Galef Jr., B. G., & Whiskin, E. E. (1999). Use of public information when foraging: effects of time available to sample foods. Anim. Cogn., 2(2), 103–107.
Abstract: It has been proposed that use of socially acquired information by animals should increase as the time available for individual resource sampling decreases. We gave Norway rat “observers” either 2 or 5 h day-1 to sample four foods. Three of these foods were relatively palatable, but protein-poor; the fourth was relatively unpalatable, but protein-rich. We found that observer rats that for 2 h day-1 both sampled foods and interacted with demonstrators eating only the protein-rich food ate more of the protein-rich food than did observers that sampled for 2 h day-1 but had no opportunity to interact with demonstrators. On the other hand, observer rats that could sample foods for 5 h day-1 ate equal amounts of protein-rich food whether they interacted with a demonstrator fed protein-rich food or not. Subsequent analyses showed that the time available to observers to sample foods, rather than the opportunity to interact with demonstrators determined whether such interaction influenced observers' food choices. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that animals increase their use of public information in response to temporal constraints on opportunities for resource sampling.
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Potì, P., Langer, J., Savage-Rumbaugh, S., & Brakke, K. E. (1999). Spontaneous logicomathematical constructions by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes, P. paniscus). Anim. Cogn., 2(3), 147–156.
Abstract: Two experiments investigated the spontaneous construction of precursory logicomathematical operations by human-enculturated and language-reared chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes, Pan paniscus) when they were interacting freely with objects. In experiment 1, three chimpanzees ranging in age from 6 to 18 years were presented with sets of six objects. Chimpanzees constructed equivalence, order and reversibility relations within single sets of objects as well as between two or three contemporaneous sets of objects. The chimpanzees' logicomathematical operations were more advanced, including infrequent and minimal operations on three sets, than those of some previously investigated younger nonenculturated common chimpanzees. In experiment 2, six chimpanzees ranging in age from 6 to 21 years were presented with sets of 12 objects. Chimpanzees constructed more advanced operations on single sets, but not on contemporaneous sets. The results suggest partial convergence and partial divergence between development of logicomathematical cognition in chimpanzees and humans.
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Treichler, F. R., & Van Tilburg, D. (1999). Training requirements and retention characteristics of serial list organization by macaque monkeys. Anim. Cogn., 2(4), 235–244.
Abstract: This work evaluated the prospect that organizational accounts of the retention of list information by monkeys might be an artifact of familiarity with conditional relationships. Seven sophisticated macaques were trained on four five-item lists. Each acquisition selectively excluded one of the internal conditional pairs of the typical four-problem sequence (AB,BC,CD,DE) that defines a five-item serially ordered list. Then, all possible novel pairings and the trained pairs appeared together in a test. After this, the previously omitted pair was trained and animals were retested. On all tasks, initial tests revealed little organization and much intersubject variability of characteristic choice strategies, but subsequent inclusion of all four conditional pairs always yielded organized serial choice. On both the four-problem tests and in a later retention, errors were directly related to interitem distance between the objects paired on test trials. These results helped to specify the conditions required for demonstration of non-human primate analogs of transitivity, and showed that even sophisticated monkeys organize information in retention only if they know all interitem relationships.
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Byrne, R. W. (1999). Imitation without intentionality. Using string parsing to copy the organization of behaviour. Anim. Cogn., 2(2), 63–72.
Abstract: A theory of imitation is proposed, string parsing, which separates the copying of behavioural organization by observation from an understanding of the cause of its effectiveness. In string parsing, recurring patterns in the visible stream of behaviour are detected and used to build a statistical sketch of the underlying hierarchical structure. This statistical sketch may in turn aid the subsequent comprehension of cause and effect. Three cases of social learning of relatively complex skills are examined, as potential cases of imitation by string parsing. Understanding the basic requirements for successful string parsing helps to resolve the conflict between mainly negative reports of imitation in experiments and more positive evidence from natural conditions. Since string parsing does not depend on comprehension of the intentions of other agents or the everyday physics of objects, separate tests of these abilities are needed even in animals shown to learn by imitation.
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Heiling, A. M., & Herberstein, M. E. (1999). The role of experience in web-building spiders (Araneidae). Anim. Cogn., 2(3), 171–177.
Abstract: A typical feature of vertical orb-webs is the 'top/bottom' asymmetry, where the lower web region is larger than the upper web region. This asymmetry may improve prey capture success, because, sitting in the hub of the web, a spider can reach prey entangled below the hub faster than prey entangled in the area above the hub. While web asymmetry is known to vary intraspecifically, we tested if this variation also exists at the individual level and whether it is the result of experience, using two orb-web spider species, Argiope keyserlingi and Larinioides sclopetarius. The results reveal that experienced web-building spiders constructed more asymmetric webs than conspecifics deprived of any prior building experience over a period of several months. Experienced individuals invested more silk material into the web region below the hub, which covered a larger area. Moreover, web asymmetry was also influenced by previous prey capture experiences, as spiders increased the lower region of the web if it intercepted the most prey over a period of 6 days. Consequently, spiders may be able to use long-term web-building experience as well as short-term prey capture experience to build better traps. In contrast to previous views of spiders, experience can contribute to intraspecific as well as to individual variations in web design.
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López, J. C., Broglio, C., Rodríguez, F., Thinus-Blanc, C., & Salas, C. (1999). Multiple spatial learning strategies in goldfish (Carassius auratus). Anim. Cogn., 2(2), 109–120.
Abstract: There is a considerable amount of evidence that mammals and birds can use different spatial learning strategies based on multiple learning and memory systems. Unfortunately, only a few studies have investigated spatial learning and memory mechanisms in other vertebrates. This study aimed to identify the strategies used by goldfish to solve two different spatial tasks in a series of three experiments. In experiment 1, two groups of goldfish (Carassius auratus) were trained either in a spatial constancy task (SC), in which visual cues signalled the goal indirectly, or in a directly cued task (DC) in which similar cues signalled the goal directly. Transfer tests were conducted to study the effects of discrete cue deletion on the performance in both tasks. In these transfer tests the performance of the animals trained in the DC task dropped to chance level when the cue that signalled the goal directly was removed. In contrast, the removal of any single cue did not disrupt SC performance. In experiment 2, fish trained in the SC or the DC task were trained with the goal reversed. Goldfish in the SC group needed fewer sessions to master the reversal task than DC animals. Finally, experiment 3 investigated the effects of a substantial modification of the geometrical features of the apparatus on the performance of animals trained in the SC or in the DC condition. The performance of DC goldfish was not affected, whereas the same change disrupted performance in the SC animals despite the presence of the visual cues. These results suggest that there are separate spatial learning and memory systems in fish. Whereas the DC animals used a typical guidance strategy, relying only on the cue that signalled the goal directly, SC fish relied on a strategy with the properties of an actual spatial mapping system. Thus, the comparative approach points to the generality of these learning strategies among vertebrates.
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Hauser MD, Kralik J, & Botto-Mahan C. (1999). Problem solving and functional design features: experiments on cotton-top tamarins, Saguinus oedipus oedipus. Anim. Behav., 57, 565.
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Boysen, S. T., & Himes, G. T. (1999). Current Issues And Emerging Theories In Animal Cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 50(1), 683–705.
Abstract: Comparative cognition is an emerging interdisciplinary field with contributions from comparative psychology, cognitive/experimental and developmental psychology, animal learning, and ethology, and is poised to move toward greater understanding of animal and human information-processing, reasoning, memory, and the phylogenetic emergence of mind. This chapter highlights some current issues and discusses four areas within comparative cognition that are yielding new approaches and hypotheses for studying basic conceptual capacities in nonhuman species. These include studies of imitation, tool use, mirror self-recognition, and the potential for attribution of mental states by nonhuman animals. Though a very old question in psychology, the study of imitation continues to provide new avenues for examining the complex relationships among and between the levels of imitative behaviors exhibited by many species. Similarly, recent work in animal tool use, mirror self-recognition (with all its contentious issues), and recent attempts to empirically study the potential for attributional capacities in nonhumans, all continue to provide fresh insights and novel paradigms for addressing the defining characteristics of these complex phenomena.
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Pinker, S. (1999). COGNITION:Enhanced: Out of the Minds of Babes. Science, 283(5398), 40–41.
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Swanson, J. C. (1999). What are animal science departments doing to address contemporary issues? J. Anim Sci., 77(2), 354–360.
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