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Author Morton, F.B.; Lee, P.C.; Buchanan-Smith, H.M.
Title Taking personality selection bias seriously in animal cognition research: a case study in capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella) Type Journal Article
Year 2013 Publication Abbreviated Journal (up) Animal Cognition
Volume 16 Issue 4 Pages 677-684
Keywords Platyrrhines; Temperament; Cognitive experiment; Selection bias; Associative learning; Training
Abstract In most experimental work on animal cognition, researchers attempt to control for multiple interacting variables by training subjects prior to testing, allowing subjects to participate voluntarily, and providing subjects with food rewards. However, do such methods encourage selection bias from subjects’ personalities? In this study, we trained eighteen zoo-housed capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella) for two experiments, under conditions of positive reinforcement (i.e. food rewards) and free-choice participation. Using a combination of behavioral and rater-based methods, we identified and validated five personality dimensions in these capuchins (Assertiveness, Openness, Neuroticism, Sociability, and Attentiveness). Scores on Openness were positively related to individual differences in monkey task participation, reflecting previous work showing that such individuals are often more active, curious, and willing to engage in testing. We also found a negative relationship between scores on Assertiveness and performance on tasks, which may reflect the trade-offs between speed and accuracy in these animals’ decision-making. Highly Assertive individuals (the most sociable within monkey groups) may also prioritize social interactions over engaging in research. Lastly, monkeys that consistently participated and performed well on both tasks showed significantly higher Openness and lower Assertiveness compared to others, mirroring relationships found between personality, participation, and performance among all participants. Participation and performance during training was clearly biased toward individuals with particular personalities (i.e. high Openness, low Assertiveness). Results are discussed in light of the need for careful interpretation of comparative data on animal cognition and the need for researchers to take personality selection bias more seriously.

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Publisher Springer-Verlag Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
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ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5696
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Author McLean, A.N.
Title Cognitive abilities -- the result of selective pressures on food acquisition? Type Journal Article
Year 2001 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal (up) Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Volume 71 Issue 3 Pages 241-258
Keywords Adaptive intelligence; Animal cognition; Darwinian selection; Insightful learning
Abstract Locating and capturing food are suggested as significant selection pressures for the evolution of various cognitive abilities in mammals and birds. The hypothesis is proposed that aspects of food procuring behaviour should be strongly indicative of particular cognitive abilities. Experimental data concerning higher mental abilities in mammals and birds are reviewed. These data deal with self-recognition studies, rule-learning experiments, number concept, deceptive abilities, tool-use and observational learning. A Darwinian approach reveals: (1) the adaptiveness of particular abilities for particular niches, (2) that in complex foraging environments, increases in foraging efficiencies in animals should result from the evolution of particular cognitive abilities, (3) that phenomena such as convergent mental evolution should be expected to have taken place across taxonomic groups for species exploiting similar niches, (4) that divergence in mental ability should also have taken place where related species have exploited dissimilar niches. Experimental data of higher mental abilities in animals concur with a Darwinian explanation for the distribution of these cognitive abilities and no anomalies have been found. There are, as a consequence, significant implications for the welfare of animals subject to training when training methodology gives little or no consideration to the various mental abilities of species.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2907
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Author Goodwin, D.; Davidson, H.P.B.; Harris, P.
Title Selection and acceptance of flavours in concentrate diets for stabled horses Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal (up) Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Volume 95 Issue 3-4 Pages 223-232
Keywords Horse; Flavour; Diet; Selection; Acceptance
Abstract Like most large grazing herbivores, horses select their food based on visual cues, odour, taste, texture, availability and variety. There is relatively little published information about the role of flavour in diet selection by domestic horses in comparison with other domestic and companion animals. However, previous trials investigating effects of diet flavour in stabled horses indicated significant effects on foraging behaviour and selection. In this series of three trials we aimed to determine relative acceptance by presenting flavour preference tests to eight horses. Horses were stabled and fed hay ad lib on trial data collection days plus a standard unflavoured concentrate ration at 7:30 a.m. In Trial 1, 15 flavours were separately presented in standard 100 g cereal by-product meals and the trial was replicated. Quantity consumed, time of completion, partial rejection or refusal were recorded. Order of presentation was determined by a Latin Square design. Trial data were collected on five sampling days, separated by a minimum of 1 day. Horses were presented with six flavoured meals daily; minimum 1 h between the meals. Twelve flavours were universally accepted and of these the eight flavours with fastest mean consumption times (banana, carrot, cherry, cumin, fenugreek, oregano, peppermint and rosemary) were presented in paired preference tests in Trial 2. In Trial 2, all paired combinations of the eight flavours were presented, in two tests per day at noon and 4 p.m. Presentations of the same flavour were separated by at least 1 day. Paired presentations were in 300 g cereal by-product. Presentations were terminated when approximately half of the total amount presented had been consumed. Flavour preferences were expressed as a ratio from 0 (rejection) to 1 (exclusive consumption). Paired flavour preferences produced the following rank order: fenugreek, banana, cherry, rosemary, cumin, carrot, peppermint, oregano. In Trial 3, relative consumption times of mineral pellets flavoured with fenugreek and banana were significantly reduced in comparison with unflavoured pellets. In these short-term trials, flavour had significant effects on diet acceptance, selection and consumption times.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3643
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Author Edouard, N.; Fleurance, G.; Dumont, B.; Baumont, R.; Duncan, P.
Title Does sward height affect feeding patch choice and voluntary intake in horses? Type Journal Article
Year 2009 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal (up) Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Volume 119 Issue 3-4 Pages 219-228
Keywords Patch selection; Intake; Sward height; Horse; Pasture
Abstract The numbers of horses grazing at pasture are increasing in developed countries, so a proper understanding of their feeding selectivity and of the tactics they use for extracting nutrients from swards is essential for the management of horses and grasslands. Resource acquisition in herbivores can be optimised through the modulation of their intake and patch selection, both being strongly dependent on the characteristics of swards. However, the principles by which horses adjust their grazing behaviour in response to variations in sward features are not completely understood. The aim of this study was to determine whether the behaviour of horses conforms to optimal foraging models. We hypothesized that, faced with binary choices between vegetative swards of a good and similar quality at three different heights, horses would select the taller sward, i.e. that allowing a higher reward in terms of dry matter intake rate. Three groups of three 2-year-old saddle horses were grazed on a semi-natural pasture that was managed to produce three contrasting sward heights at 6, 11 and 17 cm, in a Latin-square design. The instantaneous intake rate was determined from bite rate measured at pasture on the three sward heights, and bite mass estimated from measurements using swards offered indoors in experimental trays. Daily dry matter intake was estimated individually by total faecal collection and an estimation of digestibility from faecal nitrogen. Short-term (first 30 min) and daily preferences were assessed from the time spent grazing each sward offered in pair-wise tests at pasture. The results show that daily voluntary intake (an average of 21 g DM kg LW-1 day-1) and total grazing time (an average of 14 h day-1) were independent of sward height and of the choice of patches offered. In choice situations, the animals spent more time grazing on the taller sward, both during the first 30 min and at the daily scale. These results show that horses choose between vegetative patches of a good and similar quality according to the predictions from optimal foraging models, and select the one that they can ingest faster. Further research will now have to explore how the horses will adapt their feeding behaviour when they face a trade-off between sward height and quality.
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ISSN 0168-1591 ISBN Medium
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5094
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Author von Borstel, U.U.K.; Duncan, I.J.H.; Lundin, M.C.; Keeling, L.J.
Title Fear reactions in trained and untrained horses from dressage and show-jumping breeding lines Type Journal Article
Year 2010 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal (up) Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Volume 125 Issue 3–4 Pages 124-131
Keywords Horse; Fear; Habituation; Riding; Training; Genetic selection
Abstract Horses’ fear reactions are hazardous to both horses and human beings, but it is not clear whether fear is influenced more by training or by other factors such as genetics. The following study was designed to detect differences between young, untrained (U) and older, well-trained (T) horses of dressage (D), show-jumping (J), and mixed (M) genetic lines with regard to intensity of reaction and ease of habituation to a frightening stimulus. In five consecutive trials, 90 horses were exposed to a standardized fear-eliciting stimulus where intensity and duration of the reactions were recorded. Repeated measures analysis showed that flight reactions by J were less intense (p < 0.05) than those by D or M regardless of training status or age. Habituation to the stimulus over time was not significantly (p > 0.1) different between the disciplines, as indicated by similar slopes for all measurements, but reaction vigour declined faster for T than for U. These findings indicate that there may be a genetic basis for less strong, though not shorter-lasting, fear reactions in J compared to D or M lines of horses. Research including the estimation of genetic correlations between traits related to fearfulness and to performance would be required to verify this assumption.
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ISSN 0168-1591 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5643
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Author Feh, C.; Munkhtuya, B.
Title Male infanticide and paternity analyses in a socially natural herd of Przewalski`s horses: Sexual selection? Type Journal Article
Year 2008 Publication Behavioural Processes Abbreviated Journal (up) Behav. Process.
Volume 78 Issue 3 Pages 335-339
Keywords DNA paternity analysis; Human disturbance; Male infanticide; Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus przewalskii); Sexual selection
Abstract The sexual selection hypothesis explains infanticide by males in many mammals. In our 11-year study, we investigated this hypothesis in a herd of Przewalski's horses where we had witnessed infanticidal attacks. Infanticide was highly conditional and not simply linked to takeovers. Attacks occurred in only five of 39 cases following a takeover, and DNA paternity revealed that, although infanticidal stallions were not the genetic fathers in four cases out of five, stallions present at birth did not significantly attempt to kill unrelated foals. Infanticide did not reduce birth intervals; only in one case out of five was the infanticidal stallion, the father of the next foal; mothers whose foals were attacked subsequently avoided associating with infanticidal stallions. Therefore, evidence for the sexual selection hypothesis was weak. The “human disturbance” hypothesis received some support, as only zoo bred stallions which grew up in unnatural social groups attacked foals of mares which were pregnant during takeovers.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4632
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Author Dugatkin, L.A.; Mesterton-Gibbons, M.
Title Cooperation among unrelated individuals: reciprocal altruism, by-product mutualism and group selection in fishes Type Journal Article
Year 1996 Publication Biosystems Abbreviated Journal (up) Biosystems
Volume 37 Issue 1-2 Pages 19-30
Keywords By-product mutualism; Cooperative behavior; Fish; Reciprocal altruism; Trait-group selection
Abstract Cooperation among unrelated individuals can evolve not only via reciprocal altruism but also via trait-group selection or by-product mutualism (or some combination of all three categories). Therefore the (iterated) prisoner's dilemma is an insufficient paradigm for studying the evolution of cooperation. We replace this game by the cooperator's dilemma, which is more versatile because it enables all three categories of cooperative behavior to be examined within the framework of a single theory. Controlled studies of cooperation among fish provide examples of each category of cooperation. Specifically, we describe reciprocal altruism among simultaneous hermaphrodites that swap egg parcels, group-selected cooperation among fish that inspect dangerous predators and by-product mutualism in the cooperative foraging of coral-reef fish.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 481
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Author Dunbar, R.I.M.
Title Male and female brain evolution is subject to contrasting selection pressures in primates Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication BMC Biology Abbreviated Journal (up) BMC Biol
Volume 5 Issue Pages 21
Keywords Animals; *Brain/physiology; *Evolution; Female; Humans; Male; *Selection (Genetics); *Sex Characteristics
Abstract The claim that differences in brain size across primate species has mainly been driven by the demands of sociality (the “social brain” hypothesis) is now widely accepted. Some of the evidence to support this comes from the fact that species that live in large social groups have larger brains, and in particular larger neocortices. Lindenfors and colleagues (BMC Biology 5:20) add significantly to our appreciation of this process by showing that there are striking differences between the two sexes in the social mechanisms and brain units involved. Female sociality (which is more affiliative) is related most closely to neocortex volume, but male sociality (which is more competitive and combative) is more closely related to subcortical units (notably those associated with emotional responses). Thus different brain units have responded to different selection pressures.
Address British Academy Centenary Research Project, School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK. rimd@liv.ac.uk
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
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ISSN 1741-7007 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:17493267 Approved no
Call Number Serial 2100
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Author Hare, B.; Plyusnina, I.; Ignacio, N.; Schepina, O.; Stepika, A.; Wrangham, R.; Trut, L.
Title Social cognitive evolution in captive foxes is a correlated by-product of experimental domestication Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Current biology : CB Abbreviated Journal (up) Curr Biol
Volume 15 Issue 3 Pages 226-230
Keywords Animals; *Animals, Domestic; Cognition/*physiology; *Cues; *Evolution; Foxes/*physiology; *Selection (Genetics); Social Behavior; Species Specificity
Abstract Dogs have an unusual ability for reading human communicative gestures (e.g., pointing) in comparison to either nonhuman primates (including chimpanzees) or wolves . Although this unusual communicative ability seems to have evolved during domestication , it is unclear whether this evolution occurred as a result of direct selection for this ability, as previously hypothesized , or as a correlated by-product of selection against fear and aggression toward humans--as is the case with a number of morphological and physiological changes associated with domestication . We show here that fox kits from an experimental population selectively bred over 45 years to approach humans fearlessly and nonaggressively (i.e., experimentally domesticated) are not only as skillful as dog puppies in using human gestures but are also more skilled than fox kits from a second, control population not bred for tame behavior (critically, neither population of foxes was ever bred or tested for their ability to use human gestures) . These results suggest that sociocognitive evolution has occurred in the experimental foxes, and possibly domestic dogs, as a correlated by-product of selection on systems mediating fear and aggression, and it is likely the observed social cognitive evolution did not require direct selection for improved social cognitive ability.
Address Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. hare@eva.mpg.de
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Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0960-9822 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:15694305 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 594
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Author Potts, R.
Title Variability selection in hominid evolution Type Journal Article
Year 1998 Publication Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews Abbreviated Journal (up) Evol. Anthropol.
Volume 7 Issue 3 Pages 81-96
Keywords variability selection; hominids; environment; adaptation; natural selection; evolution
Abstract Variability selection (abbreviated as VS) is a process considered to link adaptive change to large degrees of environment variability. Its application to hominid evolution is based, in part, on the pronounced rise in environmental remodeling that took place over the past several million years. The VS hypothesis differs from prior views of hominid evolution, which stress the consistent selective effects associated with specific habitats or directional trends (e.g., woodland, savanna expansion, cooling). According to the VS hypothesis, wide fluctuations over time created a growing disparity in adaptive conditions. Inconsistency in selection eventually caused habitat-specific adaptations to be replaced by structures and behaviors responsive to complex environmental change. Key hominid adaptations, in fact, emerged during times of heightened variability. Early bipedality, encephalized brains, and complex human sociality appear to signify a sequence of VS adaptations—i.e., a ratcheting up of versatility and responsiveness to novel environments experienced over the past 6 million years. The adaptive results of VS cannot be extrapolated from selection within a single environmental shift or relatively stable habitat. If some complex traits indeed require disparities in adaptive setting (and relative fitness) in order to evolve, the VS idea counters the prevailing view that adaptive change necessitates long-term, directional consistency in selection. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Address
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Place of Publication Editor
Language Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1520-6505 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5461
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