What is the difference between animal games and children's games. The role of play activity in the development of animals. Questions to prepare for the lesson
7. Forms of play behavior. Types of games.
With all the variety of manifestations of animal play, most researchers distinguish the following forms of it.
1. Practically all types have outdoor games. As a rule, they include chasing, stalking, sneaking, running, jumping and all the elements of prey hunting. An important component of outdoor games is game fights, wrestling games. Characteristically, it is often impossible to identify such a game with certainty, that is, to distinguish real skirmishes from play ones. Apparently, the animals themselves face the same problems, because play fights can easily turn into a real fight if one of the partners really hurt the other. To warn about the beginning of the game, animals use special signals.
2. Games with objects (manipulative games) are considered by some authors to be the most “pure” manifestation of animal play. In the works of K.E. Fabry analyzed the specific features of the manipulation games of predatory (foxes, bears, raccoons, cats) and some other mammals. They demonstrated how the nature of handling the object changes at different stages of the juvenile period. It is shown how during the game with objects the essential components of the adult animal's manipulation activity are formed, exercised and improved, in which it will form a component of hunting, nest-building, feeding and other forms of behavior. An important factor in this improvement is the expansion of the sphere of objects that the animal manipulates, the emergence of new forms of handling the object, in connection with which its sensorimotor experience grows and new connections are established with biologically significant components of the environment. At the same time, as the author emphasizes, the games of young animals with objects are special actions. They are not analogous to the actions of adult animals, but represent the stages of their formation from more primitive morphofunctional elements.
Manipulation games are characteristic not only for mammals, but also for some species of birds.
A special variant of games is prey manipulations, which constitute the most important component of the formation of the hunting behavior of young predatory mammals. It is shown that it is thanks to the game that young predators master the handling of prey.
3. Hunting games. The role of play in shaping the hunting behavior of felines was studied in detail by P. Leyhausen. He showed that kittens play with live, dead, and artificial prey. These games differ from true hunting techniques in an arbitrary sequence of elements that may differ significantly from the corresponding forms of adult behavior. Some of them are characterized by increased intensity. In addition, the "deadly bite" is never inflicted when playing with a real victim, either alive or dead, but is quite possible when using toys. The ratio of these features when playing with live and dead prey varies significantly among representatives different types(wild and domestic cats, lions). Unlike many other animals, felines continue to play as adults.
4. Games of "victim". Very common in animals that are potential prey. Birds and herbivores play such games very willingly, and someone from the group takes on the role of a hunter, the rest, by choice, are “victims”.
5. Social games. Animals can play alone, but collective (or social) games with different composition of participants (peers, parents) are more common. In the process of such games, future social interactions. So, joint games, which require the coordinated actions of partners, are found in animals that live in complex communities.
In the course of social games, elements of agonistic behavior are used and the foundations of hierarchical relations between their participants are laid. As the game of many animals, in particular chimpanzees, grows older, they become more and more rough and often end in aggressive episodes. Thanks to this, the animal not only receives information about strong and weaknesses of his playmates and the relative hierarchical position of his mother and the mothers of his playmates, but also learns to fight, threaten, and form allies. This allows him to subsequently successfully compete with other members of the community, in which the ability to defend his rights and increase his rank often depends on the ability to fight.
Social games are very typical not only for predatory mammals, but also for herbivores. As an example of modern studies of this aspect of the problem, one can cite the data of long-term observations by N.G. Ovsyannikov for the behavior and social organization of equids. His data suggest that interactions between foals and juveniles during play do indeed provide the social integration mechanisms that play a huge role in these animals.
The cognitive functions of the game make it related to orienting-exploratory activity. Indeed, both of them occur predominantly in young animals, and in either case the animal does not receive visible reinforcement. In both cases, the activity of the animal is provoked by the novelty of the object and fades away as it becomes familiar with it. Nevertheless, speaking of the orienting-exploratory behavior of a cub, it should be remembered that this is a developing activity and cannot be identified with a similar form of behavior of an adult animal, despite the presence of a certain similarity.
As emphasized, for example, by Krymov (1982), it is necessary to distinguish between the orienting-exploratory behavior of young animals and those complex cognitive processes that accompany the game of animals. These forms of behavior are not always clearly demarcated due to the lack of a precise definition of the concept of play. In addition, not all forms of play are equal.
Game activity in animals, it occurs at a time when there is no need for other forms of behavior essential to survival, such as feeding or escaping from predators. Young mammals spend a lot of time playing - their game is a complex set of behavioral acts, which together form the main content of the behavior of a young animal before puberty. Adults can also play periodically, but this need weakens with age.
Animal play includes a wide range of activities, from motor activity, in which stereotypes of eating, sexual or defensive behavior are mixed, to complex, sometimes unique scenarios invented and planned in relation to circumstances. It appears in various forms: outdoor games, manipulation games, social (or collective), figurative fantasizing.
Playing activity in animals manifests itself in various forms and performs various functions. First of all, it is a function of the formation of behavior, physical training of the skills of hunting, self-defense, and wrestling necessary in the future. In addition, the game performs cognitive functions, promotes research environment, the acquisition of knowledge about the laws and phenomena of the surrounding world. The third function of play in animals is the accumulation of extensive individual experience, primarily the experience of relationships with their own kind, which will later find application in various life situations.
game behavior cognitive animal
Bibliography
Zoopsychology and comparative psychology (http://www.ido.rudn.ru/psychology/animal_psychology/1.html)
Game activity in animals and humans (http://brunner.kgu.edu.ua/index.php/therapy/37-compare-psy/262-animalamens-games)
Ontogeny of behavior (http://www.ido.rudn.ru/psychology/animal_psychology/13.html)
Comparative psychology (http://brunner.kgu.edu.ua/index.php/therapy/37-compare-psy/262-animalamens-games)
Fabri Kurt Ernestovich "Fundamentals of zoopsychology" (http://www.rulit.me/books/osnovy-zoopsihologii-read-95281-52.html)
Psyera (http://psyera.ru/4706/igrovaya-deyatelnost-zhivotnyh)
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Animal play occurs at a time when there is no need for other forms of behavior essential to survival, such as feeding or escaping from predators. Young mammals spend a lot of time playing - their game is a complex set of behavioral acts, which together form the main content of the behavior of a young animal before puberty. Adults can also play periodically, but this need weakens with age.
Animal play includes a wide range of activities: from motor activity, in which stereotypes of eating, sexual or defensive behavior are mixed, to complex, sometimes inimitable scenarios invented and planned in relation to circumstances. It appears in various forms:
Outdoor games
Manipulation games
Social (or collective)
Figurative fantasy
Let's consider them in more detail. Outdoor games include chase, stalking, sneaking, running, jumping and all the elements of prey hunting. An important component of outdoor games are game fights, wrestling games.
Manipulative games, or games with objects, are considered by some authors to be the most “pure” manifestation of animal play. They are characteristic of mammals, as well as some species of birds. In the course of playing with objects, important components of the hunting, nest-building, food and other forms of behavior of adult animals are formed, exercised and improved.
A striking example of such a game is the behavior of kittens. Here is how he describes them in his book “A Man Finds a Friend”…: “A kitten plays with its traditional toy - a ball of wool. He invariably begins by touching it with his paw, at first cautiously and inquiringly, stretching it out and bending the pad inward. Then he releases his claws, pulls the ball towards him and immediately pushes or jumps back and falls to the floor. Pulling himself up, he cautiously raises his head and so suddenly that it seems as if he must inevitably hit his chin on the floor. The hind legs perform peculiar alternating movements - it either steps over them, or scrapes, as if looking for a solid support for the jump. Suddenly, he describes a wide arc in the air and falls on the toy, putting forward his front paws brought together. If the game has reached a certain climax, he may even start biting. The kitten again pushes the ball, which is now rolling under the cupboard, into a gap too narrow for the kitten to fit through. With a graceful “worked out” movement, the kitten slips one paw under the sideboard and fishes its toy out. Those who have ever seen a cat catch a mouse immediately notice that the kitten, which was separated from its mother almost blind, does all the highly specialized movements that help the cat hunt for its main prey - mice. Indeed, for wild cats, mice are their daily bread.
If we now improve the toy by tying it to a thread and hanging it so that it dangles, the kitten will demonstrate a completely different system of hunting movements. He jumps high and grabs the prey with both paws, bringing them together with a wide gripping movement. During this jump, the paws appear unnaturally large, as the claws are extended, the fingers are splayed, and the fifth vestigial fingers are bent at right angles to the paw. This grasping movement, which the kittens enthusiastically perform in the game, absolutely exactly, down to the smallest detail, coincides with the movement used by cats, grabbing a bird taking off from the ground.
The biological meaning of another movement, often observed in the game, is less obvious, since in practice cats use it very rarely. With a swift, upward blow of an inverted pad with extended claws, the kitten picks up the toy from below, throws it over its shoulder so that it describes a sharp arc, and rapidly jumps after it. Or, especially when dealing with large objects, the kitten sits down in front of the toy, straightens up tensely, picks it up with its paws from below on both sides and throws it over its head in an even steeper arc. Often the kitten follows the flight of the toy with its eyes, makes a high jump and lands in the same place where it falls. In life, such movements are used when catching fish: the first system is for catching small fish, and the second is for large fish.
Manipulations with prey are a special variant of manipulation games; they constitute the most important component of the formation of the hunting behavior of young predatory mammals. Cubs of different types of cats play with live, dead, and artificial prey. These games differ from true hunting techniques by an arbitrary sequence of individual elements, their incompleteness, or increased intensity. Interestingly, unlike many other animals, felines continue to actively play even as adults.
social or collective games found in animals that live in complex communities. In the process of such games, future social interactions are worked out, the foundations of hierarchical relations between the participants are laid.
Such games include, for example, game wrestling. For example, among marmots: young animals often “fight” for a long time, rising on their hind limbs and clasping each other with their front ones. In this position, they shake and push. Playing flight is also often observed in them, while general mobile games are rare in young marmots.
Play fighting among predators is widespread. Among mustelids, hunting games predominate (in addition to general mobility), which often turn into play fighting. Like other mammals, the roles of the pursuer and the pursued often switch roles in such games. In bear cubs, play fighting is expressed in the fact that partners push and “bite” each other, clasping their front paws, or strike each other. There are also joint jogging (or racing swimming), playing hide-and-seek, etc.
Joint games of lion cubs consist, first of all, in sneaking up, attacking, chasing, and “fighting”, and the partners change roles every now and then.
Game fighting and hunting are also characteristic of other feline representatives. So, hiding behind a coal box, the kitten tracks down his brother, who sat down in the middle of the kitchen and is unaware of this ambush. And the first kitten shudders with impatience, like a bloodthirsty tiger, whips its tail on the sides and makes movements with its head and tail, also observed in adult cats. his sudden jump refers to a completely different system of movement, the purpose of which is not hunting, but fighting. Instead of jumping on his brother as a prey - however, this is also not excluded - the kitten on the run assumes a threatening posture, arches its back and approaches the enemy sideways. The second kitten also arches its back, and both stand like that for a while, fur up and tails arched.
As far as we know, adult cats never take such a position in relation to each other. Each kitten behaves more like a dog in front of him, and yet their fight develops like a real fight between two adult cats. Firmly clinging to each other with their front paws, they tumble in the most incredible way, at the same time jerking their hind legs so that if a man were in the place of the second opponent, all his hands would be scratched after the game. Squeezing his brother in the iron grip of his front paws, the kitten vigorously beats him with his hind paws with extended claws. In a real fight, such cutting, tearing blows are aimed at the enemy's unprotected stomach, which can lead to the most unfortunate results.
After boxing a little, the kittens release each other, and then an exciting chase usually begins, during which one can observe another system of graceful movements. When a fleeing kitten sees that another is overtaking him, he suddenly does somersaults, slips under his opponent with a soft, completely silent movement, clings to his tender abdomen with his front paws, and hits him on the muzzle with his back paws.
Such joint games are more of a training in the skills necessary for hunting, to a lesser extent - entertainment.
Collective games are also necessary to establish a hierarchy in the relationship between animals. Thus, in dogs, hierarchical relations begin to form at the age of 1–1.5 months, although the corresponding expressive postures and movements appear earlier during the game. Already on the 32-34th day of life, fox cubs show quite pronounced “attacks” on their brethren with signs of imposing and intimidation. At the beginning of the second month of life, hierarchical relationships appear in coyotes.
Such games contain elements of brute physical force, signs of demonstrative behavior, being a means of mental influence on a partner, intimidation. Animals show such movements as “beating” a partner, jumping on him, etc.
Animals can collectively engage in a manipulation game, including some objects as an object of the game in their joint actions. As an example of such a game, Wüstehube described the joint actions of three young ferrets with an empty tin can. Being accidentally dropped into the basin of the washbasin, this jar was then repeatedly thrown there by them, which produced an appropriate noise effect. When the animals were given a rubber ball instead of a jar, the ferrets did not play with it like that, but later they found another solid object - a faience plug, with the help of which they resumed the same "noise" game.
In wild four-month-old piglets, the German ethologist G.Fredrich once observed a lively joint game with a coin: the piglets sniffed and pressed it with “piglets”, pushed it, grabbed it with their teeth and tossed it up, sharply throwing their heads up at the same time. Several piglets participated in this game at the same time, and each of them tried to take possession of the coin and play with it himself in the manner described. Frederick also watched young boars play together with rags. Like puppies, the piglets grabbed the same rag with their teeth at the same time and pulled it in different directions. The "winner" either ran away with a rag, or continued to play with it on his own, ruffled it, etc.
In such "trophy" games, elements of demonstrative behavior also clearly appear, and an impressive effect is achieved with the help of an object - an "intermediary", more precisely, by demonstrating its possession. No less important role is played, of course, by "challenging", capturing, taking away an object, as well as a direct "trial of strength", when animals, grabbing at the object at the same time, pull it in different directions.
One of the variants of collective social games is the games of a mother with her cub. They are characteristic of predatory mammals, but are especially developed and expressed in great apes, in which the mother plays with the cub from the very first months of life until the end of adolescence.
Goodall describes in detail the play of a chimpanzee mother with her baby. From the mother, the baby receives the first experience social game when she gently bites him with her teeth or tickles him with her fingers. At first, play episodes do not last long, but at about 6 months the cub begins to respond to its mother with play facial expressions and laughter, and the duration of the game grows. Some females play not only with babies, but also with cubs of a fairly mature age. One of the monkeys played at the age of 40: the cubs ran around the tree, and she stood and pretended to try to grab them, or grabbed those who ran close. Her daughter also played with her offspring for quite some time.
When the baby reaches the age of 3-5 months, the mother allows other cubs to play with him. At first, these are older brothers and sisters, but with age this circle grows, and the games become longer and more energetic.
The games of many animals, in particular chimpanzees, become more and more rough as they grow older and often end aggressively. Through this, the animal learns about the strengths and weaknesses of its playmates and about the relative hierarchical position of its mother and the mothers of playmates. Along with this, the cub learns to fight, threaten, establish allied relations. This allows him to later more successfully defend his rights and increase his social rank.
A number of researchers come to the conclusion that some animals are also characterized by the so-called higher forms of play activity. Among them, in particular, Fabry refers the manipulation games of young monkeys. Such games consist in complex manipulation of the object. An animal in the course of such a game for a long time and with concentration exposes the object to various, mainly destructive influences, or even influences them on other objects.
Another, the most complex, type of games is “figurative fantasy” - games with imaginary objects or in imaginary circumstances. Games with imaginary objects are described by the Hayes in the chimpanzee Vicki, who, as already mentioned, pretended for quite some time that she was carrying a toy on a string. She positioned her body appropriately, looped the missing "string" around obstacles, and tugged at it when it got stuck or clung to an imaginary obstacle.
Scientists were also able to describe the play behavior of some birds. For example, in corvids living in the wild, various and complex manipulations with objects are noted. Sometimes, for example, one can observe how a crow releases a stick or other small object clamped in its beak on the fly and immediately catches it, doing this several times in a row. Other very diverse outdoor games are also characteristic of them: pair flights, pursuit, pirouettes and somersaults in the air, swimming in the snow, rolling from rooftops, etc.
The games of urban crows are especially diverse. Quite often you can see how 2-3 crows tease the dog. They can distract her from eating, they can make her chase them to the point of exhaustion, they can lure her to the edge of a ravine so that the dog falls into it, and so on. It is described that some crows even play with dog owners, for example, by intercepting a leash from their hands.
The collective games of birds are most often chases and passes from beak to beak.
With all the variety of forms of play in animals and birds, they are united by several features.
Firstly, the games of the animal are almost always associated with great mobility. In the course of such games, such physical abilities develop as agility, speed, reactivity, strength, as well as some motor-sensory coordination (eye). As a result, manifestations of species-typical behavior are formed.
Secondly, a characteristic feature of the play behavior of animals is its association with the restructuring and change of functions of those stereotyped fixed complexes of actions that constitute the behavior of an adult animal. Often they belong to different categories (sexual, hunting, etc.), but are intertwined into a single ball.
The third feature of games in animals is that they practically do not lead or lead to a much lesser degree than in humans, the degree of development of such qualities as ingenuity, imagination, self-awareness.
Summarizing the above, we can conclude that play activity in animals manifests itself in various forms and performs various functions. First of all, it is a function of the formation of behavior, physical training of the skills of hunting, self-defense, and wrestling necessary in the future. In addition, the game performs cognitive functions, contributes to the study of the environment, the acquisition of knowledge about the laws and phenomena of the surrounding world. The third function of play in animals is the accumulation of extensive individual experience, primarily the experience of relationships with their own kind, which will later find application in various life situations.
Introduction
Definition of "game"
Ideas about the behavior of animals in the XVIII century.
Play behavior in animals
.Congenital and acquired in the individual development of behavior Game Features Cognitive function of game activity of animals Forms of play behavior. Types of games General conclusions Bibliography Introduction
The study of play activity has been one of the most difficult questions of science for many decades. It is addressed not only by representatives of psychology and pedagogy, but also by scientists - sociologists, zoopsychologists, etiology and a number of other fields of knowledge. So, in psychology, the first fundamental concept of the game was developed in 1899 by the German philosopher and psychologist K. Gross. Before him, the questions of the game were partially touched upon by the English philosopher G. Spencer. Subsequently, theories of foreign and domestic researchers appeared - K. Buhler, F. Beitendijk, L.S. Vygotsky, A.N. Leontiev, D.B. Elkonina and others. During the 20th century, many studies appeared devoted to the study of play activity in various representatives of the animal world. The main purpose of studying play in animals is to explain its nature, compare it with human play, and also determine its functions and role in the development of animals and humans. 1. Definition of the concept of "game"
The definition of the concept of "game" is one of the most difficult issues in psychology, both human and animal. Referring to dictionaries, you can find the following answers: this is one of the types of human and animal activity that occurs at a certain stage in the evolution of the animal world. This is an activity, occupation of children and an occupation, due to a set of certain rules, techniques, which serves to fill leisure, for entertainment, which is a sport ( sport games, war game). This is a type of unproductive activity, where the motive lies not as a result of it, but in the process itself. Thus, the concept of the game is very capacious and complex. Play as a type of activity is not inherent in all representatives of the animal world, but only in those species in whose ontogeny there is such a period as childhood. In particular, these are representatives of vertebrates. Vertebrates are the most highly organized and diverse group of animals, numbering about 40-45 various kinds. Scientists have observed play activity in many mammals, in particular, in representatives of all families of predatory mammals, in primates, and also in birds. Game activity is also inherent in man. All forms of play among any representatives of the animal world are fundamentally different from "serious" activities, but at the same time, they show a clear resemblance to specific, quite serious situations - and not just similarity, but imitation. This is true even in relation to the abstract games of adults - after all, poker or chess allows them to give vent to certain intellectual abilities. The main difference between a game and another type of activity is that this type of activity is focused not so much on a specific result, but on the process itself - rules, a situation, an imaginary environment. The game does not result in the production of any material or perfect product. The peculiarity of the game is also in its voluntary nature. Thus, an animal cannot be forced to play by positive or negative reinforcement. The condition for the emergence of the game is the comfortable state of the body; lack of hunger, thirst or adverse environmental conditions. Play behavior has a high positive-emotional component - animals clearly like to play. So it is with children. The child will not play if he is not interested in this game. Thus, play activity is a phenomenon characteristic only of those representatives of the animal world, in whose ontogeny there is a period of childhood. The main difference between the game and other types of activity is its "conditional" nature, as well as the occurrence only in conditions of emotional comfort.
2.
Ideas about the behavior of animals in the XVIII century.
game behavior cognitive In the Renaissance, science and art were freed from the dogmas and restrictions imposed on them by religious ideas. Natural, biological and medical sciences began to actively develop, many kinds of arts were revived and transformed. The systematic study of animal behavior as an integral part of the scientific knowledge of nature begins in the middle of the 18th century. It is interesting to note that almost from the very beginning, scientists distinguished two forms of behavior. One of them was called "instinct" (from lat. Instinctus - motivation). This concept appeared in the writings of philosophers as early as the 3rd century. BC. and meant the ability of a person and animals to perform certain stereotyped actions due to an internal impulse. The second category of phenomena was called "mind". However, this concept meant not only the mind as such, but in fact any form of individual plasticity of behavior, including those that are provided by training. The French naturalist J. Buffon (1707-1788) demonstrates the approach to animal behavior characteristic of that period in the development of science in his writings. Buffon was one of the first naturalists who, when creating his system of development of nature, was guided not only by the morphological differences of animals of different species, but also by their behavior. In his writings, he describes in sufficient detail the customs, habits, perceptions, emotions and learning of animals. Buffon argued that many animals are often endowed with more perfect perception than humans, but at the same time their actions are purely reflex character. One of the first definitions of instinct belongs to the German scientist, professor of mathematics and linguistics at the Hamburg Academy, Reimarus (1694-1768). According to him, all the actions of animals of a given species, which appear without individual experience and are carried out according to the same pattern, should be considered "as a pure consequence of a natural and innate instinct, independent of intention, reflection and ingenuity." According to the ideas of Reimarus, instinctive actions are combined into a fairly definite group of behavioral acts that are different from other forms of animal behavior. In addition to instincts, this scientist allowed animals to have actions that can be compared with rational human behavior. In this category, he included, above all, the ability to imitate and learn. Already in late XVIII in. There were different views on the origin of instinct. Thus, completely different points of view on this were expressed by Condillac (1755) and Leroy (1781). Condillac formulated the hypothesis of the "genesis of instincts", in which instinct is seen as the result of the reduction of rational abilities. According to him, individual experience that arose as a result of a successful solution to an urgently arisen task can be transformed into automatic forms of behavior that are preserved and inherited. Leroy, on the contrary, believed that instinct is an elementary ability that turns into a higher mental property as a result of long-term complications. He wrote: “Animals represent (although to a lower degree than we) all the signs of the mind; they feel, show obvious signs of pain and pleasure; remember, avoid what would harm them and seek what they like; compare and judge, hesitate and choose; reflect on their actions, because experience teaches them, and repeated experience changes their original judgment. Thus, Leroy was one of the first researchers in the development of the mental abilities of animals. 3. Play behavior in animals
There are several hypotheses regarding the play activity of animals, but there is not a single generally accepted one. There are two main sets of hypotheses on gaming activity. The first is that play activity is special mechanism maturation of coordination-motor acts, that is, a special learning mechanism. The second set of hypotheses suggests that the game is a "polishing" of species-specific forms of behavior. Here the instinctive nature of play activity is assumed. In both sets of hypotheses, a connection between play activity and instincts is assumed, but the first hypothesis notes the dominance of the learning process in the presence of instinctive only “in the bud”. In the play activity of animals, one can find representations of various forms of behavioral activity: ) social element (relations with relatives); ) marital behavior; ) elements of care for offspring; ) elements of food-procuring behavior; ) elements of defense and attack reactions, etc. When analyzing play activity, it is possible to detect elements of all behavioral programs inherent in this type of animal in it. At the same time, for each type there is a hierarchical subordination of various forms of activity, reflected in the game. For example, in dogs, the sexual form of activity dominates in the game, and in cats, hunting behavior predominates, in ungulates, “running away from a predator” is more often manifested in games. Konrad Lorenz in 1956 published the work "Instincts", in which he paid attention to gaming activities. He noted that the first difference between gaming activity and "vacuum" activity is that during vacuum activity, the threshold of sensitivity to releasers decreases, while this is not observed when playing. Second. When playing, instinctive activity occurs without stimulus-objects (releasers) at all, which usually “trigger” this instinct in a non-game situation. In the most complex forms, games are developed in mammals. Birds, especially the most intelligent ones, the corvids, play too. Ducks, for example, play the game of "running away from the hawk." Apparently, the program of instinctive activity developed in the game does not depend on the higher nerve centers, which block the "activation" of the instinct with their inhibitory influence. The ethologists Pain and Gross believe that play is a special activity, devoid of "specific instinctive tension", since it is analogous to instinctive activity without a final act. This is the reason why it is difficult for an animal to immediately move from play to another form of behavior. For example, it is difficult for a puppy to immediately move from food play to real food, it takes some time to “forget” the game. At the same time, it is very easy to switch from real behavior to play behavior. An example given by Karl Gross: A polar bear jumped from behind a cover on a seal but missed. The bear returned to the iceberg again and jumped several times to the place where the seal was lying until it covered this place with its body. Gross believes that the game is training, the development of those options for fixed actions that will later be useful. Lorenz, on the other hand, believes that the game is not a training of instincts. He believes that those species in which the innate instinct is poor, and learning, on the contrary, richer, play more, more willingly and more often. There may not be a causal relationship between play and learning. Such a connection may be between the high intelligence of some species, on the one hand, and the propensity to learn and play, on the other hand. Games with objects have been noted in all mammalian species, even in cattle (these are animals with relatively low intelligence). Lorenz believes that the so-called cosmopolitan animals, or "specialists in non-specialization", play more than others. These animals can live in different conditions, their body structure is characterized by relative primitiveness, and their psyche is characterized by extreme curiosity. Mostly young animals play in the area protected by their parents, that is, when they feel safe. Otherwise, play behavior is suppressed by indicative behavior. Even adult animals play in the zoo, which no longer play in nature at this age. Apparently, the animals of the zoo feel protected. 4. Congenital and acquired in the individual development of behavior
When analyzing any manifestation of mental activity, the question of innate and acquired components of behavior constantly arises. What does an individual inherit from previous generations in a genetically fixed innate form, and what should it learn in the order of acquiring individual experience? The modern understanding of the relationship between the innate and ontogenetic behavior of animals is based on the recognition of not only the presence, but also the interdependence of these components. The process of ontogenesis of behavior is revealed to us in all its complexity and inconsistency as a truly dialectical formation of a qualitatively new one as a result of quantitative transformations of the primary functional states of a developing organism. Interpenetration and various combinations of unconditioned and conditioned reflex elements in the ontogenesis of behavior prompted L.V. Krushinsky to put forward the thesis of unitary reactions, by which he understands acts of behavior that have a similar external expression with different ways of their formation. Unitary reactions are "single, holistic acts of behavior in which conditioned and unconditioned reflexes are combined, integrated The ratio of conditioned and unconditioned reflexes in a unitary reaction is not strictly fixed, and it itself is aimed at performing a single adaptive action. In the course of ontogenesis, unitary reactions are integrated in the form of multi-act behavior associated with the provision of the basic biological needs of the organism. These forms of behavior are not a simple sum of unitary reactions, but have a flexible structure, which allows the animal to adapt in the process of its development to the most diverse conditions of life. 5. Game functions
One of the most difficult questions in the study of the game is the definition of its functions. The first attempts to determine the functions of the game were made in the works of G. Spencer and K. Gross - the first studies of the play activity of animals. According to Spencer's theory, gaming activity is seen as the expenditure of some kind of "excess energy". In other words, it arises when the animal has no need for other forms of behavior essential to survival, such as feeding or escaping from predators. An animal cannot be idle. A different opinion is shared by K. Gross, who interprets play activity as “practice for adult behavior”. The game is an exercise in especially important areas of life. It allows the young animal to exercise without risk in vital actions, because under these conditions mistakes do not entail detrimental consequences: in the course of the game, it is possible to improve hereditary forms of behavior even before the shortcomings of behavior fatally "appear before the court of natural selection." As a result of the research, the following functions of the game were determined: Approximately - research or cognitive. It consists in the fact that with the help of the game there is an accumulation of knowledge about the objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, their diversity and properties. developmental function. The game helps representatives of the animal world to develop qualities that are characteristic of this species: reaction, speed, dexterity, etc. The function of socialization, which is expressed in the acquisition of communication skills through the game. These functions reflect the great importance of the game in the development of an animal or a person. 6. Cognitive function of the game activity of animals
During the game, a young animal acquires a variety of information about the properties and qualities of the behavior of objects in its environment. This makes it possible to concretize, refine and supplement the species experience accumulated in the process of evolution in relation to the specific conditions of an individual's life. In the works of a number of authoritative scientists, the connection between the game and research activities(Groos, Beach, Nissen, Lorenz, etc.), but there are also differences between these categories of behavior. Objecting to the view of the game as the "game of nature", supposedly not important for the conservation of the species, Lorentz emphasized its great importance for "exploratory learning", because during the game the animal treats almost every unfamiliar object as potentially biologically significant and thus seeks out opportunities for existence in a variety of conditions. This is especially true, according to Lorenz, to such "curious creatures" as corvids or rats, which, thanks to an extremely developed exploratory behavior, managed to become cosmopolitans. Similarly, the prominent German ethologist O. Köhler pointed out that play is “an almost incessant search for trial and error”, as a result of which the animal slowly, accidentally, but sometimes suddenly learns what is very important for him. True, other experts express the opinion that the similarity between the phenomena of play and exploratory behavior is only superficial and has no essential significance. This point of view is held, for example, by Hamilton and Marler. However, no one questioned that the acquisition of information through the game is carried out at least in combination with "proper" research activities. Of course, not every orienting-exploratory activity is a game, just as familiarization with the environment is carried out in a young animal not only in game form. But every game contains an exploratory component to some extent. This is especially true for games with objects, manipulation games, but again, not all manipulation is a game. (It is not, for example, a game to manipulate food objects while eating or nest-building material during nest construction.) But the manipulation of "biologically neutral" objects or biologically significant, but outside of their adequate use, is nothing more than a game. It is important to emphasize further that any manipulation, especially game manipulation, always includes an exploratory component. Moreover, the manipulation of "biologically neutral" objects is the highest form of orienting-research activity. On the other hand, without play, a young animal can only become familiar with the properties of objects that have direct biological significance for it. Game manipulation of objects is especially stimulated by the appearance of new or little-known objects. The role of the novelty of the objective components of the environment in manipulation was especially emphasized for monkeys by Voitonis. The development of motor abilities is always associated with the study of the environment. It can be said that the ever-increasing acquisition of information about the components of the environment is a function of the developing motor activity, the orientation of which in time and space, in turn, is carried out on the basis of this information. It is in this that the unity of the motor and sensory elements of behavior that develop in the course of play finds its expression. The exploratory component is least represented in games that serve only as a kind of "physical exercise"; to the greatest extent - where there is an active influence on the object of the game, especially of a destructive order, i.e. in manipulation games. The latter may, in some cases, take on the significance of genuine "exploratory" games. A special place is occupied by mediated games, in particular "trophy" games, when, obviously, one can even talk about the joint cognition of the object of the game during joint motor exercises. However, these games still serve primarily as a means of communication between animals and the establishment of certain relationships between them, as is the case with other joint games. In addition, it is impossible, of course, to be sure that during "trophy" games the partners really perceive structural changes in the object of the game as such, because their attention is focused on each other. . Forms of play behavior. Types of games.
With all the variety of manifestations of animal play, most researchers distinguish the following forms of it. 1. Outdoor gamesare present in almost all species. As a rule, they include chasing, stalking, sneaking, running, jumping and all the elements of prey hunting. An important component of outdoor games is game fights, wrestling games. Characteristically, it is often impossible to identify such a game with certainty, that is, to distinguish real skirmishes from play ones. Apparently, the animals themselves face the same problems, because play fights can easily turn into a real fight if one of the partners really hurt the other. To warn about the beginning of the game, animals use special signals. . Games with objects(manipulative games), some authors consider the most "pure" manifestation of the game of animals. In the works of K.E. Fabry analyzed the specific features of the manipulation games of predatory (foxes, bears, raccoons, cats) and some other mammals. They demonstrated how the nature of handling the object changes at different stages of the juvenile period. It is shown how during the game with objects the essential components of the adult animal's manipulation activity are formed, exercised and improved, in which it will form a component of hunting, nest-building, feeding and other forms of behavior. An important factor in this improvement is the expansion of the sphere of objects that the animal manipulates, the emergence of new forms of handling the object, in connection with which its sensorimotor experience grows and new connections are established with biologically significant components of the environment. At the same time, as the author emphasizes, the games of young animals with objects are special actions. They are not analogous to the actions of adult animals, but represent the stages of their formation from more primitive morphofunctional elements. Manipulation games are characteristic not only for mammals, but also for some species of birds. A special variant of games is prey manipulations, which are the most important component of the formation of the hunting behavior of young predatory mammals. It is shown that it is thanks to the game that young predators master the handling of prey. 4. Games of "victim".Very common in animals that are potential prey. Birds and herbivores play such games very willingly, and someone from the group takes on the role of a hunter, the rest, by choice, are “victims”. 5. Social games.Animals can play alone, but collective (or social) games with different composition of participants (peers, parents) are more common. In the process of such games, future social interactions are worked out. So, joint games that require coordinated actions of partners are found in animals that live in complex communities. In the course of social games, elements of agonistic behavior are used and the foundations of hierarchical relations between their participants are laid. As the game of many animals, in particular chimpanzees, grows older, they become more and more rough and often end in aggressive episodes. Thanks to this, the animal not only learns about the strengths and weaknesses of its playmates and about the relative hierarchical position of its mother and mothers of playmates, but also learns to fight, threaten, establish allied relations. This allows him to subsequently successfully compete with other members of the community, in which the ability to defend his rights and increase his rank often depends on the ability to fight. Social games are very typical not only for predatory mammals, but also for herbivores. As an example of modern studies of this aspect of the problem, one can cite the data of long-term observations by N.G. Ovsyannikov for the behavior and social organization of equids. His data suggest that interactions between foals and juveniles during play do indeed provide the social integration mechanisms that play a huge role in these animals. The cognitive functions of the game make it related to orienting-exploratory activity. Indeed, both of them occur predominantly in young animals, and in either case the animal does not receive visible reinforcement. In both cases, the activity of the animal is provoked by the novelty of the object and fades away as it becomes familiar with it. Nevertheless, speaking of the orienting-exploratory behavior of a cub, it should be remembered that this is a developing activity and cannot be identified with a similar form of behavior of an adult animal, despite the presence of a certain similarity. As emphasized, for example, by Krymov (1982), it is necessary to distinguish between the orienting-exploratory behavior of young animals and those complex cognitive processes that accompany the game of animals. These forms of behavior are not always clearly demarcated due to the lack of a precise definition of the concept of play. In addition, not all forms of play are equal. findings
Animal play occurs at a time when there is no need for other forms of behavior essential to survival, such as feeding or escaping from predators. Young mammals spend a lot of time playing - their game is a complex set of behavioral acts, which together form the main content of the behavior of a young animal before puberty. Adults can also play periodically, but this need weakens with age. Animal play includes a wide range of activities: from motor activity, in which stereotypes of eating, sexual or defensive behavior are mixed, to complex, sometimes inimitable scenarios invented and planned in relation to circumstances. It appears in various forms: outdoor games, manipulation games, social (or collective), figurative fantasizing. Playing activity in animals manifests itself in various forms and performs various functions. First of all, it is a function of the formation of behavior, physical training of the skills of hunting, self-defense, and wrestling necessary in the future. In addition, the game performs cognitive functions, contributes to the study of the environment, the acquisition of knowledge about the laws and phenomena of the surrounding world. The third function of play in animals is the accumulation of extensive individual experience, primarily the experience of relationships with their own kind, which will later find application in various life situations. game behavior cognitive animal Bibliography
Zoopsychology and comparative psychology (#"justify"> Playing activity in animals and humans (#"justify">Ontogeny of behavior (#"justify">Comparative psychology (#"justify">Fabry Kurt Ernestovich "Fundamentals of zoopsychology" (#"justify">Psyera (http://psyera.ru/4706/igrovaya-deyatelnost- animal)
Introduction
The study of play activity has been one of the most difficult questions of science for many decades. It is addressed not only by representatives of psychology and pedagogy, but also by scientists - sociologists, zoopsychologists, etiology and a number of other fields of knowledge.
So, in psychology, the first fundamental concept of the game was developed in 1899 by the German philosopher and psychologist K. Gross. Before him, the questions of the game were partially touched upon by the English philosopher G. Spencer. Subsequently, theories of foreign and domestic researchers appeared - K. Buhler, F. Beitendijk, L.S. Vygotsky, A.N. Leontiev, D.B. Elkonina and others.
During the 20th century, many studies appeared devoted to the study of play activity in various representatives of the animal world. The main purpose of studying play in animals is to explain its nature, compare it with human play, and also determine its functions and role in the development of animals and humans. Among such studies are the works of N.N. Ladygina-Kate, L.A. Firsova, D. Fossey.
However, despite the high degree of study of the issues of the game, the topic remains not disclosed to the end. So, for example, there is still no unambiguous and complete definition of the game, very few works compare the games of various representatives of the animal world. Therefore, the topic of this work is not only interesting, but also relevant.
The aim of the work is to consider the play activity in different representatives of vertebrates. For its implementation, the following tasks have been set:
Define gaming activity, reveal its essence;
Consider the functions of the game;
Consider the features of play activity in different representatives of vertebrates - animals and humans.
The object of the study is play activity, the subject is the features of play activity in different representatives of vertebrates.
The work consists of an introduction, two chapters and a conclusion. A list of used literature is also provided.
Among the sources of information on the topic, a significant part is occupied by various works on zoopsychology, for example, K.E. Fabry "Fundamentals of Animal Psychology", To Lorentz "A Man Finds a Friend", Z.A. Zorina "Animal Games" and others. In addition, the author uses data teaching aids on psychology, various reference publications, periodicals and information sites on the Internet.
The main working methods are:
Examining available information
Description method
Method of analysis and synthesis
Comparison method
They allow you to systematize data on the topic, present the content of the structural parts of the work and draw conclusions, both in parts of the work and on the topic of the study as a whole.
Chapter 1. The concept and essence of gaming activity
1.1 The concept of gaming activity and its differences from other activities
The definition of the concept of "game" is one of the most difficult issues in psychology, both human and animal. Referring to dictionaries, you can find the following answers:
- this is one of the types of human and animal activity that occurs at a certain stage in the evolution of the animal world.
- this is an activity, occupation of children and an occupation, due to a set of certain rules, techniques, serving to fill leisure, for entertainment, which is a sport (sports games, war game).
- this is a type of unproductive activity, where the motive lies not as a result of it, but in the process itself.
is the performance of certain roles.
Thus, the concept of the game is very capacious and complex.
Play as a type of activity is not inherent in all representatives of the animal world, but only in those species in whose ontogeny there is such a period as childhood. In particular, these are representatives of vertebrates. Vertebrates are the most highly organized and diverse group of animals, numbering about 40-45 different species.
Scientists have observed play activity in many mammals, in particular, in representatives of all families of predatory mammals, in primates, and also in birds. Game activity is also inherent in man.
All forms of play among any representatives of the animal world are fundamentally different from "serious" activities, but at the same time, they show a clear resemblance to specific, quite serious situations - and not just similarity, but imitation. This is true even in relation to the abstract games of adults - after all, poker or chess allows them to give vent to certain intellectual abilities.
The main difference between a game and another type of activity is that this type of activity is focused not so much on a specific result, but on the process itself - rules, a situation, an imaginary environment. The game does not result in the production of any material or ideal product.
The peculiarity of the game is also in its voluntary nature. Thus, an animal cannot be forced to play by positive or negative reinforcement. The condition for the emergence of the game is the comfortable state of the body; lack of hunger, thirst or adverse environmental conditions. Play behavior has a high positive-emotional component - animals clearly like to play. So it is with children. The child will not play if he is not interested in this game.
Thus, play activity is a phenomenon characteristic only of those representatives of the animal world, in whose ontogeny there is a period of childhood. The main difference between the game and other types of activity is its "conditional" nature, as well as the occurrence only in conditions of emotional comfort.
When completing the task, the teacher alternately opens the images of plants covered with a leaf, and the children name similar colors (“Forget-me-nots are blue, and plums are blue”). 2.3 Dynamics of speech development in older children preschool age in play activities Within four months of initial diagnosis with children senior group educational games were held to expand orientation in ...
And creativity. 5. Play is the main area of communication for children; it solves the problems of interpersonal relationships, gains experience in relationships between people. 3 The role of gaming activity in teaching younger students with a delay mental development Mental retardation is a complex problem. However, the delay in speech development is not just speech found in the child ...
Preschoolers, after analyzing the scientific and pedagogical literature on this issue and setting ourselves a working hypothesis, we set the goal of the experiment to identify the level of development of word formation in children of senior preschool age with general underdevelopment speech. For this, two groups of children of senior preschool age were selected: control (children with normal speech development) and ...
Role-playing games in the learning process and the formation of a system of ideas about nature among preschoolers will become an effective means of educating children: it will improve the methodology of preschool natural history; will enrich the content and methods of independent play activities of younger preschoolers. A particularly important achievement in this case may be a more successful education in children of a caring attitude towards ...
Introduction
The study of play activity has been one of the most difficult questions of science for many decades. It is addressed not only by representatives of psychology and pedagogy, but also by scientists - sociologists, zoopsychologists, etiology and a number of other fields of knowledge.
So, in psychology, the first fundamental concept of the game was developed in 1899 by the German philosopher and psychologist K. Gross. Before him, the questions of the game were partially touched upon by the English philosopher G. Spencer. Subsequently, theories of foreign and domestic researchers appeared - K. Buhler, F. Beitendijk, L.S. Vygotsky, A.N. Leontiev, D.B. Elkonina and others.
During the 20th century, many studies appeared devoted to the study of play activity in various representatives of the animal world. The main purpose of studying play in animals is to explain its nature, compare it with human play, and also determine its functions and role in the development of animals and humans. Among such studies are the works of N.N. Ladygina-Kate, L.A. Firsova, D. Fossey.
However, despite the high degree of study of the issues of the game, the topic remains not disclosed to the end. So, for example, there is still no unambiguous and complete definition of the game, very few works compare the games of various representatives of the animal world. Therefore, the topic of this work is not only interesting, but also relevant.
The aim of the work is to consider the play activity in different representatives of vertebrates. For its implementation, the following tasks have been set:
Define gaming activity, reveal its essence;
Consider the functions of the game;
Consider the features of play activity in different representatives of vertebrates - animals and humans.
The object of the study is play activity, the subject is the features of play activity in different representatives of vertebrates.
The work consists of an introduction, two chapters and a conclusion. A list of used literature is also provided.
Among the sources of information on the topic, a significant part is occupied by various works on zoopsychology, for example, K.E. Fabry "Fundamentals of Animal Psychology", To Lorentz "A Man Finds a Friend", Z.A. Zorina "Animal Games", etc. In addition, the author uses data from textbooks on psychology, various reference publications, periodicals and information sites on the Internet.
The main working methods are:
Examining available information
Description method
Method of analysis and synthesis
Comparison method
They allow you to systematize data on the topic, present the content of the structural parts of the work and draw conclusions, both in parts of the work and on the topic of the study as a whole.
Chapter 1. The concept and essence of gaming activity
1.1 The concept of gaming activity and its differences from other activities
The definition of the concept of "game" is one of the most difficult issues in psychology, both human and animal. Referring to dictionaries, you can find the following answers:
- this is one of the types of human and animal activity that occurs at a certain stage in the evolution of the animal world.
- this is an activity, occupation of children and an occupation, due to a set of certain rules, techniques, serving to fill leisure, for entertainment, which is a sport (sports games, war game).
- this is a type of unproductive activity, where the motive lies not as a result of it, but in the process itself.
is the performance of certain roles.
Thus, the concept of the game is very capacious and complex.
Play as a type of activity is not inherent in all representatives of the animal world, but only in those species in whose ontogeny there is such a period as childhood. In particular, these are representatives of vertebrates. Vertebrates are the most highly organized and diverse group of animals, numbering about 40-45 different species.
Scientists have observed play activity in many mammals, in particular, in representatives of all families of predatory mammals, in primates, and also in birds. Game activity is also inherent in man.
All forms of play among any representatives of the animal world are fundamentally different from "serious" activities, but at the same time, they show a clear resemblance to specific, quite serious situations - and not just similarity, but imitation. This is true even in relation to the abstract games of adults - after all, poker or chess allows them to give vent to certain intellectual abilities.
The main difference between a game and another type of activity is that this type of activity is focused not so much on a specific result, but on the process itself - rules, a situation, an imaginary environment. The game does not result in the production of any material or ideal product.
The peculiarity of the game is also in its voluntary nature. Thus, an animal cannot be forced to play by positive or negative reinforcement. The condition for the emergence of the game is the comfortable state of the body; lack of hunger, thirst or adverse environmental conditions. Play behavior has a high positive-emotional component - animals clearly like to play. So it is with children. The child will not play if he is not interested in this game.
Thus, play activity is a phenomenon characteristic only of those representatives of the animal world, in whose ontogeny there is a period of childhood. The main difference between the game and other types of activity is its "conditional" nature, as well as the occurrence only in conditions of emotional comfort.
1.2 Game features
One of the most difficult questions in the study of the game is the definition of its functions. The first attempts to determine the functions of the game were made in the works of G. Spencer and K. Gross - the first studies of the play activity of animals.
According to Spencer's theory, gaming activity is seen as the expenditure of some kind of "excess energy". In other words, it arises when the animal has no need for other forms of behavior essential to survival, such as feeding or escaping from predators. An animal cannot be idle.
A different opinion is shared by K. Gross, who interprets play activity as “practice for adult behavior”. The game is an exercise in especially important areas of life. It allows the young animal to exercise without risk in vital actions, because under these conditions mistakes do not entail detrimental consequences: in the course of the game, it is possible to improve hereditary forms of behavior even before the shortcomings of behavior fatally "appear before the court of natural selection."
Thus, the main function of the game is to "prepare for adulthood." There is a formation of hunting behavior, the skills of future social interaction are being worked out.
All subsequent studies agreed either with the first point of view or with the second. As a result, the following functions of the game were determined:
Approximately - research or cognitive. It consists in the fact that with the help of the game there is an accumulation of knowledge about the objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, their diversity and properties.
developmental function. The game helps representatives of the animal world to develop qualities that are characteristic of this species: reaction, speed, dexterity, etc.
The function of socialization, which is expressed in the acquisition of communication skills through the game.
These functions reflect the great importance of the game in the development of an animal or a person.
Chapter 2. Features of play activity in various representatives of vertebrates
2.1 Features of play activity in animals
Animal play occurs at a time when there is no need for other forms of behavior essential to survival, such as feeding or escaping from predators. Young mammals spend a lot of time playing - their game is a complex set of behavioral acts, which together form the main content of the behavior of a young animal before puberty. Adults can also play periodically, but this need weakens with age.
Animal play includes a wide range of activities: from motor activity, in which stereotypes of eating, sexual or defensive behavior are mixed, to complex, sometimes inimitable scenarios invented and planned in relation to circumstances. It appears in various forms:
outdoor games
manipulation games
social (or collective)
figurative fantasy
Let's consider them in more detail. Outdoor games include chase, stalking, sneaking, running, jumping and all the elements of prey hunting. An important component of outdoor games are game fights, wrestling games.
Manipulative games, or games with objects, are considered by some authors to be the most “pure” manifestation of animal play. They are characteristic of mammals, as well as some species of birds. In the course of playing with objects, important components of the hunting, nest-building, food and other forms of behavior of adult animals are formed, exercised and improved.
A striking example of such a game is the behavior of kittens. Here is how he describes them in his book “A Man Finds a Friend” ...: “A kitten plays with its traditional toy - a ball of wool. He invariably begins by touching it with his paw, at first cautiously and inquiringly, stretching it out and bending the pad inward. Then he releases his claws, pulls the ball towards him and immediately pushes or jumps back and falls to the floor. Pulling himself up, he cautiously raises his head and so suddenly that it seems as if he must inevitably hit his chin on the floor. The hind legs perform peculiar alternating movements - it either steps over them, or scrapes, as if looking for a solid support for the jump. Suddenly, he describes a wide arc in the air and falls on the toy, putting forward his front paws brought together. If the game has reached a certain climax, he may even start biting. The kitten again pushes the ball, which is now rolling under the cupboard, into a gap too narrow for the kitten to fit through. With a graceful “worked out” movement, the kitten slips one paw under the sideboard and fishes its toy out. Those who have ever seen a cat catch a mouse immediately notice that the kitten, which was separated from its mother almost blind, does all the highly specialized movements that help the cat hunt for its main prey - mice. Indeed, for wild cats, mice are their daily bread.
If we now improve the toy by tying it to a thread and hanging it so that it dangles, the kitten will demonstrate a completely different system of hunting movements. He jumps high and grabs the prey with both paws, bringing them together with a wide gripping movement. During this jump, the paws appear unnaturally large, as the claws are extended, the fingers are splayed, and the fifth vestigial fingers are bent at right angles to the paw. This grasping movement, which the kittens enthusiastically perform in the game, absolutely exactly, down to the smallest detail, coincides with the movement used by cats, grabbing a bird taking off from the ground.
The biological meaning of another movement, often observed in the game, is less obvious, since in practice cats use it very rarely. With a swift, upward blow of an inverted pad with extended claws, the kitten picks up the toy from below, throws it over its shoulder so that it describes a sharp arc, and rapidly jumps after it. Or, especially when dealing with large objects, the kitten sits down in front of the toy, straightens up tensely, picks it up with its paws from below on both sides and throws it over its head in an even steeper arc. Often the kitten follows the flight of the toy with its eyes, makes a high jump and lands in the same place where it falls. In life, such movements are used when catching fish: the first system is for catching small fish, and the second is for large fish.
Manipulations with prey are a special variant of manipulation games; they constitute the most important component of the formation of the hunting behavior of young predatory mammals. Cubs of different types of cats play with live, dead, and artificial prey. These games differ from true hunting techniques by an arbitrary sequence of individual elements, their incompleteness, or increased intensity. Interestingly, unlike many other animals, felines continue to actively play even as adults.
Social or collective games are found in animals that live in complex communities. In the process of such games, future social interactions are worked out, the foundations of hierarchical relations between the participants are laid.
Such games include, for example, game wrestling. For example, among marmots: young animals often “fight” for a long time, rising on their hind limbs and clasping each other with their front ones. In this position, they shake and push. Playing flight is also often observed in them, while general mobile games are rare in young marmots.
Play fighting among predators is widespread. Among mustelids, hunting games predominate (in addition to general mobility), which often turn into play fighting. Like other mammals, the roles of the pursuer and the pursued often switch roles in such games. In bear cubs, play fighting is expressed in the fact that partners push and “bite” each other, clasping their front paws, or strike each other. There are also joint jogging (or racing swimming), playing hide-and-seek, etc.
Joint games of lion cubs consist, first of all, in sneaking up, attacking, chasing, and “fighting”, and the partners change roles every now and then.
Game fighting and hunting are also characteristic of other feline representatives. So, hiding behind a coal box, the kitten tracks down his brother, who sat down in the middle of the kitchen and is unaware of this ambush. And the first kitten shudders with impatience, like a bloodthirsty tiger, whips its tail on the sides and makes movements with its head and tail, also observed in adult cats. his sudden jump refers to a completely different system of movement, the purpose of which is not hunting, but fighting. Instead of jumping on his brother as a prey - however, this is also not excluded - the kitten on the run assumes a threatening posture, arches its back and approaches the enemy sideways. The second kitten also arches its back, and both stand like that for a while, fur up and tails arched.
As far as we know, adult cats never take such a position in relation to each other. Each kitten behaves more like a dog in front of him, and yet their fight develops like a real fight between two adult cats. Firmly clinging to each other with their front paws, they tumble in the most incredible way, at the same time jerking their hind legs so that if a man were in the place of the second opponent, all his hands would be scratched after the game. Squeezing his brother in the iron grip of his front paws, the kitten vigorously beats him with his hind paws with extended claws. In a real fight, such cutting, tearing blows are aimed at the enemy's unprotected stomach, which can lead to the most unfortunate results.
After boxing a little, the kittens release each other, and then an exciting chase usually begins, during which one can observe another system of graceful movements. When a fleeing kitten sees that another is overtaking him, he suddenly does somersaults, slips under his opponent with a soft, completely silent movement, clings to his tender abdomen with his front paws, and hits him on the muzzle with his back paws.
Such joint games are more of a training in the skills necessary for hunting, to a lesser extent - entertainment.
Collective games are also necessary to establish a hierarchy in the relationship between animals. Thus, in dogs, hierarchical relations begin to form at the age of 1–1.5 months, although the corresponding expressive postures and movements appear earlier during the game. Already on the 32-34th day of life, fox cubs show quite pronounced “attacks” on their brethren with signs of imposing and intimidation. At the beginning of the second month of life, hierarchical relationships appear in coyotes.
Such games contain elements of brute physical force, signs of demonstrative behavior, being a means of mental influence on a partner, intimidation. Animals show such movements as “beating” a partner, jumping on him, etc.
Animals can collectively engage in a manipulation game, including some objects as an object of the game in their joint actions. As an example of such a game, Wüstehube described the joint actions of three young ferrets with an empty tin can. Being accidentally dropped into the basin of the washbasin, this jar was then repeatedly thrown there by them, which produced an appropriate noise effect. When the animals were given a rubber ball instead of a jar, the ferrets did not play with it like that, but later they found another solid object - a faience plug, with the help of which they resumed the same "noise" game.
In wild four-month-old piglets, the German ethologist G.Fredrich once observed a lively joint game with a coin: the piglets sniffed and pressed it with “piglets”, pushed it, grabbed it with their teeth and tossed it up, sharply throwing their heads up at the same time. Several piglets participated in this game at the same time, and each of them tried to take possession of the coin and play with it himself in the manner described. Frederick also watched young boars play together with rags. Like puppies, the piglets grabbed the same rag with their teeth at the same time and pulled it in different directions. The "winner" either ran away with a rag, or continued to play with it on his own, ruffled it, etc.
In such "trophy" games, elements of demonstrative behavior also clearly appear, and an impressive effect is achieved with the help of an object - an "intermediary", more precisely, by demonstrating its possession. No less important role is played, of course, by "challenging", capturing, taking away an object, as well as a direct "trial of strength", when animals, grabbing at the object at the same time, pull it in different directions.
One of the variants of collective social games is the games of a mother with her cub. They are characteristic of predatory mammals, but are especially developed and expressed in great apes, in which the mother plays with the cub from the very first months of life until the end of adolescence.
Goodall describes in detail the play of a chimpanzee mother with her baby. From the mother, the baby receives the first experience of social play, when she gently bites him with her teeth or tickles her fingers. At first, play episodes do not last long, but at about 6 months the cub begins to respond to its mother with play facial expressions and laughter, and the duration of the game grows. Some females play not only with babies, but also with cubs of a fairly mature age. One of the monkeys played at the age of 40: the cubs ran around the tree, and she stood and pretended to try to grab them, or grabbed those who ran close. Her daughter also played with her offspring for quite some time.
When the baby reaches the age of 3-5 months, the mother allows other cubs to play with him. At first, these are older brothers and sisters, but with age this circle grows, and the games become longer and more energetic.
The games of many animals, in particular chimpanzees, become more and more rough as they grow older and often end aggressively. Through this, the animal learns about the strengths and weaknesses of its playmates and about the relative hierarchical position of its mother and the mothers of playmates. Along with this, the cub learns to fight, threaten, establish allied relations. This allows him to later more successfully defend his rights and increase his social rank.
A number of researchers come to the conclusion that some animals are also characterized by the so-called higher forms of play activity. Among them, in particular, Fabry refers the manipulation games of young monkeys. Such games consist in complex manipulation of the object. An animal in the course of such a game for a long time and with concentration exposes the object to various, mainly destructive influences, or even influences them on other objects.
Another, the most complex, type of games is “figurative fantasy” - games with imaginary objects or in imaginary circumstances. Games with imaginary objects are described by the Hayes in the chimpanzee Vicki, who, as already mentioned, pretended for quite some time that she was carrying a toy on a string. She positioned her body appropriately, looped the missing "string" around obstacles, and tugged at it when it got stuck or clung to an imaginary obstacle.
Scientists were also able to describe the play behavior of some birds. For example, in corvids living in the wild, various and complex manipulations with objects are noted. Sometimes, for example, one can observe how a crow releases a stick or other small object clamped in its beak on the fly and immediately catches it, doing this several times in a row. Other very diverse outdoor games are also characteristic of them: pair flights, pursuit, pirouettes and somersaults in the air, swimming in the snow, rolling from rooftops, etc.
The games of urban crows are especially diverse. Quite often you can see how 2-3 crows tease the dog. They can distract her from eating, they can make her chase them to the point of exhaustion, they can lure her to the edge of a ravine so that the dog falls into it, and so on. It is described that some crows even play with dog owners, for example, by intercepting a leash from their hands.
The collective games of birds are most often chases and passes from beak to beak.
With all the variety of forms of play in animals and birds, they are united by several features.
Firstly, the games of the animal are almost always associated with great mobility. In the course of such games, such physical abilities develop as agility, speed, reactivity, strength, as well as some motor-sensory coordination (eye). As a result, manifestations of species-typical behavior are formed.
Secondly, a characteristic feature of the play behavior of animals is its association with the restructuring and change of functions of those stereotyped fixed complexes of actions that constitute the behavior of an adult animal. Often they belong to different categories (sexual, hunting, etc.), but are intertwined into a single ball.
The third feature of games in animals is that they practically do not lead or lead to a much lesser degree than in humans, the degree of development of such qualities as ingenuity, imagination, self-awareness.
Summarizing the above, we can conclude that play activity in animals manifests itself in various forms and performs various functions. First of all, it is a function of the formation of behavior, physical training of the skills of hunting, self-defense, and wrestling necessary in the future. In addition, the game performs cognitive functions, contributes to the study of the environment, the acquisition of knowledge about the laws and phenomena of the surrounding world. The third function of play in animals is the accumulation of extensive individual experience, primarily the experience of relationships with their own kind, which will later find application in various life situations.
2.2 Features of human gaming activity
The game, according to most researchers, is the leading activity for a child in the first years of life. In general, it performs the same functions as in animals, namely, the developing, cognitive, socialization function, etc.
The differences between the games of human children and young animals lie in the fact that games appear in several other forms, which, moreover, replace each other throughout the growth and development of the child.
So, first there is an object game. The child performs various actions with the objects that surround him, explores their properties, throwing them, tasting them, taking them apart and assembling them. Unlike animals, which play only with those objects that contain an irritant specific to a given species, a human child plays with any objects. Later, he begins to reproduce the objective actions of adults. Having accumulated the necessary amount of knowledge with the help of an object game, the child moves on to another form of play - role-playing.
The role-playing game involves the reproduction of relationships that arise between people in various situations. The child plays the actions of parents, doctors, sellers, caregivers and other people he meets in real life.
The next stage in the development of the child is the game with the rules. She accompanies the child from the end of preschool childhood to the first years of school age. The game with the rules is gradually becoming more difficult. It takes place with the use of objects, in which the meaning of one object can be transferred to another.
Role play evokes in the child deep emotional experiences related to the content of the roles performed, the quality of the role played by each child, and the real relationships that children enter into in the process of collective play.
AT role play there is a development of imagination, ingenuity, self-awareness, the formation of elements of arbitrary behavior.
An important difference between children's games is the active participation of adults in them. Adults purposefully accustom the child to the artificial world of objects, often forbidding the use of household items for gaming purposes, determine social orientation game process.
Thus, human play activity differs from the games of other representatives of the animal world. These differences relate to the forms of the game, their change depending on the age of the child. Human games are distinguished by less physical mobility than animals, but greater tension in the sphere of intellect, as well as the active participation of adults and the use of special items - toys.
Conclusion
This paper considers play activity in different representatives of vertebrates. The choice of the topic is due to the growing scientific and public interest in the issues of the game and its possibilities.
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