Zoya Alexandrovna Zorina
Doctor of Biological Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Physiology and Genetics of Behavior, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University. Born 03/29/1941
Specialty - Physiology of higher nervous activity;
1958 -1963 - studied at the Faculty of Biology and Soil Sciences of Moscow State University, department of VND, scientific advisors N.A. Tushmalova, D.A. Fless; "The role and participation of the hippocampus in the genesis of audiogenic seizures";
1965 - 1986 junior researcher at the Department of Higher Inspection
1986 - 1993 senior researcher at the Department of Higher Inspection
1993 - 1997 leading researcher at the Department of Higher Inspection
1997 to present Head of the Laboratory of Physiology and Genetics of Behavior, Department of VND
1968 - dissertation for the degree of candidate of biological sciences "The role and participation of the hippocampus in the genesis of audiogenic seizures of various origins"
1993 - dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Biological Sciences "The rational activity of birds"
2001 - title of Honored Researcher of Moscow State University
Special courses - "Elementary thinking of animals" for the department of VND, "Fundamentals of ethology and zoopsychology" - for the faculty of philosophy.
Trained 3 graduate students who defended their dissertations.
Member of the Scientific Council of the Biological and Chemical Faculty of Moscow State Pedagogical University;
Member of the Bureau of the Working Group on the Study of Corvids (separate information to come)
Member of the organizing committee of the Moscow Ethological Seminar.
Main works:
Interview
Science: on the 120th anniversary of the birth of zoopsychologist Nadezhda Ladygina-KotsMay 19, 2009 marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding zoopsychologist Nadezhda Ladygina-Kots, author of the famous book “The Chimpanzee Child and the Human Child.” This work was the result of many years of observation, first of the development of the chimpanzee Yoni, and then of her own son Rudolf. Professor Zoya Zorina, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, talks about the most interesting episodes of Ladygina-Kotts’ life and scientific work. Olga Orlova and Alexander Markov talk to her.
BEHIND. Zorina
List of works by the author available on the site
Elementary thinking of animals.Elementary thinking of animals: Textbook. M.: Aspect Press, 2002.- 320 p. ISBN 5-7567-0135-4. The textbook is devoted to elementary thinking, or rational activity - the most complex form of animal behavior. For the first time, the reader is offered a synthesis of classic works and the latest data in this area obtained by zoopsychologists, physiologists of higher nervous activity and ethologists
BEHIND. Zorina, I.I. Poletaeva
Basic provisions of the Lorentz concept
Lorenz based his initial concept on the division of behavior into innate (actually instinctive) and acquired (formed through individual experience and learning). He pointed out that such division in most cases is conditional. Each sequence of behavioral acts is considered by Lorenz as a combination of instincts and learning. The inheritance of species-specific characteristics in the performance of fixed sets of actions can be analyzed by studying the behavior of first-generation hybrids from crossing individuals of related species in which this behavior is clearly different, as well as (which applies mainly to insects) in individuals with local mutations affecting this trait.
Thursday, October 26, 2017, 19:30, Moscow, Cultural and Educational Center "Arhe".
The cultural and educational center "Arhe" invites you to the course of the leading domestic ethologist and zoopsychologist Zoya Aleksandrovna Zorina "Zoo psychology and comparative psychology."
Topic of the fourth lecture: "Ethology. Continuation".
The lecture will be devoted to a description of the model of a behavioral act according to K. Lorenz: motivation, search behavior, key stimuli, the final act (including the example of social behavior); behavior in case of conflict of motivations (according to Tinbergen).
About the lecturer:
Zoya Alexandrovna Zorina- one of the best domestic ethologists, Doctor of Biological Sciences, head of the laboratory of physiology and genetics of behavior of the Department of Higher Nervous Activity, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University.
About the course “Animal psychology and comparative psychology”
Zoopsychology and Comparative Psychology Course Program is closely related to the problems of the origin of the psyche, the paths of its phylogenetic development and the formation of the human psyche in the process of evolution. The course material is based on a synthesis of data obtained both by psychologists of different directions, and by biologists - physiologists, ethologists, field zoologists, as well as behavioral geneticists.
From this course you will learn whether animals think, whether they are able to make the right decision in an unexpected situation, and which species of animals are characterized by such abilities to the greatest extent. It will be shown how human language differs from the “language” of animals, and what rudiments of human speech abilities were discovered in chimpanzees.
The lectures will examine the contribution of each of the listed sciences to the study of animal thinking. Along with experimental data, the results of ethological observations in nature are widely used. Features of the ontogenesis of animals of different species are discussed, as well as genetically determined forms of behavior and the relationship between innate and acquired in its formation. Particular attention is paid to the characteristics of the play stage of ontogenesis and its significance in the formation of the behavior of an adult animal.
Among various topics the following issues will be addressed, such as:
- How did the experimental study of the animal psyche begin?
- How do animal brains differ from human brains? Are these differences big?
- How have ethologists who study the behavior of animals in natural conditions enriched animal psychology?
- What is play and why do animals play?
- Do animals have more complex forms of behavior than instincts?
- Do animals have thinking, and in what forms does it manifest itself?
- Is it possible to talk about the mind of animals?
- Can animals use tools?
- How does the tool activity of the woodpecker finch differ from the tool activity of a chimpanzee?
- What do the psyches of higher mammals and higher birds have in common?
- Are chimpanzees and crows capable of abstraction?
- To what extent can animals “count”?
- Is it possible to have a dialogue with chimpanzees, and what can they talk about?
- How do animals of different species behave in front of a mirror, and what does the ability to recognize oneself in the mirror indicate?
- What is a “spare mind”, and how does it manifest itself in chimpanzees?
Moscow State University named after. M. V. Lomonosova
Department of Biology
Department of Higher Nervous Activity
Scientific editor I. I. Poletaeva
Zoya Alexandrovna Zorina
Doctor of Biological Sciences. Head of the Laboratory of Physiology and Genetics of Animal Behavior of the Department of Higher Nervous Activity, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov. He studies the elementary thinking of animals, including the ability to generalize and symbolize in corvids, and gives lectures at Moscow State University and a number of institutes. Author of a monograph and a number of published works on the rational activity of birds, as well as textbooks “Fundamentals of ethology and genetics of behavior” (M., 1999/2002, co-author); “Zoo psychology: elementary thinking of animals” (M., 2001/2003, together with I. I. Poletaeva) and the popular book “Animal Behavior” in the series “I know the world” (M., 2001, together with I. I. Poletaeva ).
Anna Anatolyevna Smirnova
Candidate of Biological Sciences, senior researcher at the Laboratory of Physiology and Genetics of Animal Behavior, Department of Higher Nervous Activity, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov. Engaged in experimental studies of animal thinking.
Are they talking or are they monkeying around? (publisher's foreword)
0. The idea of publishing this book was prompted by a TV show by Alexander Gordon, who carried out a wonderful project several years ago: a series of interviews with domestic scientists who spoke in a lively and accessible manner about their research and the problems associated with this research. The program was dedicated to the ability of great apes to understand and use natural (human) language. In it, famous scientists Dr. Biol. Sciences Z. A. Zorina (researcher of intelligent behavior of animals) and Doctor of Historical Sciences M. L. Butovskaya (specialist in the field of anthropology and ethology of primates) talked about the most interesting achievements of foreign, mainly American, biologists in this field.
These achievements amazed me. They turned out to be so unexpected and, moreover, incredible that, if not for the authority of scientists and the academic style of presentation (detailed discussion of the conditions of each experiment, multidimensional analysis of its results, caution in general assessments, etc.), their story could well have been accepted for a pseudoscientific sensation.
I will cite only two episodes from this conversation - as they are already described in this book.
1. The first episode was about the experiment of American scientists, the couple Alan and Beatrice Gardner, who in 1966 took a 10-month-old female chimpanzee named Washoe into their family. Their goal was to find out whether chimpanzees were able to master the simplest elements of the intermediary language Amslen - the simplified sign language of the American deaf-mutes (as is known, the anthropoid's vocal apparatus is not adapted to reproduce the sounds of human speech).
After a short time, it became obvious that Washoe was not a passive laboratory animal, but a creature endowed with the need to learn and communicate. She not only mastered the dictionary, but asked questions, commented on her own actions and the actions of her teachers, spoke to them herself, i.e., she entered into full-fledged two-way communication with people. In a word, Washoe exceeded the expectations of the experimenters, and... after three years of training she was already using about 130 signs... She used “words” to the point, combined them into small sentences, came up with her own signs, joked and even cursed.
...In case of mistakes, Washoe corrected herself. Here's a typical example: She pointed to the picture, made the sign "THIS IS FOOD", then looked carefully at her hand and changed the "statement" to "THIS IS DRINK", which was correct.<…>
Washoe accurately distinguished between the sign of her own name and the 1st person pronoun. She regularly used the gestures “ME”, “I”, “YOU” and possessive pronouns – “MY”, “YOUR” (these were different signs).<…>She was well aware of the difference between the actor and the object of his actions and demonstrated this understanding by using not only proper names, but also pronouns. When making a request, Washoe put “YOU” before “ME” 90% of the time: “YOU RELEASE ME”; “YOU GIVE ME,” but “I GIVE TO YOU.” When she was told by signs, “I TICKLE YOU,” she expected to be tickled. But when they told her “YOU TICKLE ME,” she, in turn, rushed to tickle her interlocutor.<…>
Washoe... very quickly generalized one of her first signs “OPEN” and spontaneously transferred it to a large number of objects (referents). For example, Washoe was originally taught this sign in relation to opening three specific doors. Not immediately, but she spontaneously began to use it to open all doors, including refrigerator and cupboard doors... Then she used this sign to open all sorts of containers, including drawers, boxes, briefcases, bottles, pans. In the end, she made a real discovery - she made this sign when she needed to turn on the water tap!
The finishing touch -
...the ability to use gestures in a figurative meaning. Thus, Washoe “called” the attendant who kept her from drinking for a long time, “DIRTY JACK,” and the word “DIRTY” was obviously used not in the sense of “dirty,” but as an expletive. In other cases, various chimpanzees and gorillas referred to "DIRTY" as stray cats, annoying gibbons, and hated walking leashes. Coco (gorilla - A.K.) also called one of the attendants “YOU DIRTY BAD TOILET” (pp. 159–163).
Another episode dates back to a later time - the second half of the 80s. The now famous Kanzi, a representative of the recently discovered bonobo subspecies of pygmy chimpanzees, took part in it. Kanzi was “bilingual.” Firstly, he was purposefully taught a new intermediary language, Yerkish. Instead of Amslen gestures, a special computer keyboard is used here with conventional (non-iconic) icon keys (“lexigrams”) denoting words in the English language. When a key is pressed, the word icon appears on the monitor (without the word being played audibly). Thus, both participants see the entire dialogue and can correct or supplement their remarks. In addition, Kanzi, along with lexigrams, involuntarily (without special training) learned the sound of about 150 English words and, according to project leader Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, could directly perceive and understand spoken speech without resorting to a monitor and lexigrams. However, this observation required convincing experimental confirmation. After all
When communicating with people, monkeys are so adept at perceiving the nonverbal aspects of communication that they often guess the intentions of the speaker without actually understanding the meaning of the words. S. Savage-Rumbaugh illustrates this with a good example: if you watch a “soap opera” with the sound turned off, then almost always you understand the meaning of what is being said without words. The ability to “read” information in a specific situation from various sources, including gestures, glances, actions, intonation and knowledge of similar circumstances that have already taken place, is very well developed in monkeys. This often gives rise to the misconception that they understand words, because, focused primarily on language, people forget about the existence of other channels of information (p. 224).
To obtain such confirmation, S. Savage-Rumbaugh conducted a unique experiment that allowed
compare the understanding of sentences spoken by a person in Kanzi and that of a child, the girl Ali.<…>At the beginning of testing (it lasted from May 1988 to February 1989), Kanzi was 8 years old and Ale was 2 years old. They were offered a total of 600 oral tasks, new each time, in which both words and syntactic structures were systematically changed in each trial. Phrases of the same type (in different versions) were repeated at least every few days. The testing environment was varied. This could have been direct contact, with the monkey and the man sitting side by side on the floor among a pile of toys. In some of these experiments, the experimenter wore a helmet that covered his face, so as not to involuntarily suggest the desired action or object through involuntary facial expressions or glances (which was generally unlikely). In other experiments, also to avoid voluntary or involuntary hints, the examiner was in the next room, observing what was happening through glass with one-way visibility. In these cases, Kanzi also listened to the tasks through headphones, and they were spoken by different people, and sometimes even a speech synthesizer was used.
In the vast majority of cases, Kanzi, without any special training, correctly followed new instructions every time. Below we provide typical examples.
Place the loaf in the microwave;
Remove the juice from the refrigerator;
Give the turtle some potatoes;
Take the handkerchief out of X's pocket.
Moreover, some of the tasks were given in two versions, the meaning of which varied depending on the order of words in the sentence:
Go outside and find a carrot;
Take the carrots outside;
Pour Coca-Cola into lemonade;
Pour lemonade into Coca-Cola.
Many phrases addressed to him provoked the commission of unusual (or even usually punishable) actions with ordinary objects:
Squeeze toothpaste onto hamburger;
Find the dog and give it an injection;
Slap the gorilla with a can opener;
Let the snake (toy) bite Linda (employee), etc.
Daily lessons with Kanzi were constantly aimed at finding out again and again the limits of his understanding of what was happening. For example, during a walk he might be asked:
Collect pine needles in your backpack;
Put the ball on the needles
and a few days later:
Place needles on the ball.
<…>Kanzi's achievements undoubtedly confirmed the chimpanzee's ability to spontaneously understand syntax. It turned out that, like his colleague in the experiment, the girl Alya, he understood all the proposed questions and tasks almost without error. On average, Kanzi completed 81% of the tasks correctly, while Alya completed 64% correctly (pp. 233–237).