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Brembs, B., & Wiener, J. (2006). Context and occasion setting in Drosophila visual learning. Learn. Mem., 13(5), 618–628.
Abstract: In a permanently changing environment, it is by no means an easy task to distinguish potentially important events from negligible ones. Yet, to survive, every animal has to continuously face that challenge. How does the brain accomplish this feat? Building on previous work in Drosophila melanogaster visual learning, we have developed an experimental methodology in which combinations of visual stimuli (colors and patterns) can be arranged such that the same stimuli can either be directly predictive, indirectly predictive, or nonpredictive of punishment. Varying this relationship, we found that wild-type flies can establish different memory templates for the same contextual color cues. The colors can either leave no trace in the pattern memory template, leading to context-independent pattern memory (context generalization), or be learned as a higher-order cue indicating the nature of the pattern-heat contingency leading to context-dependent memory (occasion setting) or serve as a conditioned stimulus predicting the punishment directly (simple conditioning). In transgenic flies with compromised mushroom-body function, the sensitivity to these subtle variations is altered. Our methodology constitutes a new concept for designing learning experiments. Our findings suggest that the insect mushroom bodies stabilize visual memories against context changes and are not required for cognition-like higher-order learning.
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Clayton NS, & Dickinson A. (2006). Rational rats. Science, 9, 472.
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Saleh, N., & Chittka, L. (2006). The importance of experience in the interpretation of conspecific chemical signals. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol., 61(2), 215–220.
Abstract: Abstract Foraging bumblebees scent mark flowers with hydrocarbon secretions. Several studies have found these scent marks act as a repellent to bee foragers. This was thought to minimize the risk of visiting recently depleted flowers. Some studies, however, have found a reverse, attractive effect of scent marks left on flowers. Do bees mark flowers with different scents, or could the same scent be interpreted differently depending on the bees? previous experience with reward levels in flowers? We use a simple experimental design to investigate if the scent marks can become attractive when bees forage on artificial flowers that remain rewarding upon the bees? return after having depleted them. We contrast this with bees trained in the more natural scenario where revisits to recently emptied flowers are unrewarding. The bees association between scent mark and reward value was tested with flowers scent marked from the same source. We find that the bees experience with the level of reward determines how the scent mark is interpreted: the same scent can act as both an attractant and a repellent. How experience and learning influence the interpretation of the meaning of chemical signals deposited by animals for communication has rarely been investigated.
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Ottoni, E., de Resende, B., & Izar, P. (2006). Erratum. Anim. Cogn., 9(2), 156.
Abstract: Without Abstract
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Bekoff, M. (2006). Animal Passions And Beastly Virtues: Cognitive Ethology As The Unifying Science For Understanding The Subjective, Emotional, Empathic, And Moral Lives Of Animals. Zygon, 41, 71–104.
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Cruz, H. (2006). Towards a Darwinian Approach to Mathematics. Foundations of Science, 11, 157–196.
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Purpura, G. J. (2006). In Search of Human Uniqueness. Philosophical Psychology, 19, 443–461.
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Sickler, J., Fraser, J., Webler, T., Reiss, D., Boyle, P., Lyn, H., et al. (2006). Social Narratives Surrounding Dolphins: Q Method Study. Society and Animals, 14, 351–382.
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Deecke, V. B. (2006). Studying Marine Mammal Cognition in the Wild: A Review of Four Decades of Playback Experiments. Aquatic Mammals, 32, 461–482.
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Gerber, B., & Hendel, T. (2006). Outcome expectations drive learned behaviour in larval Drosophila. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci., 273(1604), 2965–2968.
Abstract: Why does Pavlov's dog salivate? In response to the tone, or in expectation of food? While in vertebrates behaviour can be driven by expected outcomes, it is unknown whether this is true for non-vertebrates as well. We find that, in the Drosophila larva, odour memories are expressed behaviourally only if animals can expect a positive outcome from doing so. The expected outcome of tracking down an odour is determined by comparing the value of the current situation with the value of the memory for that odour. Memory is expressed behaviourally only if the expected outcome is positive. This uncovers a hitherto unrecognized evaluative processing step between an activated memory trace and behaviour control, and argues that learned behaviour reflects the pursuit of its expected outcome. Shown in a system with a simple brain, an apparently cognitive process like representing the expected outcome of behaviour seems to be a basic feature of behaviour control.
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