the dolphin
has an object based representational system, and
that functional integration of these two senses is a
fundamental characteristic of dolphin perception.

Figure 2: Pack and Hermans samples

for cross-modal abilities.

In March 1995, Louis M. Herman, emeritus

professor at University of Hawaii at Manoa; and his colleague Adam A. Pack, associate
professor at University of Hawaii at Manoa, in their research article, Sensory integration in the
bottlenosed dolphin: Immediate recognition of complex shapes across the senses of echolocation
and vision, showed the cross-modal abilities of the 8-yr-old bottlenosed dolphin Elele. Elele
was tested using an MTS task, in which she was given an alpha sample, which consisted of one
of the unusually shaped objects from Figure 2, exposed to either one of her senses for
examination. After she was done analyzing she was exposed to other 3 samples of which one
looked exactly similar to the alpha sample. She was rewarded for choosing the alternative which
physically matched the sample object. The number and shape of samples varied throughout the

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trails but each pair of samples was used equal number of times. Elele was capable of promptly
recognizing most of the novel objects through echolocation alone and through vision alone. They
state in their research paper that, Her performance accuracy in E-E [only echoic sense]
recognition suggests that shape recognition may be a fundamental property of the dolphin's
echolocation perceptual system. To remember something one has to possess intelligence. From
this article we see that Elele was able to remember what she saw both using her vision or voice,
and use that to pick the matching sample. Whenever she was not able to recognize a sample from
either one of her abilities, she promptly switched to the other ability. This study showed that not
only are dolphins capable of memorizing and understanding incident, but also have complete
control over their senses and abilities. This behavior is human-like; and gives the most solid
evidence that dolphins possess cognition.
Conclusion
All of these experiments prove that dolphins, like other nonhuman primates, possess
cognition. They have the cognitive ability to understand and comprehend a language, recognize
themselves in the mirror, use their natural abilities like echolocation for shape recognition. All of
these experiments support the idea of them having one of the highest encephalization quotient
which ultimately supports that dolphins have cognition. Although, there has been this much
research done on dolphins there is still substantial amount of information that remains buried.
After learning so much about this species we should question our ethics. This animal is held in
captivity for our entertainment. If it possess such advance abilities should we still keep it away
from its natural habitat?

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Works Cited
Au, Whitlow, Ronald J. Schusterman, and D. A. Kersting. "Sphere-cylinder Discrimination via
Echolocation by Tursiops Truncatus." Animal Sonar Systems (1980): 859-62. Web. 23
Apr. 2016.

Batteau, Dwight W., and Peter R. Markey. Man/Dolphin Communication. Rep. China Lake: US
Naval Ordnance Test Station, 1967. Print.

Gallup, Gordon G., Jr. "Chimpanzees: Self-recognition." Science 167 (1970): 86-87. Web. 22
Apr. 2016.

Herman, Louis M. "Cognitive Characteristics of Dolphin." Cetacean Behavior: Mechanisms and

Functions (1988): 363-429. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.

Herman, Louis M. "Vocal, Social, and Self-imitation by Bottlenosed Dolphins."MIT

Press (2002): 63-108. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.

Herman, Louis M., Douglas G. Richards, and James P. Wolz. "Comprehension of Sentences by
Bottlenosed Dolphins." Cognition 16 (1984): 129-219. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.

Lilly, John C. "Man and Dolphin." (1961): Web. 22 Apr. 2016

Marino, Lori, and Toni Frohoff. "Towards a New Paradigm of Non-Captive Research on
Cetacean Cognition." PLoS One (2011). Web. 6 May 2016.

Mercado, Eduardo, III, Robert K. Uyeyama, Adam A. Pack, and Louis M. Herman. "Memory for
Recent Actions in the Bottlenosed Dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus): Repetition of Arbitrary
Behaviors Using an Abstract Rule." Animal Learning & Behavior 26 (1998): 210-18.
Web. 22 Apr. 2016.

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Mercado, Eduardo, III, Robert K. Uyeyama, Adam A. Pack, and Louis M. Herman. "Memory for
Action Events in the Bottlenosed Dolphin." Animal Cognition 2 (1999): 17-25. Web. 22
Apr. 2016.

Nachtigall, Paul E. "Odontocete Echolocation Performance on Object, Shape, and

Material." Animal Sonar Systems (1980): 71-95. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

Nachtigall, Paul E., Earl A. Murchison, and Whitlow Au. "Cylinder and Cube Shape
Discrimination by an Echolocating Blindfolded Bottlenose Dolphin." Animal Sonar
Systems (1980): 43-70. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

Pack, Adam A., and Louis M. Herman. "Sensory Integration in the Bottlenosed Dolphin:
Immediate Recognition of Complex Shapes across the Senses of Echolocation and
Vision." Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (1995): 722-33. Web. 23 Apr.
2016.

Reiss, Diana, and Lori Marino. "Mirror Self-recognition in the Bottlenose Dolphin: A Case of
Cognitive Convergence." 98.10 (2001): 5937-942. PNAS. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.pnas.org/content/98/10/5937.full>.

Schusterman, Ronald J., and Robert Gisiner. "Artificial Language Comprehension in Dolphins
and Sea Lions: The Essential Cognitive Skills." The Psychological Record 38 (1988):
311-48. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.