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Author Milgram, N.W.; Head, E.; Muggenburg, B.; Holowachuk, D.; Murphey, H.; Estrada, J.; Ikeda-Douglas, C.J.; Zicker, S.C.; Cotman, C.W.
Title Landmark discrimination learning in the dog: effects of age, an antioxidant fortified food, and cognitive strategy Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Abbreviated Journal (up) Neurosci Biobehav Rev
Volume 26 Issue 6 Pages 679-695
Keywords Age Factors; Aging/*physiology; Analysis of Variance; Animals; Antioxidants/*pharmacology; Blood Chemical Analysis/methods; Cognition/*physiology; *Diet; Discrimination Learning/*drug effects/*physiology; Distance Perception/drug effects/physiology; Dogs/physiology; Female; Male; Psychomotor Performance/physiology; Retention (Psychology)/drug effects/physiology; Spatial Behavior/*drug effects/*physiology; Task Performance and Analysis; Time Factors; Vitamin E/blood
Abstract The landmark discrimination learning test can be used to assess the ability to utilize allocentric spatial information to locate targets. The present experiments examined the role of various factors on performance of a landmark discrimination learning task in beagle dogs. Experiments 1 and 2 looked at the effects of age and food composition. Experiments 3 and 4 were aimed at characterizing the cognitive strategies used in performance on this task and in long-term retention. Cognitively equivalent groups of old and young dogs were placed into either a test group maintained on food enriched with a broad-spectrum of antioxidants and mitochondrial cofactors, or a control group maintained on a complete and balanced food formulated for adult dogs. Following a wash-in period, the dogs were tested on a series of problems, in which reward was obtained when the animal responded selectively to the object closest to a thin wooden block, which served as a landmark. In Experiment 1, dogs were first trained to respond to a landmark placed directly on top of coaster, landmark 0 (L0). In the next phase of testing, the landmark was moved at successively greater distances (1, 4 or 10 cm) away from the reward object. Learning varied as a function of age group, food group, and task. The young dogs learned all of the tasks more quickly than the old dogs. The aged dogs on the enriched food learned L0 significantly more rapidly than aged dogs on control food. A higher proportion of dogs on the enriched food learned the task, when the distance was increased to 1cm. Experiment 2 showed that accuracy decreased with increased distance between the reward object and landmark, and this effect was greater in old animals. Experiment 3 showed stability of performance, despite using a novel landmark, and new locations, indicating that dogs learned the landmark concept. Experiment 4 found age impaired long-term retention of the landmark task. These results indicate that allocentric spatial learning is impaired in an age-dependent manner in dogs, and that age also affects performance when the distance between the landmark and target is increased. In addition, these results both support a role of oxidative damage in the development of age-associated cognitive dysfunction and indicate that short-term administration of a food enriched with supplemental antioxidants and mitochondrial cofactors can partially reverse the deleterious effects of aging on cognition.
Address Life Science Division, University of Toronto at Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, Ont., Canada M1C 1A4. milgram@psych.utoronto.ca
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ISSN 0149-7634 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:12479842 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2806
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Author Giraldeau, Luc-Alain; Valone, Thomas, J.; Templeton, Jennifer, J.
Title Potential disadvantages of using socially acquired information Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal (up) Phil. Trans. Biol. Sci.
Volume 357 Issue 1427 Pages 1559-1566
Keywords Public Information Informational Cascades Social Learning Sampling
Abstract The acquisition and use of socially acquired information is commonly assumed to be profitable. We challenge this assumption by exploring hypothetical scenarios where the use of such information either provides no benefit or can actually be costly. First, we show that the level of incompatibility between the acquisition of personal and socially acquired information will directly affect the extent to which the use of socially acquired information can be profitable. When these two sources of information cannot be acquired simultaneously, there may be no benefit to socially acquired information. Second, we assume that a solitary individual's behavioural decisions will be based on cues revealed by its own interactions with the environment. However, in many cases, for social animals the only socially acquired information available to individuals is the behavioural actions of others that expose their decisions, rather than the cues on which these decisions were based. We argue that in such a situation the use of socially acquired information can lead to informational cascades that sometimes result in sub-optimal behaviour. From this theory of informational cascades, we predict that when erroneous cascades are costly, individuals should pay attention only to socially generated cues and not behavioural decisions. We suggest three scenarios that might be examples of informational cascades in nature.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4197
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Author Valone; Thomas J.; Templeton, Jennifer J.
Title Public information for the assessment of quality: a widespread social phenomenon Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal (up) Phil. Trans. Biol. Sci.
Volume 357 Issue 1427 Pages 1549-1557
Keywords Breeding Patch Assessment Eavesdropping Fighting Mate Choice Copying Sociality Vicarious Sampling
Abstract We propose that the use of public information about the quality of environmental resources, obtained by monitoring the sampling behaviour of others, may be a widespread social phenomenon allowing individuals to make faster, more accurate assessments of their environment. To demonstrate this (i) we define public information and distinguish it from other kinds of social information; (ii) we review empirical work demonstrating the benefits and costs of using public information to estimate food patch quality; (iii) we examine recent work showing that individuals may also be using public information to improve their estimates of the quality of such disparate environmental parameters as breeding patches, opponents and mates; and finally (iv) we suggest avenues of future work to better understand the nature of public information use and when it might be used or ignored. Such work should lead to a more complete understanding of the behaviour of individuals in social aggregations.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4273
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Author Visser, E.K.; van Reenen, C.G.; van der Werf, J.T.N.; Schilder, M.B.H.; Knaap, J.H.; Barneveld, A.; Blokhuis, H.J.
Title Heart rate and heart rate variability during a novel object test and a handling test in young horses Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Physiology & Behavior Abbreviated Journal (up) Physiol. Behav.
Volume 76 Issue 2 Pages 289-296
Keywords Heart rate; Heart rate variability; Consistency; Behavioral tests; Temperament; Emotionality; Horses
Abstract Forty-one Dutch Warmblood immature horses were used in a study to quantify temperamental traits on the basis of heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) measures. Half of the horses received additional training from the age of 5 months onwards; the other half did not. Horses were tested at 9, 10, 21 and 22 months of age in a novel object and a handling test. During the tests, mean HR and two heart variability indices, e.g. standard deviation of beat-to-beat intervals (SDRR) and root mean square of successive beat-to-beat differences (rMSSD), were calculated and expressed as response values to baseline measures. In both tests, horses showed at all ages a significant increase in mean HR and decrease in HRV measures, which suggests a marked shift of the balance of the autonomic nervous system towards a sympathetic dominance. In the novel object test, this shift was more pronounced in horses that had not been trained. Furthermore, statistical analysis showed that the increase in mean HR could not be entirely explained by the physical activity. The additional increase in HR, the nonmotor HR, was more pronounced in the untrained horses compared to the trained. Hence, it is suggested that this nonmotor HR might be due to the level of emotionality. HR variables showed consistency between years, as well as within the second year. These tests bring about a HR response in horses, part of which may indicate a higher level of emotionality; and horses show individual consistency of these HR variables over ages. Therefore, it is concluded that mean HR and HRV measures used with these tests quantify certain aspects of a horse's temperament.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 320
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Author Fuentes, A.; Malone, N.; Sanz, C.; Matheson, M.; Vaughan, L.
Title Conflict and post-conflict behavior in a small group of chimpanzees Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Primates Abbreviated Journal (up) Primates
Volume 43 Issue 3 Pages 223-235
Keywords Aggression; Animals; *Conflict (Psychology); Female; Housing, Animal; Male; Pan troglodytes/*psychology; *Social Behavior
Abstract Chimpanzee research plays a central role in the discussions of conflict negotiation. Reconciliation, or the attraction and affiliation of former opponents following conflict, has been proposed as a central element of conflict negotiation in chimpanzees and various other taxa. In an attempt to expand the database of chimpanzee conflict resolution, conflict and post-conflict behavior were recorded for a small group of socially housed chimpanzees at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute, at Central Washington University. Data were collected over six 6-week periods between 1997 and 2000, for a total of 840 hours of observation, resulting in a substantial post-conflict (PC) and matched control (MC) data set. The data demonstrate this group's tendencies to maintain visual contact and closer proximity after conflicts. Dyadic corrected conciliatory tendencies ranged between 0 – 37.5% and averaged 17.25% across all dyads. Individual corrected conciliatory tendencies ranged between 5.8 and 32%. The results of this study combined with recent publications on captive and free-ranging chimpanzee post-conflict behavior suggest that variation in post-conflict behavior may be important to our understanding of chimpanzee conflict negotiation, and may also have implications for the design and management of captive chimpanzee enclosures and social groups, respectively.
Address Department of Anthropology, Notre Dame University, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556-5639, USA. anthro@nd.edu
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Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0032-8332 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:12145403 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 2885
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Author Earley, R.L.; Dugatkin, L.A.
Title Eavesdropping on visual cues in green swordtail (Xiphophorus helleri) fights: a case for networking Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal (up) Proc Biol Sci
Volume 269 Issue 1494 Pages 943-952
Keywords *Aggression; Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Cyprinodontiformes; Female; Male
Abstract Aggressive contests probably occur in networking environments where information about fighting ability is conveyed both to an opponent and to individuals peripheral to the fight itself, the bystanders. Our primary aim was to investigate the relative influences of eavesdropping and prior social experience on the dynamics of aggressive contests in Xiphophorus helleri. A bystander's ability to witness an encounter was manipulated using clear, one-way mirror, and opaque partitions. After watching (or not watching) the initial contest, the bystander encountered either the winner or loser of the bout. Treatment comparisons of bystander-winner or bystander-loser contest dynamics indicated the presence or absence of winner, loser, or eavesdropping effects. Winner and loser effects had negligible influences on bystander contest dynamics. Eavesdropping significantly reduced the bystander's propensity to initiate aggression, escalate, and win against seen winners regardless of whether the watched bout had escalated or not. Though eavesdropping had relatively little effect on bystander-loser contest dynamics, bystanders were less prone to initiate aggression and win against losers that had escalated in the witnessed bout. Thus, bystanders appear to preferentially retain and utilize information gained about potentially dangerous opponents (winners or persistent losers). Our data lend clear support for the importance of eavesdropping in visually based aggressive signalling systems.
Address Department of Biology, Life Science, Room 139, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA. rlearl01@athena.louisville.edu
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Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0962-8452 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:12028778 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 498
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Author Peake, T.M.; Terry, A.M.R.; McGregor, P.K.; Dabelsteen, T.
Title Do great tits assess rivals by combining direct experience with information gathered by eavesdropping? Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal (up) Proc Biol Sci
Volume 269 Issue 1503 Pages 1925-1929
Keywords Aggression; *Animal Communication; Animals; Male; Songbirds/*physiology; Territoriality; *Vocalization, Animal
Abstract Animals frequently use signals that travel further than the spacing between individuals. For every intended recipient of a given signal there are likely to be many other individuals that receive information. Eavesdropping on signalling interactions between other individuals provides a relatively cost-free method of assessing future opponents or mates. Male great tits (Parus major) extract relative information from such interactions between individuals unknown to them. Here, we show that male great tits can take information gathering a stage further and obtain more information about a previously unencountered intruder, by the hitherto unknown capability of combining information gathered by eavesdropping with that derived from their own direct interaction with an individual. Prior experience with an intruder (A) was achieved by subjecting a focal male to different levels of intrusion simulated using interactive playback. This intruder (A) then took part in a simulated interaction with an unknown male (B) outside the territorial boundary of the focal males. In response to subsequent intrusion by the second male (B), focal males showed low song output in response to males that had lost to a male that the subject was able to beat. Males of known high quality, or those about which information was ambiguous, elicited a high level of song output by focal males. We discuss the implications of this finding for the evolution of communication and social behaviour.
Address Department of Animal Behaviour, Zoological Institute, Copenhagen University, Tagensvej 16, DK 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark. tmpeake@zi.ku.uk
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Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0962-8452 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:12350255 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 501
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Author Garamszegi, L.Z.; Møller, A.P.; Erritzøe, J.
Title Coevolving avian eye size and brain size in relation to prey capture and nocturnality Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal (up) Proc Roy Soc Lond B Biol Sci
Volume 269 Issue 1494 Pages 961-967
Keywords adaptation; behaviour; brain size; coevolution; eye size; vision
Abstract Behavioural adaptation to ecological conditions can lead to brain size evolution. Structures involved in behavioural visual information processing are expected to coevolve with enlargement of the brain. Because birds are mainly vision–oriented animals, we tested the predictions that adaptation to different foraging constraints can result in eye size evolution, and that species with large eyes have evolved large brains to cope with the increased amount of visual input. Using a comparative approach, we investigated the relationship between eye size and brain size, and the effect of prey capture technique and nocturnality on these traits. After controlling for allometric effects, there was a significant, positive correlation between relative brain size and relative eye size. Variation in relative eye and brain size were significantly and positively related to prey capture technique and nocturnality when a potentially confounding variable, aquatic feeding, was controlled statistically in multiple regression of independent linear contrasts. Applying a less robust, brunching approach, these patterns also emerged, with the exception that relative brain size did not vary with prey capture technique. Our findings suggest that relative eye size and brain size have coevolved in birds in response to nocturnal activity and, at least partly, to capture of mobile prey.
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Notes 10.1098/rspb.2002.1967 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5452
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Author Chase, I.D.; Tovey, C.; Spangler-Martin, D.; Manfredonia, M.
Title Individual differences versus social dynamics in the formation of animal dominance hierarchies Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Abbreviated Journal (up) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
Volume 99 Issue 8 Pages 5744-5749
Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Fishes; Humans; *Social Behavior; *Social Dominance
Abstract Linear hierarchies, the classical pecking-order structures, are formed readily in both nature and the laboratory in a great range of species including humans. However, the probability of getting linear structures by chance alone is quite low. In this paper we investigate the two hypotheses that are proposed most often to explain linear hierarchies: they are predetermined by differences in the attributes of animals, or they are produced by the dynamics of social interaction, i.e., they are self-organizing. We evaluate these hypotheses using cichlid fish as model animals, and although differences in attributes play a significant part, we find that social interaction is necessary for high proportions of groups with linear hierarchies. Our results suggest that dominance hierarchy formation is a much richer and more complex phenomenon than previously thought, and we explore the implications of these results for evolutionary biology, the social sciences, and the use of animal models in understanding human social organization.
Address Department of Sociology, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4356, USA. Ichase@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
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Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0027-8424 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:11960030 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 442
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Author Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L.
Title What are big brains for? Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Abbreviated Journal (up) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
Volume 99 Issue 7 Pages 4141-4142
Keywords Animals; Brain/*anatomy & histology; *Intelligence; Learning; Primates/*anatomy & histology/*psychology; Social Behavior
Abstract
Address Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. seyfarth@psych.upenn.edu
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ISSN 0027-8424 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:11929989 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 692
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