Playing activity of animals. Play activity in animals and humans Play activity in animals

animal games

Animal games as they are in nature, in the "human" environment and in understanding and explanation by man

Introduction

The game is one of the important components of the adaptive activity of many animal species. Young mammals play for long periods of time, suggesting that play activity is necessary for the survival of the species. Although adults can also play periodically, this need weakens with age. Like in humans, play includes a wide range of animal activities, which are usually contrasted with utilitarian-practical activities. One occurs at a time when there is no need for any other behaviors essential to the survival of the species, such as feeding or avoiding predators, and seems to "pleasure" its participants. Forms of animal play are very diverse - 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.

Characteristically, in the manuals on animal behavior listed below, clear definitions of this concept are not given, and a number of authors call it "one of the mysterious aspects of behavior." According to R. Hynd, the discovery of the foundations of play behavior will undoubtedly reward researchers for all their work; not to mention that it will shed light on the nature of the regulation of many other activities.

The question of what is the nature of the game of animals, what mental processes underlie it, how and in what way the games of animals are similar to the games of a child, are studied by psychologists of different directions (animal psychology, comparative psychology). The classic descriptions of chimpanzee games and their comparison with the game of a child belong to N.N. Ladygina-Kote (1923; 1935). In addition to psychologists, specialists in the field of ethology have repeatedly turned to the study of this form of behavior, emphasizing the problem of differentiating play behavior from its other types, especially from research behavior. Along with this, thanks to their work, extensive material has been collected on the comparative characteristics of the game of animals in their natural habitat;

Studies of animal play are very numerous and are being conducted in different directions. The bibliography on this problem has more than 12 thousand titles in INTERNET. In particular, there are extremely numerous studies social games rodents. It is these animals that are used as a model object for studying the physiological mechanisms of some forms of play behavior. Another important direction is the comparative analysis of various components of play behavior in animals. different types, both closely related and taxonomically distant groups. Special attention continues to attract the study of the games of great apes in the laboratory and in nature and their comparison with the game of a child.

A detailed presentation of the problem of animal play from the standpoint of domestic zoopsychology and a critical analysis of the theories available at that time is contained in the Guide to Animal Psychology by K.E. Fabry. It provides an analysis of experiments and game theories, and summarizes the literature up to the mid-1970s.

In contrast, disproportionately little space is given to the problem of play in later foreign manuals on animal behavior. In some (McFarland) this aspect of animal behavior is not mentioned at all, in others (O. Manning; D. Dewsbury; Manning, Dawkins) the information is too sketchy. In addition, they lack the main thing - an attempt to accurately define this phenomenon and its differences from other forms of behavior. The exception is the book by R. Hand. It examines the features that distinguish this form of behavior, discusses the issue of motivation underlying it, and provides a review of the literature. Despite the time that has passed since the publication of the Russian translation, this review is not outdated and continues to be of interest. In particular, it attempts to distinguish between play and related forms of behavior - orienting response and active exploration.

In this paper, we did not try to consider all the variety of modern data on animal play, but limited ourselves to a brief history of the study of this problem and some definitions, focusing on the play of great apes, its comparison with the play of some other vertebrates, and a comparison of the results of ethologists' observations in nature with those obtained in laboratory conditions.

Forms of play behavior.

It is commonly believed that play allows "children to practice and improve in the motor acts and social interactions they will need as adults. In addition, play appears to enrich the animal with information about the environment. It is a complex set of diverse behavioral acts, which in their totality constitute the main content of the behavior of a young animal before puberty.With the help of the game, the formation of almost all spheres of behavior, both individual and social.

Many forms of play are similar to exploratory behavior, while others are similar to social, hunting, sexual, and reproductive behavior. Along with the reproduction of ritualized and stereotyped sequences of actions that are the same for all individuals of a given species, many animals also have individual plastic forms of play.

With all the variety of manifestations of animal play, most researchers distinguish the following forms of it.

There are mobile games in almost all types. 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, to distinguish real skirmishes from gaming 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 (see below).

Games with objects (manipulation games) are considered by some authors to be the most “pure” manifestation of animal play (B "uytendijk1933). In the works of K.E. Fabry, specific features of the manipulation games of predatory (foxes, bears, raccoons, cats) and some other mammals were analyzed They demonstrated how the nature of handling an object changes at different stages of the juvenile period.It is shown how, in the course of playing with objects, 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, food and other forms of behavior.An important factor in this improvement is the expansion of the sphere of objects manipulated by the animal, 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 playing young animals with objects and 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.

M.A. Deryagina developed a systematic ethological approach to a comparative analysis of the manipulative activity of animals. According to her observations, under conditions of captivity, during ontogenesis, the manipulation games of primates are improved by lengthening the sequences (chains) of actions performed with the object, as well as by complicating the structure of these chains. J. Goodall showed that in the ontogeny of free-living chimpanzee cubs in natural conditions, games with objects also occupy a prominent place.

Manipulation games are characteristic not only for mammals, but also for some species of birds. It has been shown that both in nature (L.V. Krushinsky ), and in captivity (Zorina ), young birds of the Corvidae family actively manipulate with a variety of non-food objects. A comparative analysis showed that, despite the limited capabilities of the forelimbs, modified into wings, these birds perform lengthy, various manipulations with objects. They are combined into chains of complex structure, which resemble those characteristic of higher mammals.

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.

The role of the game in shaping the hunting behavior of the representatives of the cat family 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 of different species (wild and domestic cats, lions). Unlike many other animals, felines continue to play as adults.

Many authors have written about the role of play in shaping the hunting behavior of canines. Let us point to the latest research by Ya.K. Badridze, who, in the process of observing wolves (and some other canids) in captivity and in nature, showed that the game forms and improves the processes of attack and the experience of the game incomparably increases the probability of the safety of a predator during the first hunt for big game.

Animals can play alone, but collective (or social) games with different composition of participants (peers, parents) are perhaps more common. In the process of such games, future social interactions are worked out. 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 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 characteristic of predatory mammals. 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 arctic foxes (Alopexgalopus, L). .His data indicate that the interactions of young arctic foxes in the process of play indeed provide the mechanisms of social integration that operate in the broods of these animals. It is shown that in Arctic foxes play fighting has nothing to do with true aggression phenomenologically, although individual movements may be similar. In general, the fights of animals during the game give the impression of more stereotyped, monotonous actions than during real fights. The author cites a number of evidence that the game struggle is emotionally positive and has an integrating effect on the broods. According to Ovsyannikov, during the game the differences in social status and role in the community are erased, psycho-social stress is temporarily weakened, which is inevitable during interactions of necessity - for raising offspring, obtaining food, etc.

The ratio of game struggle, mobile and hunting games is also different in different species.

At the same time, as Fabry notes, one must take into account that these elements themselves are ritualized forms of instinctive behavior that appear in a “ready-made” form. The specificity of the social game as a developing activity (Fabry, Elkonin) is expressed in the fact that if at the early stages it consists of separate components, then as they grow older, these components become more and more integrated into a single whole.

One of the variants of social games is the games of a mother with a 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.

Often different forms of play overlap. Peer games with objects can be individual, but can be performed by several individuals at the same time. Outdoor games of peers include both chases and pursuits with elements of struggle, as well as completely peaceful “tags” among monkeys.

In some species, games of adults are known. In chimpanzees, for example, two high-ranking males or a male and a female can participate in them. In this case, the game, as a rule, is initiated by the male with the help of special tricks (the so-called "finger wrestling" or tickling under the chin). Adult females rarely play with each other, and some do not play at all. The presence of games in adult animals, according to Fabry, does not contradict the hypothesis about the nature of the game as a developing activity (see below), because this is not the only case of the persistence of juvenile forms of behavior into adulthood.

Along with the function of the formation and improvement of behavior (in whatever form and degree it occurs), the game performs cognitive functions. In addition to the obvious physical training, it apparently contributes to the study of the environment, the acquisition of knowledge about the "elementary laws connecting objects and phenomena of the external world" (Krushinsky, 1986), the creation of "cognitive maps" (Tolman, 1997) or the "image of the world" , as well as the development of the social structure of communities.It leads to the accumulation of extensive individual experience, which will later find application in a variety of life situations.

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 in 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.

The highest form of the game is prolonged manipulations of monkeys with biologically neutral objects. The cognitive function in such games acquires a leading role, due to which these games acquire special significance. According to K.E. Fabry, such games are inherent only in primates, but our data indicate that, for example, corvids in the first months of life are extremely active and for a long time manipulate biologically neutral objects. The structure of their manipulative activity during this period is already fully formed and, despite the anatomical features of the structure of the forelimbs (wings), is comparable in basic indicators to that of narrow-nosed monkeys.

Another, the most complex, type of games is “figurative fantasy”. According to Beitendijk, in animals with a highly organized psyche, many games with objects contain "a combination of partly unfamiliar and vital fantasy." D.B. Elkonin, arguing with Beitendijk, pointed out that the idea that animals have "figurative fantasy" is a tribute to anthropomorphism. However, as will be shown below, more recent observations of chimpanzee play, combined with modern ideas about the cognitive activity of higher vertebrates, suggest that such elements are indeed present in their game.

Communication signals associated with the game.

An important part of the play behavior of animals is a special signaling. Animals with the most developed play behavior have special forms of communication that provide it (the so-called metacommunication). Such signals - "switches" are designed to prepare the animal for the action of subsequent stimuli. They notify the partner that the animal intends to play and all the actions that follow are a game.

In a number of vertebrate groups, these signals are clearly expressed and well known. For example, the posture with the front paws pressed to the ground and the tail wagging precedes play fighting in lions and canids. Such a posture is not observed in any other situations and suggests that all the aggressive actions that follow it are a game. Monkeys in such cases have a special "game" facial expressions.

Its most common form, found in all primates, is the so-called "play face" or "smile", when the animal opens its mouth wide without baring its teeth. Comparative studies of this mimic reaction (Pellis & Pellis, 1997) in spider monkeys (Ateles goeffroyi), catta lemurs (Lemur catta) and hussar marmosets (Erythrocebus patas) show that the frequency of its use varies significantly between species. Along with the "game face" in spider monkeys, in 20% of cases, another way of inviting to the game is used - tilting the head. In general, only in 25% of cases, the monkeys of these species indicate the desire to play with the help of signal-switches, which make it possible to distinguish a play fight from a real aggressive fight. According to a number of authors, in most cases of play, animals do not need deliberate signaling about the partner's intentions - this is evidenced by the context or the general style of behavior.

In a number of mammalian species, the game of the young often begins with an adult animal. So, a lioness, waving her tail, encourages the cubs to start playing with her, female chimpanzees tickle the cubs, turn them over, and bite them “pretend”.

In some species of monkeys, signal switches not only indicate the intention to play, but also have a wider meaning as signals of friendly intentions. An example of such a gesture, both inviting to play and simply signaling friendliness, is head tilt (Oppenheimer, 1977).

Chimpanzees have the richest game signaling. In addition to the "play face" or "smile" (this signal was first described in the work of Yerkes & Yerkes). Goodall describes several gestures that also serve as a warning of the upcoming game ("playing walk", scratching the shoulders, "interlacing fingers". The latter is typical for adults). Monkeys trained in intermediary languages widely use special signs to invite them to play (see, for example, J. Linden).

The structure of the play activity of animals

A characteristic feature of the play behavior of animals is the fact that in most cases it is associated with the restructuring and change of functions of those stereotyped fixed complexes of actions that make up the behavior of an adult animal. Often they belong to its different categories (sexual, hunting, etc.) and can be intertwined into a single ball.

As an example of one of the attempts to analyze the structure of the play behavior of animals within the framework of ethological ideas about the organization of behavioral acts, one can cite the work undertaken by K. Loizos. She noted that the game in most cases is associated with the restructuring of fixed sets of actions that make up the behavior of an adult animal, and identified six types of such rearrangements:

1) the sequence of movements can be changed; 2) individual motor acts included in the sequence may be more intense; 3) some movements included in the sequence can be repeated many times; 4) the normal sequence of actions may remain incomplete, i.e. end earlier than usual as a result of a transition to extraneous actions; 5) some movements can be more intense and repeated many times; 6) individual movements included in the sequence may remain incomplete; 7) in the game, acts can be mixed, usually associated with completely different motivations. As R. Hynd notes, it also systematizes some features of the structure of play activity, movements included in play behavior, usually do not differ from those found in adults of this species with similar types of adaptive activities - hunting, fighting, sexual and manipulative activity, etc. However, in game situations, sequences of movements are often incomplete - a short gallop, a halt and a gallop back in foals; cages without intromissions in baby rhesus monkeys. The black polecat (Mustela putorius) lacks four agonistic reactions in aggressive games: two extreme forms of attack (“killing by a bite to the back of the head” and “attack from a side stance”) and two extreme types of fear reactions (“threat from a defensive stance” and “squealing”). ").

Along with this, the animal may accidentally develop new movements that are specific to the game situation and, apparently, have no functional significance apart from it. For example, dolphins are very active and willing to invent completely new actions (Pryer, 1981).

Since play behavior often consists of sets of movements related to different types of behavior and associated with completely different types of motivation, these functionally different movements can become shuffled. Thus, in the play behavior of the mongoose, elements of hunting and sexual behavior are mixed, and in the group games of rhesus monkeys, elements of aggressive and sexual behavior are mixed.

As already mentioned, the sequences of movements in play behavior often remain incomplete. For example, in rhesus monkeys, aggressive attacks are often not brought to an end, the jaws do not clench during bites. On the contrary, some movements may be exaggerated compared to the normal functional situation; this applies especially to the jumps and leaps often observed in outdoor games, which are characteristic of young animals of almost any species. Often, individual movements are repeated many times without leading to the next element of the sequence, as it should in other situations. In addition, the order of appearance of elements can be changed: those actions that appear later in the normal sequence appear earlier during the game, and vice versa.

Playing behavior is caused by a wide variety of stimuli. During the game, animals often manipulate objects that, in other forms of behavior, do not cause such game movements.

As Hynd points out, none of these features are common to all of the behaviors grouped under the umbrella term "play," and some of them also occur in non-play situations. Thus, incomplete sequences are often found in hunting behavior in well-fed adult animals - predatory mammals and birds. As R. Hynd notes, whether or not to call it a game depends on the definition adopted. A mixture of functionally different forms of behavior is noted in the reactions of young sexually mature female rhesus monkeys to alien cubs - they soon switch from maternal behavior to cleaning their fur, aggressive or sexual behavior.

game theory

Let us briefly consider the main ideas about the game of animals in modern domestic psychological and zoopsychological literature.

The most fundamental theoretical analysis of the problem of animal play in domestic psychology was carried out by D.B. Elkonin. He considered in detail and constructively the early theories of the game (Groos, 1916; Spencer, 1987; B "uytendijk, 1933), which existed by the middle of the 20th century, showed their convincing and unconfirmed sides, and also formulated his own ideas, which, in his opinion, could become the basis for future game theory.

D.B. Elkonin defines play as "a special form of behavior characteristic of the period of childhood" in which "management of behavior is formed and improved on the basis of orienting activity." It was precisely the ignoring of the nature of play as a developing activity that, according to Elkonin, constituted the main shortcoming of pre-existing theories. He believed that a general theory of play for children and animals could not be created at all, since cannot be identified mental development the child and his games with the development of young animals and their games. One of the reasons for the limitations of these theories, according to Elkonin, was that the approach of their authors was phenomenological. Elkonin emphasizes the fact that play as a special form of behavior is associated with the emergence of the childhood period in evolution as a special period of the individual's individual development. The inclusion of childhood as a special period of life in the general chain of the evolutionary process is an important step towards understanding its nature in general and the essence of play in particular.

One of the most common earlier and still prevailing ideas was that the play of young animals is an exercise necessary for the formation of the corresponding forms of behavior of adult animals (Spencer, 1897; Groos, 1916). This point of view was refuted by a number of authors, for example, Clapared (Clapared, 1932), but Elkonin did it most weightily. In his opinion, the game is really an exercise, but not a specific motor system or a separate instinct and type of behavior, which, by their very nature, do not need exercise for their maturation, because. appear immediately in "finished form". He considered the game as the activity in which the control of behavior is formed and improved on the basis of orienting activity.

In his opinion, in the course of the game, not individual forms of activity are exercised, but the ability to quickly and accurately mentally control motor behavior in any of its forms (food, defensive, sexual) is exercised. This control is carried out “on the basis of images of the individual conditions in which the object is located, i.e. orientation exercise. That is why, according to Elkonin, “in the game, as it were, all possible forms of behavior are mixed into a single tangle, and game actions are unfinished.” Such an interpretation of the phenomenon of animal play removed many difficulties and contradictions; nevertheless, the author emphasized the need to test his hypothesis in comparative psychological studies.

Cognitive function of game activity of animals

Play and exploratory behavior

During the game, a young animal acquires a variety of information about the properties and qualities 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, of such "curious creatures" ("Neugierwesen"), like 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 constant 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 building.) 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, that is, in manipulation games. The latter may, in some cases, take on the significance of genuine "exploratory" games (see below).

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 directed at each other.

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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, a lot of research 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 consumption of some "excess energy"1. 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.”2 Play 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 flaws in behavior fatally "appear before the court of natural selection." 3

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 the qualities that are characteristic of this species: reactivity, 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 occasionally, but this need diminishes with age.4

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 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.5

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. 6

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 ones.

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 play actively as adults.8

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.9

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.10

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. eleven

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.12

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.13

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 found another solid object - a faience plug, with the help of which they resumed the same "noise" game.14

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 their “snouts”, pushed it, grabbed it with their teeth and tossed it up, sharply throwing up their heads 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 are also clearly visible, 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 the animals, grabbing the object at the same time, pull it in different directions.15

One of the variants of collective social games is the games of a mother with her cub. They are characteristic of carnivorous mammals, but are especially developed and expressed in great apes, in which the mother plays with the cub from the first months of life until the end of adolescence.16

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.17

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.18

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. Some crows have even been described to play with dog owners, for example by grabbing the leash from their hands.19

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.

In a role-playing game, the development of imagination, ingenuity, self-awareness, the formation of elements of arbitrary behavior takes place.

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, and determine the social orientation of the gaming 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.

Literature

Groos K. The mental life of a child. - Kyiv: Kiev Frobel Society, 1916.

Goodall J. Chimpanzees in Nature: Behavior. – M.: Mir, 1992.

Dembovsky Ya. Psyche of a young chimpanzee. /"Anthology on zoopsychology and comparative psychology". - M .: Russian psychol. ob-in, 1997.

Deryagina M.A. Manipulative activity of primates. – M.: Nauka, 1986.

Dewsbury D. Animal behavior. Comparative aspects. – M.: Mir, 1981.

Zorina Z.A., Poletaeva I.I., Reznikova Zh.I. Fundamentals of ethology and genetics of behavior. -M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 2002.

Krushinsky L.V. Biological bases of rational activity. – M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 1977, 1986.

Ladygina-Kots N.N. A child of a chimpanzee and a child of man in their instincts, emotions, games, habits and expressive movements. – M.: Ed. State. Darwin Museum, 1935.

Linden Y. Monkeys, man and language. – M.: Mir, 1981.

Lorenz K. Ring of King Solomon. – M.: Knowledge, 1978.

Lorenz K. A man finds a friend. - M.: Publishing house of Moscow State University, 1992.

McFarland D. Animal behavior. – M.: Mir, 1988.

Menning O. Behavior of animals. Introductory course. –M.: Mir, 1982.

Pryer K. Bearing the wind. – M.: Mir, 1981.

Semago L.L. Gray crow.//Science and life. 1986. No. 11.

Fabry C.E. Fundamentals of zoopsychology. - M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 1976, 2001.

Fabry C.E. Animal game. –M., 1985.

Firsov L.A. The behavior of anthropoids in natural conditions. - L .: Nauka, 1977.

Fossey D. Gorillas in the Mist. – M.: Progress, 1990.

Schaller J. Year under the sign of the gorilla. – M.: Mir, 1968.

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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

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.

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.

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 at the end of the XVIII century. 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, which turns into a higher mental property as a result of long-term complications. He wrote: "Animals represent (although to a lower degree than we do) 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 a special mechanism for the 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 the game is a special activity, devoid of "specific instinctive tension", since it is similar 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. Such 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 congenital form and what should it learn in the order of acquiring individual experience? The modern understanding of the relationship between the innate and ontogeny-acquired behavior of animals proceeds from the recognition not only of the presence, but also of the interdependence of these components. The process of behavior ontogenesis 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 when various ways their formation. Unitary reactions are "single, holistic acts of behavior in which conditioned and unconditioned reflexes are combined, integrated ", they are directed "to the performance of a certain act of behavior, which has different ways of implementation and at the same time a certain pattern of final execution."

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 living conditions.

5. Game functions

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 flaws in behavior fatally "appear before the court of natural selection."

As a result of the research, the following functions of the game were determined:

developmental function. The game helps representatives of the animal world to develop the qualities that are characteristic of this species: reactivity, 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 reputable scientists, the connection between play and research activity is noted (Groos, Beach, Nissen, Lorenz, etc.), but differences between these categories of behavior are also noted. 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 constant 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 and research activity is a game, just as familiarization with the environment is carried out by a young animal not only in a playful form. But every game contains an exploratory component to some extent.

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.

. 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, in the course of playing with objects, the essential components of the manipulative activity of an adult animal are formed, exercised and improved, in which it will form a component of hunting, nest-building, food 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.

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.

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 mechanisms for social integration that play a huge role in these animals.

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.

conclusions

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)

Animal games as they are in nature, in the "human" environment and in understanding and explanation by man

Introduction

The game is one of the important components of the adaptive activity of many animal species. Young mammals play for long periods of time, suggesting that play activity is necessary for the survival of the species. Although adults can also play periodically, this need weakens with age. Like in humans, play includes a wide range of animal activities, which are usually contrasted with utilitarian-practical activities. One occurs at a time when there is no need for any other behaviors essential to the survival of the species, such as feeding or avoiding predators, and seems to "pleasure" its participants. The forms of animal play are very diverse - from motor activity, in which stereotypes of food, sexual or defensive behavior are mixed, to complex, sometimes unique scenarios invented and planned in relation to circumstances.

It is characteristic that in the manuals on animal behavior listed below, clear definitions of this concept are not given, and a number of authors call it "one of the mysterious aspects of behavior." According to R. Hynd, the discovery of the foundations of play behavior will undoubtedly reward researchers for all their work; not to mention that it will shed light on the nature of the regulation of many other activities.

Leyhausen, 1979; Pellis & Pellis, 1996; 1997). It expands the understanding of the role of play in ensuring the adaptability of behavior and allows you to rethink many of the data obtained through observations in captivity. Studies of animal play are very numerous and are being conducted in different directions. The bibliography on this problem has more than 12 thousand titles in INTERNET. In particular, studies of the social games of rodents are extremely numerous at the present time. It is these animals that are used as a model object for studying the physiological mechanisms of some forms of play behavior. Another important direction is the comparative analysis of various components of play behavior in animals of different species, both closely related and taxonomically distant groups (see, for example, S.M. Pellis and V.C. Pellis, ). Particular attention continues to attract the study of the games of great apes in the laboratory and in nature (J. Goodall; J. Schaller; L.A. Firsov; D. Fossey) and their comparison with the game of a child.

A detailed presentation of the problem of animal play from the standpoint of domestic zoopsychology and a critical analysis of the theories available at that time is contained in the Guide to Animal Psychology by K.E. Fabri. It provides an analysis of experiments and game theories, and summarizes the literature up to the mid-1970s.

Forms of play behavior.

It is widely believed that play allows "children to practice and improve in the motor acts and social interactions that they will need in adulthood. In addition, the game seems to enrich the animal with information about environment. It is a complex set of various behavioral acts, which in their totality constitute the main content of the behavior of a young animal before puberty. With the help of the game, almost all spheres of behavior, both individual and social, are formed.

With all the variety of manifestations of animal play, most researchers distinguish the following forms of it.

Games with objects (manipulation games) are considered by some authors to be the most “pure” manifestation of animal play (B "uytendijk 1933). In the works of K.E. Fabry, species features of predatory manipulation games (foxes, bears, raccoons, cats) and some others were analyzed mammals.They demonstrated how the nature of handling an object changes at different stages of the juvenile period.It is shown how, in the course of playing with objects, essential components of the adult animal's manipulation activity are formed, exercised and improved, in which it will form a component of the hunting, nest-building, 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. author, games of young animals with the subject mi 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.

Animals can play alone, but collective (or social) games with different composition of participants (peers, parents) are perhaps 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.

The ratio of game struggle, mobile and hunting games is also different in different species.

Along with the function of the formation and improvement of behavior (in whatever form and degree it occurs), the game performs cognitive functions. In addition to the obvious physical training, it apparently contributes to the study of the environment, the acquisition of knowledge about the "elementary laws connecting objects and phenomena of the external world" (Krushinsky, 1986), the creation of "cognitive maps" (Tolman, 1997) or the "image of the world" , as well as the development of the social structure of communities, which leads to the accumulation of extensive individual experience, which will later find application in a variety of life situations.

Communication signals associated with the game.

The structure of the play activity of animals

Playing behavior is caused by a wide variety of stimuli. During the game, animals often manipulate objects that, in other forms of behavior, do not cause such play movements.

game theory

Let us briefly consider the main ideas about the game of animals in modern domestic psychological and zoopsychological literature.

D.B. Elkonin defines play as "a special form of behavior characteristic of the period of childhood" in which "management of behavior is formed and improved on the basis of orienting activity." It was precisely the ignoring of the nature of play as a developing activity that, according to Elkonin, constituted the main shortcoming of pre-existing theories. He believed that a general theory of play for children and animals could not be created at all, since one cannot identify the course of a child's mental development and his play with the development of young animals and their play. One of the reasons for the limitations of these theories, according to Elkonin, was that the approach of their authors was phenomenological. Elkonin emphasizes the fact that play as a special form of behavior is associated with the emergence of the childhood period in evolution as a special period of the individual's individual development. The inclusion of childhood as a special period of life in the general chain of the evolutionary process is an important step towards understanding its nature in general and the essence of play in particular.

In the works of K.E. Fabry contains a detailed analysis not only of the psychological theories of animal play, but also of the ideas developed by ethologists.

Fabry also proposed his own concept, according to which "play is an evolving activity covering most functional areas." It constitutes the main content of the process of development of behavior in the juvenile period. Play is presented not as a special category of behavior, but as a set of specifically juvenile manifestations of "usual" forms of behavior. In other words, "play is not a model" of adult behavior; but the behavior itself in the process of its formation". Particular attention in the works of Fabry is given to games that include manipulations with objects (see above).

The works of A.A. Krymov. Like the authors cited above ( Fabry ; Elkonin ), he also notes that most of the existing difficulties in understanding the phenomenon of animal play stem from the traditional Western comparative psychological research approach to the game as a separate form of behavior, one of many. In his opinion, "the disadvantage of this approach is, first of all, that in this case only one of the aspects of the phenomenon is singled out - purely behavioral, leaving the most important psychological part of the phenomenon out of the analysis. He considered the fact that the game as a peculiar manifestation of the development process is qualitatively equated with already developed forms, and its specificity as a developing activity is not taken into account.The approach formed in the works of domestic scientists (Elkonin; Fabry), in his opinion, is devoid of these shortcomings, since it is based on understanding the game as a special stages of development of behavior Therefore, instead of trying to compare play with certain manifestations of the behavior of an adult animal, this qualitatively specific stage should be compared with other stages in the development of activity - the early postnatal and adult periods.

Based on a critical analysis of the literature, Krymov identifies 9 main independent characteristics of play behavior. They basically coincide with the features of the game according to Hind (1975) given above, but they also focus on some additional ones. Thus, he notes that the play of animals is "a voluntary matter", the 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. As Krymov notes, although this provision bears the imprint of anthropomorphism, it is recognized by many researchers.

The motivational nature of the game

The factors that control play behavior are far from clear, and no doubt quite complex. Early theories of animal play made a number of hypotheses about the underlying motivation. One of the most famous, as mentioned above, belongs to Spencer, who saw the game as a means of releasing excess energy accumulated in the body. Opponents of this theory pointed out that it is not clear what kind of energy in this case we are talking about - about the physical energy of the organism or about the hypothetical "mental energy, the existence of which is generally doubtful.

The second widespread hypothesis concerns the existence of a specific "playing impulse", the presence of which was admitted, in particular, by K. Lorenz. Analyzing this issue, he showed that there are significant differences between the game and the so-called "activity in the void", i.e. those cases when certain species-specific reactions are manifested in the absence of specific stimuli that usually cause them. As Lorentz (1992) emphasizes, such facts are due to an increase in a specific impulse (for example, hunger) and the absence of conditions in which this impulse could be satisfied, therefore, for example, a hungry bird begins to catch missing insects, performing its actions "idle" or "in the void". The main difference between the game, according to Lorentz, lies precisely in the fact that the specific actions performed during it are not at all based on the corresponding specific impulse, and as soon as one (for example, aggression) begins to manifest itself, the game stops, giving way to other forms of behavior.

The question of the motivation underlying the game remains debatable, however, in general, the following can be stated: although the movements characteristic of play behavior may resemble movements in other types of activity, it is not associated with the action of stable motivational factors, as is observed in other situations. Thus, elements of aggressive and sexual behavior may appear when the animal apparently does not experience either aggressive or sexual arousal. The play behavior may stop before reaching the "terminal" situation. For example, mount attempts in young monkeys may result in neither intromission nor ejaculation; they are probably weakened as a result of performing other elements of the act of mating. On the other hand, play behavior can be repeated many times in a row, despite the fact that each time it leads to a "terminating" situation.

Evidence of the existence (or absence) of a specific play impulse could be the results of experiments in which animals would be subjected to deprivation - a temporary deprivation of the opportunity to play. According to ethologists, such deprivation should lead to "accumulation of a specific energy of action", i.e. appropriate motivation, and, consequently, to an increased manifestation of activity after the cessation of deprivation. The works cited in this connection by A.A. Krymov, did not give an unequivocal answer to this question - in different experiments on different animals, the result of deprivation (short-term isolation from game partners) was both an intensification of the game and the preservation of its previous level.

The difficulty of clarifying this issue lies, in particular, in the imperfection of the methods for selectively eliminating the opportunity to play (short-term isolation from partners); which usually affect some other aspects of behavior. Of particular interest in this regard is an experiment posed by nature itself, which was discovered and described by R. Lee, who has been observing for a number of years a population of free-living vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus pygerythrus) in East Africa.

As is known, all forms of play behavior occur during those periods when the animal does not need any other activities necessary for survival, such as feeding or escaping from predators. It turned out that the game, which is such a noticeable feature of the behavior of vervet cubs and adolescents in normal seasons and occupies a significant part of the periods of wakefulness, practically disappears during a drought. During this period, all animals, including young ones, can only survive if they are constantly busy looking for food. When Li compared animals raised during a drought and therefore deprived of the opportunity to play, and those raised in normal conditions, she could not find differences in their behavior. In this case, the deprivation of the game did not lead to its intensification after the restoration of normal conditions, as it should have happened in accordance with the hypothesis of the existence of a special game motivation. Experiments of this kind are also of interest in connection with other aspects of the theories of play by Sepnser (1897) and Groos (1916), according to which the latter is regarded as an exercise in the functions of an adult organism.

In Lee's experiments, the cubs not only did not increase their play activity after the restoration of normal conditions, but also did not suffer from any behavioral abnormalities when they became adults. The same conclusion was reached by the authors who observed a very similar "natural experiment" with squirrel saimiri (Saimiri sciureus). In different flocks of these monkeys, there were large natural variations in the degree of play activity - in some, the cubs almost did not play due to some non-obvious reasons. However, when they became adults, the authors failed to identify any differences in their social behavior. Summarizing experiments of this kind, O. Manning and M. Dawkins note that many more such observations will be required in order to obtain a convincing assessment of the motivational basis of play and its role for the behavior of an adult animal.

A.A. Krymov notes that one of the most important aspects of the development of the mental activity of animals in the game period of ontogeny is the formation of a motivational-need sphere. The play period is a transitional period from early postnatal activity, which is based on simple biological needs, satisfied mainly by parents, to the mental activity of adult animals, which includes a complex, objectively organized motivational-need sphere. Therefore, in order to resolve the issue of the existence of a special "game motivation", it is necessary to study the features of motivation processes at different stages of development of individuals. However, it should be noted that in understanding this aspect of the game problem, significant progress has not yet been achieved.

Game of great apes. Comparison of observations in captivity and in natural habitat

Play, as already noted, is the most characteristic component of the behavior of monkey cubs. It inevitably involves friendly physical contacts between individuals, and with its help bonds can be formed that retain their significance throughout their lives.

The most complex forms of play have been found in the great apes, and this form of behavior has been studied in particular detail in chimpanzees. Initially, these were observations of the behavior of individual individuals kept singly in cages, several in cages, or brought up in a "developing environment" - in a human family. The first fundamental work of this kind was "a comparative description of the behavior of a child and a chimpanzee cub, undertaken by N.N. Ladygina-Kote. Together with the works of the Hayes spouses and the Kellogg spouses, performed in the same plan, they laid the foundation for understanding the behavior and psyche of great apes , including games (see Ya. Dembovsky).

Significant additions to the ideas about the games of great apes were made by the work of American researchers who taught intermediary languages to chimpanzees (Gardner & Gardner; Pouts; Savage-Rumbaugh; Linden).

Already in the first works of this kind, it was shown that the games of chimpanzees show a significant similarity with the games of children, however, it has been repeatedly suggested (see Ya. Dembovsky) that to a large extent the complexity of the game behavior of animals is generated by the inadequacy of the situation when kept in captivity, under conditions far from the natural life of the species, when the monkey is deprived of normal social contacts and, moreover, does not find a sufficient outlet for its physical energy. The observations of ethologists in their natural habitat contributed to the elucidation of the actual repertoire of the play behavior of great apes (Goodall; Lavik-Goodall; Schaller; Fossey;

Kortlandt). The authors of these studies spent long months following groups of monkeys and gradually accustoming them to their constant presence. Thanks to this, it became possible to get a complete picture of all aspects of life (including the game) of these animals. The most fundamental contribution in this regard was made by the studies of the English ethologist J. Goodall, whose observations of free-living chimpanzees lasted about 30 years.

Consider first the data obtained from observations in captivity. N.N. Ladygina-Kote compared the behavior of the baby chimpanzee Ioni, who lived at home from one and a half to four years old, and her own son Rudy at the same age. She singled out 7 categories of games, basically coinciding with those mentioned above, and showed that most of them are accessible to one degree or another not only to a child, but also to a chimpanzee, although, of course, the degree of their development and complexity varies significantly. In the most general form, we can say that the baby chimpanzee overtakes the child in all outdoor games that require physical strength and dexterity, while the child very early passes to role playing requiring intelligence, imagination, self-awareness, etc. In games associated with various types of swinging, moving objects, climbing trapezes, etc., the child not only participates himself, but also involves his toys in this. As Ladygina-Kote writes, even in outdoor games, “a child trains the spirit more than the body.”

Outdoor games occupy the most important place in the entertainment of a chimpanzee cub, no matter what conditions it grows up in. When playing with people, he, like children, prefers to run away rather than catch up. Both the baby chimpanzee and the child are equally fond of any means of transportation, and the more they were faster. Both of them, like later all monkeys who learned intermediary languages, loved to ride on adults. Like children, some chimpanzees can learn to ride a bicycle and are very fond of this activity.

One of the constant entertainments is the movement of objects, for example, rolling them down an inclined surface, preferably with noise and crackling. Ladygina-Kote also notes the desire of chimpanzees to entertain themselves with easily moving objects, primarily balls. In nature, they use large round nuts or fruits for this. It should be noted that, according to Buytendijk (1933), animals play only with those objects that themselves “play with those who play”.

Both the child and the chimpanzee, as soon as they begin to walk, try to push some objects in front of them. Later, they carry appropriate toys with them. Ioni, for example, took a ball on a string for a walk, and Vicki, a pupil of the American researchers of the Hayes spouses, not only carried tied objects with her, but even depicted such a game in the absence of real toys. In the wild, the cubs also play in a similar way - for a long time they “carry” a long rod behind them. Playing hide and seek, both the child and the chimpanzee prefer a more passive role - hiding, rather than a more active one - searching, which they sometimes do not know how to carry out. At the same time, a chimpanzee cub hides much better than a human child, whose actions are rather conditional: the child only goes behind the chair, closes his eyes with his hands, hides his head in his mother's knees, etc. Only at the age of about 3 years does the child begin to hide for real.

The chimpanzee's game of hide and seek has been described repeatedly. It is worth mentioning that Washoe, the first monkey trained in an intermediary language for communicating with a person, not only willingly played hide and seek, but even invented his own sign sign for an invitation to this game (see Elkonin).

Like a human child, a chimpanzee cub (in any conditions of upbringing) is enthusiastically given to games that include elements of competition, be it running, intercepting objects, overcoming obstacles. Moreover, Yoni the chimpanzee, for example, actively created difficult situations for himself to overcome by constructing traps, loops, and so on. In the ontogeny of the child, the striving for competition, based on pride and ambition, manifests itself very early and powerfully, and to a greater extent than other types of activity, it improves the mental and physical strengths and abilities of the child. At the same time, the chimpanzee cub turns out, according to the author's observations, to be more enduring than the child, who, when unsuccessful, is much more upset than the chimpanzee. This great mental vulnerability of the child, which is found in acts that are not of vital importance, indicates a divergence in the development of the psyche of both babies in more subtle mental traits, with a similarity in the basic range and nature of play behavior.

Both single and group games of baby anthropoids often include elements of cunning and deceit. As Ladygina-Kote (1935) writes, both the child and the baby chimpanzee use different tricks and foresight to force the partner to take a detour to perform the desired action or not to do the undesired. Both of them take into account the consequences of their actions and organize behavior accordingly. Getting into a mess, a chimpanzee cub, like a child, is not yet able to correct the situation, naively revealing all the illusory nature of his lie. Similar properties are inherent in the games of anthropoids in their natural habitat. D. Fossey observed a gorilla cub who regularly started fussing and fighting near the sleeping leader, and when he began to wake up, he portrayed complete innocence and watched how he dealt with the rest.

A special variant of outdoor games is games with animals. It is well known how animated and varied children play with cats and dogs. The chimpanzees Yoni and Rudy were also very happy to include live animals in their games. So, Rudy tried to involve the animal in the sphere of his interests - he offered the cat to play with his toys, explained how to play with them. The games get more difficult with age. The child was already acting out carefully planned scenarios. Unlike him, Ioni's game was dominated by the desire to show arbitrariness and power, chasing, squeezing, torturing a living toy in every possible way. A similar picture was discovered by Goodall, watching the games of cubs of free chimpanzees with baboons. Such games are very common and always very aggressive, and in a number of cases, baby chimpanzees have switched from playing to directional throwing of stones and branches. When the baboons began to run away, the chimpanzees staged a threatening display after them, continuing to brandish or hurl sticks. Sometimes this game turned into a fight, and they were separated by adults of both types. This form of behavior is described as an aggressive game, and the degree of aggression depends on the age and sex of the chimpanzees participating in it, and its intensity is assessed by the reaction of partners - baboons.

However, other cases have also been described. The young orangutan Gua in the Kelloggs' experiment (; see also Dembowski), as well as the chimpanzees Ellie and Lucy, who were trained in Amslen, played quite peacefully with the cats. Lucy "adopted" one of them and treated her like a living doll.

Ladygina-Kots notes that one of the characteristic entertainments of a child is the contemplation of movement. And just as a child, starting from 4 months, without taking his eyes off, follows the actions of adults and everything that happens around him, so the chimpanzee cub shows interest in objects moving in the field of vision, mobile toys, etc. And in the wild, for example, babies often play with ants, watching them as they crawl up and down the trunk, crushing them or piercing them with thin twigs while their mothers are busy feeding. As Goodall (1992) writes, they are amused by the sight of running "streams" of small insects.

Fossey (1990) observed that one of the freestyle gorilla cubs amused himself by catching flies buzzing around him. If he managed to catch a fly, he examined it for a long time, holding it with two fingers, then began to tear it into small pieces, carefully examining them and discarding them. The longer the process of "dissection" lasted, the more focused Pak's face became.

In general, all new situations that expand the scope of observation of cubs are very attractive to them. The ability to look out the window, and especially movies and TV, can even serve as an effective reinforcement in the training of great apes. For example, one of the "talking" monkeys (Lana) preferred the opportunity to watch a movie to receiving a treat.

Ladygina-Kote also describes in detail other "entertainments" that children, and partly a baby chimpanzee, resort to. These include "entertainment" with sounds; games of "experimentation" (term K. Groos), in which a variety of solid objects are used, as well as water, bulk substances, fire and various shiny or elastic objects, sticks, etc. According to L.A. Firsova, chimpanzees living semi-free on a lake island, play in shallow water, pouring water from palm to palm.

Later studies have shown that this list can be significantly expanded, including through the study of the behavior of "talking" monkeys. Important evidence in this regard is contained in the book by J. Linden. In particular, he cites the observation of Footes, who saw one of the Amslen-trained monkeys

Lucy leafed through an illustrated magazine and called the pictures with gestures. She "talked" to herself all alone, like a child talking to her toys. The same monkey, on its own initiative, repeated the trick shown to it by the teacher - it depicted "swallowing" glasses.

Looking at pictures is one of the usual games for anthropoids in captivity, but this ability was usually attributed to “developing” education. In refutation of this notion, D. Fossey describes how she gave a National Geographic number to an enacted gorilla teenager to calm him down. Park turned the pages with amazing agility and accuracy, although he did this for the first time in his life, and carefully examined the photographs, which showed close-ups of faces.

Free chimpanzee cubs also often come up with various and sometimes unexpected entertainments for themselves, just as their captive brethren do. For example, one day Goodall observed how a young female moved away from the raging males, made herself a small nest on the ground (usually they are built to sleep in trees) and began to wallow in it, and then began to tickle her neck and laugh.

An important role in discussions about the nature of animal play has always been played by the question of the role of imagination and fantasy. According to Beitendijk, play is "a sphere of images, possibilities, directly affective and gnostic-neutral, partly unfamiliar and vital fantasy." Considering Beitendijk's theory of play, Elkonin pointed out that the idea of the presence of "figurative fantasy" in animals is a tribute to anthropomorphism. However, more Late observations of chimpanzee play, combined with modern ideas about the cognitive activity of higher vertebrates, suggest that such an element is indeed present in their game.

According to R. Yerkes, who observed the behavior of chimpanzees in a laboratory colony at the Yale Primatological Center, in the play behavior of monkeys, “trying to think of something else to have fun, and often playing whole performances that attract human attention, elements are clearly guessed. creative imagination» . Games with imaginary objects are described by the Hayes in the chimpanzee Vicki, who for quite a long time pretended to be 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. Once, when Katie Hayes, having decided to play with her, did the same, Vicki was shocked, terribly upset, and she herself never played such games again. Young children in many cases behave in a similar way, playing "pretend".

Such complexity of the behavior of monkeys could also be interpreted as a result of the special conditions of life in captivity, but this assumption, if believed, is only partially, because free-living chimpanzees demonstrated analogues of the most complex and sophisticated games, which were rightly regarded as the result of developing education.

Thus, J. Goodall noted on three different occasions how teenage males staged frightening demonstrations in the forest, far from their relatives, apparently playing situations in which they might be needed. For example, a young male Figan "played the leader". The real leader in this group was Michael, who achieved his high position thanks to ingenuity. He picked up two empty gasoline canisters that were strewn in great numbers among the bushes, and, rattling them, performed a menacing display, putting the stronger and older males to flight. In imitation of him, Feegan practiced demonstrations in the manner of Michael - he threw an empty kerosene can, all alone in the bushes.

In a similar way, free chimpanzees "lost" situations not associated with aggression, but, for example, with obtaining food. So, 4-year-old Wunda once carefully observed from a safe distance how her mother, with the help of a long stick, “bit” ferocious ecitonic ants, lying on a branch hanging over their nest. After a while, Wunda picked up a small twig, perched on the lower branch of a small tree, copying her mother's pose, and lowered her miniature tool down, apparently imagining that there was a nest. It can be assumed that when she took it out of there, she imagined a record "catch".

Thus, the monkey games closest to the child's play, connected with the work of the imagination and requiring the operation of mental representations, cannot be considered only a consequence of a special upbringing in a "developing" environment, but, apparently, constitute a behavioral trait inherent in all anthropoid apes.

Most of the data on anthropoid play comes from studies on chimpanzees. Information about the game of other types of anthropoids is much less, and in general they coincide with those given above. As confirmation, we can cite the observations of J. Schaller and D. Frossi already partially cited above for groups of gorillas in nature. These authors showed that gorillas begin to play at 3 months of age, and the need to play fades by 6 years of age. Adult animals play very rarely, but young animals also play far from always, which reflects the restraint inherent in this species of great apes. Cubs often play alone. Outdoor games predominate (rocking, chasing, tumbling, wrestling). In games, baby gorillas begin to interact with each other for the first time. One of the games not noted by Goodall in chimpanzees is "do as I do." In it, the ability to imitate, so characteristic of anthropoid apes, is especially pronounced. Another - when the cub takes the most advantageous position on a stump or in the bushes and fights off the attackers, using any tricks. However, in this game, and in all other games involving teenagers, kids never get seriously injured, because. teenagers hold back their power. About what signals notify about the game - in gorillas, the author does not report. If the game becomes too violent, the cub assumes a pose of humility - it shrinks into a ball and exposes its back to the opponent.

It should also be noted that gorillas play with objects willingly and in a variety of ways. D. Fossey observed how in the natural population the cubs play "football" and "baseball" with the fruits (hard, similar to grapefruits) of the mtanga-tanga tree. And one of the young males, like the described Goodall Michael and his imitators, during the demonstrations of the threat took the stalk in his teeth, and hit his chest with the fruit, making resonating sounds. He did it on his own initiative, but the other cubs here did not imitate him.

The desire to imitate the actions of others, whether they are relatives or educators, so characteristic of great apes (Firsov, 1987), can also be traced in chimpanzees, leaving a corresponding imprint on their games. It should be noted, however, some specifics of animal imitation. So, as N.N. Ladygina-Kote, in a child this desire is more realized in the sphere of constructive actions, while in chimpanzees it is in the sphere of destructive ones. Yoni, for example, was better at pulling nails than hammering them, better at untying knots than at tying, better at opening locks than closing them. In addition, unlike the child, the chimpanzee showed no tendency to improve the skills implemented during the game. Many chimpanzee games come down entirely to breaking objects that fall into their hands.

Manipulation games are one of the most important categories of play for young great apes. As already mentioned, according to K. Fabry, this is the highest form of play, which provides familiarization with the properties of the objects surrounding the animal. It is widely known and partly already shown by us above that both in captivity and in nature chimpanzees (and other anthropoids) often, for a long time and very diversely, often creatively play with objects.

Above, we have already mentioned special studies (Fabry; Deryagina), which showed that the manipulative activity of anthropoids (not only play, but also research, food-procuring, etc.) has an extremely complex structure. These monkeys are characterized by much more numerous methods of fixing an object and the forms of actions performed with them than for all other animals. Particularly significant is the fact that they manipulate the same object for a long time, using the most diverse forms of manipulation. And the various actions performed on their basis follow one after another, sometimes repeating several times.

Without dwelling in detail on observations of this form of play in monkeys living in captivity, we will focus on the data obtained in the study of the behavior of young free chimpanzees.

So, according to Goodall's observations, when playing alone, they often use various objects, showing a high degree of ingenuity in terms of their disposal. Twigs with fruits, scraps of skin or wool from long-killed prey, shreds of cloth especially valued by monkeys - all these trophies can be thrown over the shoulders or "hidden in pockets", i.e. clamp between the neck and shoulder or between the thigh and stomach, and carry it with you. This observation by J. Goodall is of particular interest in comparison with the facts described by N.N. Ladygina-Kote. The chimpanzee Yoni also regularly brought pebbles, carnations, pieces of glass from a walk. He valued them very much and constantly dragged along the bag with rags and all sorts of small things that had been presented to him. Ioni could rummage through it for hours, examine his riches, hang on himself the longest and brightest pieces of fabric.

The tendency of chimpanzees and other anthropoids to "decorate" and "dress up" is noted by almost all researchers. The monkey Gua in the experiments of the Kelloggs with equal pleasure hung a blanket on its back, and branches of trees, and walked for a long time in this form, smiling broadly. According to the observations of J. Schaller, free-living gorilla cubs also like to decorate themselves with tufts of moss or grass. Filed by L.A. Firsov, chimpanzees "dress up" not only while living in laboratory enclosures, but also when they find themselves in relatively free conditions on a lake island.

As J. Dembovsky notes, chimpanzee manipulation games are a mosaic of unrelated actions using any objects that come to hand. They can “drive” pebbles and small fruits with their feet on the ground, throw them from one hand to the other, or throw them into the air, and then grab them with their hands again.

On a number of occasions, freestyle chimpanzees use a stone or a short thick bough to tickle themselves under the armpit, in the groin, or in the genital area. They can indulge in this activity for 10 minutes and often accompany it with loud laughter, which is generally very characteristic of chimpanzee games. Sometimes the tool is captured in the nest and the game continues there. One of my favorite toys is Strychnos nuts. They can be rolled on the ground, thrown (sometimes even caught), carried with you.

One of the favorite games is catching up and taking away a small object, which passes from hand to hand several times. (It should be mentioned that we also observed a similar game in young corvids).

Free chimpanzees use in manipulation games not only natural materials, but also objects related to human activities. The camp in Gombe was repeatedly invaded by "neighbors", who hunted not only and not so much for delicacies, but were interested in all camping items.

A similar interest in expeditionary equipment was shown by young gorillas. According to the observations of D. Fossey, one of the cubs, who gutted her backpack at the first opportunity, had a special passion for optics. Apparently, he not only imitated the actions of a person, but really carefully examined the surrounding objects through binoculars, sometimes moving his fingers right in front of the eyepieces. He used a 300mm lens as a spyglass, aiming at distant objects or other members of the group. The most amazing thing is that he treated these toys of his very carefully and did not let competitors near them.

Goodall describes in detail the age-related features of the play of free-living chimpanzee cubs, as well as the play of a mother with a cub - that aspect of play behavior that can be fully explored precisely in natural conditions (or, in extreme cases, in colonies).

From the mother receives the first experience of social play, 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, then the duration of the game increases. Some females play not only with babies, but until the cub reaches adulthood. One of the monkeys played even at the age of 40 - the cubs ran around the tree, and she stood and pretended to try to grab them or grab those who ran close. Her daughter Mimi also played with her offspring for quite some time. However, most chimpanzee mothers are not particularly prone to play with growing cubs. In general, for adult games, chimpanzees are characterized by a very large individual plasticity.

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. By the age of 3, they often end in aggression. The most active play cubs from 2 to 4 years. During the weaning of cubs from the breast, the intensity of games with them decreases, and only a few adults retain it (Goodall, Clerk).

How often a baby participates in play with other babies depends on the mother's "personality" as well as demographic factors such as the number of babies in a group. The degree of confidence with which the cub behaves in games depends to a large extent on the social rank of its mother. Thus, already at this stage of ontogenesis, play contributes to the formation of the future social rank of the cub.

It should also be noted a special aspect of play behavior, which is apparently typical mainly for great apes. Observations of chimpanzees show that they can use the invitation to play as a means of manipulating the behavior of their congeners. N.N. Ladygina-Kote (1935) writes that, just as a game makes a child forget pain, eat unloved food, etc., with the help of the game, Ioni was able to be accustomed to sitting quietly at the table (due to the use of outdoor games as reinforcement). This technique was sometimes used by free-living female chimpanzees - some of them used the game as a means of controlling a recalcitrant cub. Involving him in the game, they either forced the naughty one to follow them, or distracted him from trying to suckle during the period of weaning from milk feeding. Some females distract the older offspring from the newborn with the help of the game.

A similar use of play has been noted in "talking" chimpanzees. So R. Fute (see Yu. Linden) watched how the young male Bruno, trying to distract his comrade Bui from delicacy, called him to play (tickle each other) with signs of amslen.

An invitation to play is used as a means of manipulating the behavior of not only cubs, but also adult monkeys. This is evidenced by the following observations. In the Arnheim colony described by de Waal (1978), which lived in a rather large but still limited area, chimpanzees used invitations to play as a means of resolving social conflicts. One of the males used this method to prevent the anger of the dominant. For example, when the alpha male showed signs of aggression, the male who occupied the 3rd place in the hierarchy approached him, and, rising to his hind legs, began to back away from him with a “playful expression” on his face. And although the alpha male did not always pay attention to him, this tactic often took his activity in a different direction.

J. Goodall notes that, unlike the monkeys of this colony, she never observed anything like this in free chimpanzees.

As she suggests, the point here is that a captive colony does not have the means to defuse aggression that animals in the wild have. In the wild, males could leave their group, could move away from the dominant, could take the female away and mate with her without attracting anyone's attention, etc. In contrast, captive chimpanzees have no way to "defuse" tensions and are therefore forced to resort to specific, more sophisticated "social manoeuvres" such as hiding intentions, maintaining close ties with allies, and reconciliation after conflict. Therefore, in captivity, some forms can be observed social interactions, which chimpanzees do not have or have few in the wild. Perhaps the same is the case with the game - in captivity, it is more sophisticated and better reveals their potential. Apparently, one of these potential possibilities is an invitation to the game as a distraction from aggression.

Game in some non-primate animals.

Comparative analysis shows that, except for isolated observations, there is no evidence of the ability to play in anyone other than mammals and some species of birds. Without setting ourselves the task of giving an exhaustive description of the game of non-primate vertebrates, let us dwell on some of its manifestations.

Above, when considering the forms of play activity, we have already addressed some aspects of the play of rodents and carnivores. Let's point out some more facts.

It has been established that there are significant differences in the intensity and nature of the game in different rodent species. It is very typical for the young of most species of hamsters (Lorenz;

Fabry, Meshkova), as well as rats and voles. The nature of social games clearly reflects the specific behavior of adult animals. As K.E. Fabry, in some species of rodents (guinea pigs) there is no game struggle, and social games are reduced to “invitation” signals. Unlike them, in most other rodents, play fights are common. Thus, it is well known that the ontogenesis of rats is characterized by varied and intense pursuits and fights, while in mice the possibility of locomotor and social games was first proved in wild species. However, the important role of social play contacts in the development of behavior in mice is currently attracting more and more attention and is being extensively studied in laboratory lines. The play interactions of rodents manifest themselves especially clearly in a physically complex habitat.

As we mentioned above, studies of rodent play are very diverse, and here we will focus on only one aspect of research that directly develops the ideas of D.B. Elkonin and K.E. Fabry on the nature of the game and related to the analysis of a particular problem.

It's about about the study of the psychological mechanisms underlying synurbanization - changes in the behavior of species that adapt to life in conditions of anthropogenic transformation of the environment. Based on observations of sinurban animals and their comparison with animals from natural populations, N.N. Meshkov and E.Yu. Fedorovich showed that, being one of the main forms of behavioral activity in the juvenile period, the game further provides the very possibility of mental orientation in changeable situations that in many cases arise in front of an animal in an urban environment. The authors suggest that under the conditions of a super-changeable urban environment, one can expect an increased progressive development of play activity in synurban species, especially eusynanthropes, in comparison with closely related species that are less prone or not prone to synanthropism at all. It is assumed that the richer and more diverse in external manifestations their game is, the longer the play (juvenile) period of ontogeny (and stay in the family in general), the greater the adaptive potential of behavior the species has. In support of this point of view, the authors cite a number of data that really reveal a tendency towards an increase in the development of play in some species of synanthropic rodents compared with closely related species of exranthropes or species with a lower degree of synanthropization.

Games make up important characteristic the behavior of representatives of all families of the order of predatory mammals, which spend a lot of time playing with each other and with objects. For the majority, all variants of mobile social games (pursuit, fights) are typical. The presence of clear special signals - invitations to play - makes game aggression safe, and during fights and pursuits, animals do not cause real damage to each other. As already mentioned, carnivores actively play with objects, and in many species their mothers actively play with cubs (cats, wolves, bears, hyena dogs, jackals).

Of particular interest is the question of the presence and nature of bird play. It is partly due to the fact that the erroneous idea that birds are creatures with a primitive psyche, whose behavior has a predominantly instinctive basis, has not been completely eradicated to this day. Such an idea existed due to the fact that the brain of birds is arranged in a special way and its higher integrative sections do not have a layered (like the bark of mammals), but a nuclear structure. Meanwhile, numerous data from morphologists, physiologists and ethologists indicate that the brain of birds has all the same and no less perfect systems for conducting and processing information as in the brain of mammals, and their behavior and higher nervous activity are generally the same as in mammals. In particular, it is shown that the most highly organized representatives of this class - corvids - have not only a good ability to learn, but also some elementary forms of preverbal thinking. By the ability to solve a number of complex cognitive tests, they are not inferior to primates.

It should be especially noted that our studies of the ontogeny of the behavior of corvids indicate that they have a long juvenile period. The maturation of the brain and more complex mental functions continues at least throughout the first year of life. In this regard, a comparative description of their play behavior is of undoubted interest. Almost no special studies have been carried out in this area, however, even a brief generalization of the data available in different works indicates the similarity of the main characteristics of the game of birds and mammals.

We obtained some data in the process of observing groups of the 5 most common species of corvids kept in captivity in the middle lane. We have already mentioned above the complexity of the manipulations performed by corvids in the process of playing with objects. It turned out that the structure of manipulative activity is formed in its main features already by the age of three months, and in one-year-old birds the desire to manipulate objects sharply weakens, so that only a few adult individuals play.

In free-living corvids, various and complex manipulations with objects are also noted (Krushinsky, 1986; Meshkova and Fedorovich, 1996). 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. Along with this, they are also characterized by other very diverse outdoor games - paired flights, pursuit, pirouettes and somersaults in the air, swimming in the snow, rolling from roofs. The games of urban crows are especially diverse. Quite often you can observe how 2-3 crows tease the dog. They can distract her from eating, they can force her to chase her 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. Similar games mentioned by almost all those who observed the behavior of corvids.

The games of birds kept in captivity are even more diverse. Thus, some of the ravens observed by the German researcher Gwinner (Gwinner, 1964) not only manipulated all the objects that fell into their possession, but, in addition, invented actions that are usually not characteristic of them. For example, one of them hung upside down on a perch for a long time and swayed, the other rolled on the ice in winter with a running start. It is characteristic that rather quickly other birds began to imitate these actions. The invention of new actions that have no practical application has also been noted in other animals, in particular, in dolphins (Prier, 1981). I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt describes the game of a captive-bred Darwin finch, which stuffed food into the cracks of the cage, and then took it out with the help of small sticks. This way of obtaining food is typical for adults.

The games of young birds already mentioned by us, which included chasing and passing objects from beak to beak, can serve as evidence of the role of play in the development of social relations. The structure of corvid communities is known to be based on the personal knowledge of each other by all its members. It is supported not only by the observance of the hierarchy, but also by the presence of "friendly" contacts and individual preferences of some birds to others. This is manifested in joint research and manipulative activities, in imitation, sorting out feathers and collective games.

One of the most common variants of a collective game is a pursuit game, when another bird chases after a bird that has grabbed some small object in its beak, and, having caught up, intercepts it in its beak, and the first one does not resist. Such games are clearly different from the cases when one bird chases another away from the object of interest to it. It is characteristic that these games are not observed in all birds included in the group; usually there are several couples who prefer to constantly play with each other. Observations of the same birds as adults show that partnerships in play during the juvenile period ensure the establishment of long-term social bonds in the community of adult birds.

The question of bird play undoubtedly calls for special research.

Concluding this brief review of the data, we can state the presence of common features in the games of representatives of taxonomically distant groups. Further comparative analysis of the play of vertebrates may contribute to the elucidation of the true nature of this activity.

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