Seed, A. M., Clayton, N. S., & Emery, N. J. (2007). Postconflict third-party affiliation in rooks, Corvus frugilegus. Curr Biol, 17(2), 152–158.
Abstract: Conflict features in the lives of many animal species and induces social stress mediated by glucocorticoid hormones [1]. Postconflict affiliation, between former opponents (reconciliation) or between former opponents and a bystander (third-party affiliation), has been suggested as a behavioral mechanism for reducing such stress [2], but has been studied almost exclusively in primates [3]. As with many primates, several bird species live in social groups and form affiliative relationships [4]. Do these distantly related animals also use affiliative behavior to offset the costs of conflict? We studied postconflict affiliation in a captive group of rooks. Unlike polygamous primates, monogamous rooks did not reconcile with former opponents. However, we found clear evidence of third-party affiliation after conflicts. Both initiators and targets of aggression engaged in third-party affiliation with a social partner and employed a specific behavior, bill twining, during the postconflict period. Both former aggressors and uninvolved third parties initiated affiliative contacts. Despite the long history of evolutionary divergence, the pattern of third-party affiliation in rooks is strikingly similar to that observed in tolerant primate species. Furthermore, the absence of reconciliation in rooks makes sense in light of the species differences in social systems.
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Grosenick, L., Clement, T. S., & Fernald, R. D. (2007). Fish can infer social rank by observation alone. Nature, 445(7126), 429–432.
Abstract: Transitive inference (TI) involves using known relationships to deduce unknown ones (for example, using A > B and B > C to infer A > C), and is thus essential to logical reasoning. First described as a developmental milestone in children, TI has since been reported in nonhuman primates, rats and birds. Still, how animals acquire and represent transitive relationships and why such abilities might have evolved remain open problems. Here we show that male fish (Astatotilapia burtoni) can successfully make inferences on a hierarchy implied by pairwise fights between rival males. These fish learned the implied hierarchy vicariously (as 'bystanders'), by watching fights between rivals arranged around them in separate tank units. Our findings show that fish use TI when trained on socially relevant stimuli, and that they can make such inferences by using indirect information alone. Further, these bystanders seem to have both spatial and featural representations related to rival abilities, which they can use to make correct inferences depending on what kind of information is available to them. Beyond extending TI to fish and experimentally demonstrating indirect TI learning in animals, these results indicate that a universal mechanism underlying TI is unlikely. Rather, animals probably use multiple domain-specific representations adapted to different social and ecological pressures that they encounter during the course of their natural lives.
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Hall, C. (2007). The impact of visual perception on equine learning. Behav. Process., 76, 29–33.
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Ninomiya, S. (2007). Social leaning and stereotypy in horses. Behav. Process., 76, 22–23.
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Leblanc, M. - A., & Duncan, P. (2007). Can studies of cognitive abilities and of life in the wild really help us to understand equine learning? Behav. Process., 76, 49–52.
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McCall, C. A. (2007). Making equine learning research applicable to training procedures. Behav. Process., 76(1), 27–28.
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Sigurjónsdóttir, H. (2007). Equine learning behaviour: The importance of evolutionary and ecological approach in research. Behav. Process., 76, 40–42.
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Krueger, K., & Flauger, B. (2007). Social learning in horses from a novel perspective. Behav. Process., 76(1), 37–39.
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Heitor, F., & Vicente, L. (2007). Learning about horses: What is equine learning all about? Behav. Process., 76(1), 34–36.
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Houpt, K. A. (2007). Imprinting training and conditioned taste aversion. Behav. Process., 76, 14–16.
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