== Article Evaluation ==

This is an evaluation of the article "Comparative psychology".

  • Content:
    • Overall, the content provided in this article is plentiful and relevant to the topic of Comparative psychology.
    • There are some words and phrases throughout the article that could be linked to other Wikipedia pages so that the article can be better connected to other Wikipedia content. This would also allow the reader to have a better idea about the meaning of certain words and phrases or the background of significant people mentioned. Such words, names and phrases include: phylogenetic history, Niko Tinbergen and reproductive success. These words, names and phrases could be linked as such: Phylogenetic history, Niko Tinbergen, reproductive success.
    • The abundance of information provided in the article is organized into 12 different sections. The division of the article into sections is very helpful because it makes the article easy to navigate through and allows the reader to narrow their search to specific information about Comparative psychology.
    • Some sections in the article are smaller than others and more information could be added to make each section approximately the same size and equally represented. For example, the sections on "Animal cognition" and "Disorders of animal behaviour" could be made larger.
    • There are facts stated throughout the article that include "citation needed" statements after them. This is especially prominent in the section entitled "Disorders of animal behaviour". Since there are citations needed for many facts stated in the article it reduces the reliability of the information provided. Therefore, citations should be added after facts missing citations or these facts should be removed from the article.
  • Tone:
    • The tone of the article is very neutral and unbiased.
    • There are no claims that seem to be biased toward a certain position or viewpoint and the viewpoints do not seem to be overrepresented or underrepresented.
  • Sources
    • The citations provided in the article seem to work properly and appear to accurately support the facts stated.
    • The sources seem to be neutral, unbiased and reliable.
    • The sources provided were published from the 1960's to 2011. Therefore, new sources could be added that represent newer research and information on Comparative psychology.
  • Talk Page:
    • There are not very many conversations in the Talk page of this article.
    • There is a conversation that includes differing opinions about the background of Ibn Haytham stated in the section entitled "History". Some people think that he is Arabian while others think he is Persian or Iranian. The conflict does not appear to be resolved so it is still uncertain if his background is correct.
    • The Talk Page indicates that the article is included in two WikiProjects.
      • The article is included in "WikiProject Psychology" which is working on increasing the coverage of Psychology-related articles on Wikipedia. It is rated "Start-class" on the project's quality scale and "High-importance" on the importance scale.
      • The article is also included in "WikiProject Animals" which is working on better organizing the information included in articles related to animals and zoology. The article is rated "Start-class" on the project's quality scale and "Mid-importance" on the project's importance scale.
  • Wikipedia discusses the topic of Comparative psychology in a much more detailed, formal manner than how it was discussed in class. Much of the information learned in class is included in the article but there is a lot of information from the article that was not discussed in class, especially in the "History" section.

Article Selection

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Here is a list of possible articles to help develop/add to:

  • Instinctive Drift (Stub-class)
  • Interspecies friendship (Stub-class)
  • Toe Pecking (Stub-class)
  • Vacuum Activity (Un-rated)
  • Bunting (Stub-class)

Feedback

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All of these topics sounds promising but a word of caution for Vacuum Activity, make sure you provide new information that does not overlap with the Fixed Action Pattern page. In all cases, make sure you focus on the animal behaviour aspects and can find enough articles to support the topics

Interspecies Friendship (possible article)

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  • The existing article is stub-class and describes interspecies friendship but focusses on mostly the friendship between humans and dogs
  • There are no sections present about friendships between other animals and the behaviours that exist in these friendships
  • I plan on adding a section about behaviours that exist in other interspecies friendships (besides humans and dogs)
  • I plan on adding descriptions about human bonds with other animals
  • I plan on describing interspecies communication and how that relates to friendships
  • I plan on describing how interspecies friendships come about (evolutionary approach) and going more in-depth about mutualism

Possible Reference Papers:

  • Sanders, C. (2003). Actions Speak Louder than Words: Close Relationships between Humans and Nonhuman Animals. Symbolic Interaction., 26(3), 405-426.
  • Zuberbhler, K. (2000). Interspecies semantic communication in two forest primates. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 267(1444), 713-718.
  • Lyn, Heidi, Greenfield, Patricia, & Savage-Rumbaugh, Sue. (2006). The Development of Representational Play in Chimpanzees and Bonobos: Evolutionary Implications, Pretense, and the Role of Interspecies Communication. Cognitive Development, 21(3), 199-213
  • Munera, J. (2008). Early introduction age and other factors: Precursors to feline/canine friendship? Journal of Applied Companion Animal Behavior, 2(1), 29–32.
  • Feuerstein, & Terkel. (2008). Interrelationships of dogs ( Canis familiaris) and cats ( Felis catus L.) living under the same roof. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 113(1), 150-165.
  • Kraus, D. (2011). Friends: True Stories of Extraordinary Animal Friendships. The Booklist,108(1), 99.
  • Borgi, M., & Cirulli, F. (2016). Pet Face: Mechanisms Underlying Human-Animal Relationships. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 298.
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Article Draft: Located in a new sandbox: User:Tcs366/New sandbox