Records |
Author |
Zucca, P.; Milos, N.; Vallortigara, G. |
Title |
Piagetian object permanence and its development in Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2007 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
Volume |
10 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
243-258 |
Keywords |
Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Birds/*physiology; *Cognition; *Cues |
Abstract |
Object permanence in Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) was investigated using a complete version of the Uzgiris and Hunt scale 1. Nine hand-raised jays were studied, divided into two groups according to their different developmental stages (experiment 1, older jays: 2-3 months old, n = 4; experiment 2, younger jays: 15 days old, n = 5). In the first experiment, we investigated whether older jays could achieve piagetian stage 6 of object permanence. Tasks were administered in a fixed sequence (1-15) according to the protocols used in other avian species. The aim of the second experiment was to check whether testing very young jays before their development of “neophobia” could influence the achievement times of piagetian stages. Furthermore, in this experiment tasks were administered randomly to investigate whether the jays' achievement of stage 6 follows a fixed sequence related to the development of specific cognitive abilities. All jays tested in experiments 1 and 2 fully achieved piagetian stage 6 and no “A not B” errors were observed. Performance on visible displacement tasks was better than performance on invisible ones. The results of experiment 2 show that “neophobia” affected the response of jays in terms of achievement times; the older jays in experiment 1 took longer to pass all the tasks when compared with the younger, less neophobic, jays in experiment 2. With regard to the achieving order, jays followed a fixed sequence of acquisition in experiment 2, even if tasks were administered randomly, with the exception of one subject. The results of these experiments support the idea that piagetian stages of cognitive development exist in avian species and that they progress through relatively fixed sequences. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, Laboratory of Animal Cognition and Comparative Neuroscience, Via S. Anastasio 12, 34100, Trieste, Italy. zucca@units.it |
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1435-9448 |
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PMID:17242935 |
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no |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2423 |
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Author |
Cheng, K. |
Title |
Generalisation: mechanistic and functional explanations |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2002 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
Volume |
5 |
Issue |
1 |
Pages |
33-40 |
Keywords |
Adaptation, Physiological; Animals; Bees/*physiology; Cognition; Evolution; Models, Psychological |
Abstract |
An overview of mechanistic and functional accounts of stimulus generalisation is given. Mechanistic accounts rely on the process of spreading activation across units representing stimuli. Different models implement the spread in different ways, ranging from diffusion to connectionist networks. A functional account proposed by Shepard analyses the probabilistic structure of the world for invariants. A universal law based on one such invariant claims that under a suitable scaling of the stimulus dimension, generalisation gradients should be approximately exponential in shape. Data from both vertebrates and invertebrates so far uphold Shepard's law. Some data on spatial generalisation in honeybees are presented to illustrate how Shepard's law can be used to determine the metric for combining discrepancies in different stimulus dimensions. The phenomenon of peak shift is discussed. Comments on mechanistic and functional approaches to generalisation are given. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia. kcheng@axon.bhs.mq.edu.au |
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1435-9448 |
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PMID:11957400 |
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no |
Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2612 |
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Author |
Helton, W.S. |
Title |
Expertise acquisition as sustained learning in humans and other animals: commonalities across species |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2007 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
Volume |
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Issue |
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Pages |
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Abstract |
Expertise acquisition may be a universal attribute of animals. In this study data on foraging efficiency, or expertise, was compared for four species: honeybees (Apis mellifera), oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), and humans (Homo sapiens). Polynomial regression models were constructed to investigate the relationship between age and foraging efficiency. There was a similar expertise-acquisition function between age and foraging efficiency across species, best described by a quadratic equation. The peak of performance was reached, in all cases, before the average age of death but well after reaching physical maturity and the percentage of lifespan devoted to the skill was more than 10% of the species-typical lifespan. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Dr, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA, deak_helton@yahoo.com |
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1435-9448 |
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PMID:17534675 |
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no |
Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2395 |
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Author |
Okamoto, S.; Tomonaga, M.; Ishii, K.; Kawai, N.; Tanaka, M.; Matsuzawa, T. |
Title |
An infant chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) follows human gaze |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2002 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
Volume |
5 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
107-114 |
Keywords |
Animals; Animals, Newborn/*psychology; Attention; *Cognition; Conditioning, Operant; Male; Pan troglodytes/*psychology; *Social Behavior; *Visual Perception |
Abstract |
The ability of non-human primates to follow the gaze of other individuals has recently received much attention in comparative cognition. The aim of the present study was to investigate the emergence of this ability in a chimpanzee infant. The infant was trained to look at one of two objects, which an experimenter indicated by one of four different cue conditions: (1) tapping on the target object with a finger; (2) pointing to the target object with a finger; (3) gazing at the target object with head orientation; or (4) glancing at the target object without head orientation. The subject was given food rewards independently of its responses under the first three conditions, so that its responses to the objects were not influenced by the rewards. The glancing condition was tested occasionally, without any reinforcement. By the age of 13 months, the subject showed reliable following responses to the object that was indicated by the various cues, including glancing alone. Furthermore, additional tests clearly showed that the subject's performance was controlled by the “social” properties of the experimenter-given cues but not by the non-social, local-enhancing peripheral properties. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, School of Letters, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8601, Japan. sokamot@yahoo.co.jp |
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1435-9448 |
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PMID:12150035 |
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no |
Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2609 |
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Author |
Furlong, E.E.; Boose, K.J.; Boysen, S.T. |
Title |
Raking it in: the impact of enculturation on chimpanzee tool use |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2007 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
Volume |
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Issue |
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Pages |
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Abstract |
Recent evidence for different tool kits, proposed to be based upon culture-like transmission, have been observed across different chimpanzee communities across Western Africa. In light of these findings, the reported failures by seven captive juvenile chimpanzees tested with 27 tool use tasks (Povinelli 2000) seem enigmatic. Here we report successful performance by a group of nine captive, enculturated chimpanzees, and limited success by a group of six semi-enculturated chimpanzees, on two of the Povinelli tasks, the Flimsy Tool task, and the Hybrid Tool task. All chimpanzees were presented with a rake with a flimsy head and a second rake with a rigid head, either of which could be used to attempt to retrieve a food reward that was out of reach. The rigid rake was constructed such that it had the necessary functional features to permit successful retrieval, while the flimsy rake did not. Both chimpanzee groups in the present experiment selected the functional rigid tool correctly to use during the Flimsy Tool task. All animals were then presented with two “hybrid rakes” A and B, with one half of each rake head constructed from flimsy, non-functional fabric, and the other half of the head was made of wood. Food rewards were placed in front of the rigid side of Rake A and the flimsy side of Rake B. To be successful, the chimps needed to choose the rake that had the reward in front of the rigid side of the rake head. The fully enculturated animals were successful in selecting the functional rake, while the semi-enculturated subjects chose randomly between the two hybrid tools. Compared with findings from Povinelli, whose non-enculturated animals failed both tasks, our results demonstrate that chimpanzees reared under conditions of semi-enculturation could learn to discriminate correctly the necessary tool through trial-and-error during the Flimsy Tool task, but were unable to recognize the functional relationship necessary for retrieving the reward with the “hybrid” rake. In contrast, the enculturated chimpanzees were correct in their choices during both the Flimsy Tool and the Hybrid Tool tasks. These results provide the first empirical evidence for the differential effects of enculturation on subsequent tool use capacities in captive chimpanzees. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, 209 Psychology Building, 1835 Neil Ave., Columbus, OH, 43210-1222, USA, boysen.1@osu.edu |
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1435-9448 |
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PMID:17516100 |
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no |
Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2398 |
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Author |
Mercado, E. 3rd; Herman, L.M.; Pack, A.A. |
Title |
Song copying by humpback whales: themes and variations |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2005 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
Volume |
8 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
93-102 |
Keywords |
Acoustics; Animals; *Imitative Behavior; *Learning; Male; Sound Spectrography; *Vocalization, Animal; Whales/*psychology |
Abstract |
Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) produce long, structured sequences of sound underwater, commonly called “songs.” Humpbacks progressively modify their songs over time in ways that suggest that individuals are copying song elements that they hear being used by other singers. Little is known about the factors that determine how whales learn from their auditory experiences. Song learning in birds is better understood and appears to be constrained by stable core attributes such as species-specific sound repertoires and song syntax. To clarify whether similar constraints exist for song learning by humpbacks, we analyzed changes over 14 years in the sounds used by humpback whales singing in Hawaiian waters. We found that although the properties of individual sounds within songs are quite variable over time, the overall distribution of certain acoustic features within the repertoire appears to be stable. In particular, our findings suggest that species-specific constraints on temporal features of song sounds determine song form, whereas spectral variability allows whales to flexibly adapt song elements. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, SUNY, Park Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA. emiii@buffalo.edu |
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1435-9448 |
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PMID:15490289 |
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no |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2505 |
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Author |
Ray, E.D.; Heyes, C.M. |
Title |
Do rats in a two-action test encode movement egocentrically or allocentrically? |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2002 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
Volume |
5 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
245-252 |
Keywords |
Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Discrimination Learning; *Imitative Behavior; Male; Random Allocation; Rats/physiology/*psychology; Smell |
Abstract |
Two-action tests of imitation compare groups that observe topographically different responses to a common manipulandum. The general aim of the two experiments reported here was to find a demonstrator-consistent responding effect in a procedure that could be elaborated to investigate aspects of what was learned about the demonstrated lever response. Experiment 1 was a pilot study with rats of a variant of the two-action method of investigating social learning about observed responses. Groups of observer rats ( Rattus norvegicus) saw a demonstrator push a lever up or down for a food reward. When these observers were subsequently given access to the lever and rewarded for responses in both directions, their directional preferences were compared with two 'screen control' groups that were unable to see their demonstrators' behaviour. Demonstrator-consistent responding was found to be restricted to observers that were able to see demonstrator performance, suggesting that scent cues alone were insufficient to cue a preference for the demonstrators' response direction and thereby that the rats learned by observation about body movements (imitation) or lever movement (emulation). Experiment 2 assessed responding on two levers, one that had been manipulated by the demonstrator, and a second, transposed lever positioned some distance away. Demonstrator-consistent responding was abolished when actions were observed and performed in different parts of the apparatus, suggesting that observed movement was encoded allocentrically with respect to the apparatus rather than egocentrically with respect to the actor's body. With particular reference to the influence of scent cues, the results are discussed in relation to the strengths and weaknesses of this and other varieties of the two-action procedure as tests of imitation in animals and human infants. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK. e.ray@ucl.ac.uk |
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1435-9448 |
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PMID:12461602 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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2588 |
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Author |
Bering, J.M. |
Title |
A critical review of the “enculturation hypothesis”: the effects of human rearing on great ape social cognition |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2004 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
Volume |
7 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
201-212 |
Keywords |
Animals; *Cognition; *Culture; Hominidae/*psychology; Humans; *Imitative Behavior; Imprinting (Psychology); *Intention; Macaca; Psychological Theory; Social Behavior; *Social Environment; Species Specificity |
Abstract |
Numerous investigators have argued that early ontogenetic immersion in sociocultural environments facilitates cognitive developmental change in human-reared great apes more characteristic of Homo sapiens than of their own species. Such revamping of core, species-typical psychological systems might be manifest, according to this argument, in the emergence of mental representational competencies, a set of social cognitive skills theoretically consigned to humans alone. Human-reared great apes' capacity to engage in “true imitation,” in which both the means and ends of demonstrated actions are reproduced with fairly high rates of fidelity, and laboratory great apes' failure to do so, has frequently been interpreted as reflecting an emergent understanding of intentionality in the former. Although this epigenetic model of the effects of enculturation on social cognitive systems may be well-founded and theoretically justified in the biological literature, alternative models stressing behavioral as opposed to representational change have been largely overlooked. Here I review some of the controversy surrounding enculturation in great apes, and present an alternative nonmentalistic version of the enculturation hypothesis that can also account for enhanced imitative performance on object-oriented problem-solving tasks in human-reared animals. |
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Department of Psychology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA. jbering@uark.edu |
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1435-9448 |
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PMID:15004739 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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2543 |
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Author |
Hunt, G.R.; Gray, R.D. |
Title |
Direct observations of pandanus-tool manufacture and use by a New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides) |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2004 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
Volume |
7 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
114-120 |
Keywords |
Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Discrimination Learning; *Feeding Behavior; *Functional Laterality; Manufactured Materials; *Plant Leaves; *Songbirds |
Abstract |
New Caledonian crows are reported to have impressive pandanus-tool manufacture abilities. These claims are based on an extensive artefact record. However, inferring behavioural and cognitive abilities without direct observation of tool manufacture is problematic. Here we report (and document on video) direct observations of a crow making and using stepped pandanus tools at Pic Ningua. We observed (1) a bias for making tools on left edges consistent with that previously found at the site, (2) faithful manufacture of a stepped design with high overall congruence in the shapes of tools, (3) the use of convergent rips to first form the tapered end working away from the trunk then the wide end working towards the trunk, (4) appropriate functional use of stepped tools by use of the leaf-edge barbs to hook food from holes, and (5) consistent holding of tools on the left side of its head when using them. Our observations verify most of the claims based on the artefact record, but the crow's exact manufacture technique was slightly different to that inferred previously. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, 92019 Auckland, New Zealand. grhunt10@hotmail.com |
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1435-9448 |
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PMID:15069611 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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2529 |
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Author |
Hunt, G.R.; Rutledge, R.B.; Gray, R.D. |
Title |
The right tool for the job: what strategies do wild New Caledonian crows use? |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
Volume |
9 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
307-316 |
Keywords |
Analysis of Variance; Animals; Comprehension; *Crows; Female; *Intelligence; Male; *Problem Solving; *Tool Use Behavior |
Abstract |
New Caledonian crows Corvus moneduloides (NC crows) display sophisticated tool manufacture in the wild, but the cognitive strategy underlying these skills is poorly understood. Here, we investigate what strategy two free-living NC crows used in response to a tool-length task. The crows manufactured tools to extract food from vertical holes of different depths. The first tools they made in visits were of a similar length regardless of the hole depth. The typical length was usually too short to extract food from the deep holes, which ruled out a strategy of immediate causal inference on the first attempt in a trial. When the first tool failed, the crows made second tools significantly longer than the unsuccessful first tools. There was no evidence that the crows made the lengths of first tools to directly match hole depth. We argue that NC crows may generally use a two-stage heuristic strategy to solve tool problems and that performance on the first attempt in a trial is not necessarily the 'gold standard' for assessing folk physics. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand. grhunt10@hotmail.com |
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1435-9448 |
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PMID:16941156 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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2442 |
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