Abstract: Covering a wide range of key topics, from reasoning and communication to sensation and complex problem-solving, this engagingly-written text presents a comprehensive survey of contemporary research on animal cognition. Written for anyone with an interest in animal cognition, but without a background in animal behaviour, it endeavours to explain what makes animals tick.
With numerous illustrations and including exciting recent studies from many little-studied species (such as the weakly electric African fish), this text is ideal for psychology students who are interested in how much of our human cognition is shared by other species, for students of biology who want to know how complex animal behaviour can get, and for all those with an interest in the animal mind.

Abstract: Summary In this chapter I want to stand back from the splendid empirical work on animal cognitive capacities that is the focus of this book, and look at the broader context of cognitive concerns within which the work can be viewed. Indeed even the term `cognitive ethology' currently connotes and denotes more than is represented here, as other collections of articles, such as and , exemplify. I include the current descendants of behavioristic learning theory, evolutionary epistemology, evolutionary psychology and the recent comparative turn that has been taken in cognitive science. These several approaches, despite their considerable overlap, often appear independent and even ignorant of one another. Like the proverbial blind men feeling the hide of an elephant, they touch hands from time to time, yet collectively have only a piecemeal and distributed understanding of the shape of the whole. Although each approach may indeed need the space to work out its own conceptual and methodological preoccupations without confounding interference from other views, a utopian spirit envisages an ultimate coming together, a more comprehensive realization of the synthetic approach to animal cognition that is this book's theme.

Abstract: Aus dem Inhalt:
* Warum Freispringen?
* Die Ausstattung
* Der Ablauf
* Sehen lernen
* Freispringen aufbauen
* Fehler korrigieren
Kurzbeschreibung
In vielen größeren Reitställen wird das Freispringen von den dortigen Ausbildern für die untergestellten Pferde angeboten. Doch auch in Eigenregie und auf kleineren Anlagen – sowohl in der Halle als auch auf dem Reitplatz – lässt sich das Freispringen organisieren und durchführen. Es bringt Abwechslung in den Trainingsalltag von Pferden aller Rassen und Reitweisen und hat auch für Pferde, die unter dem Sattel nicht springen müssen, einen hervorragenden gymnastizierenden Effekt. Für Springpferde gehört das Freispringen zu einem durchdachten Trainingskonzept zwingend dazu – lernen sie hierbei doch, Selbstvertrauen und Routine zu gewinnen und ihre Springtechnik zu verbessern. Voraussetzung ist, dass die Menschen, die das Freispringen durchführen, die Hindernisse sachkundig aufbauen, die Pferde richtig vorbereiten und den Ablauf des Freispringens den Fähigkeiten des jeweiligen Kandidaten entsprechend gestalten. Das notwendige Handwerkszeug hierfür liefert ihnen dieses verständlich geschriebene und mit vielen erläuternden Bildern und Bildabfolgen versehene Buch.
Über den Autor
Claudia Götz, geboren 1965, ist Diplomjournalistin und arbeitet unter anderem als Sachbuchautorin. Als Matrix-Rhythmus-Therapeutin verfügt sie über umfangreiches Wissen rund um Anatomie und Physiologie der Muskulatur und bildet sich zum Beispiel im Bereich Trainingslehre regelmäßig weiter. Die Berittführerin FN und begeisterte Vielseitigkeits- und Freizeitreiterin lebt in der Nähe von Regensburg.

Abstract: Most animals must learn some of the behaviours in their repertoire, and some must learn most. Although learning is often thought of as an individual exercise, in nature much learning is social, i.e. under the influence of conspecifics. Social learners acquire novel information or skills faster and at lower cost, but risk learning false information or useless skills. Social learning can be divided into learning from social information and learning through social interaction. Different species have different mechanisms of learning from social information, ranging from selective attention to the environment due to the presence of others to copying of complete motor sequences. In vertical (or oblique) social learning, naïve individuals often learn skills or knowledge from parents (or other adults), whereas horizontal social learning is from peers, either immatures or adults, and more often concerns eavesdropping and public information use. Because vertical social learning is often adaptive, maturing individuals often have a preference for it over individual exploration. The more cognitively demanding social learning abilities probably evolved in this context, in lineages where offspring show long association with parents and niches are complex. Because horizontal learning can be maladaptive, especially when perishable information has become outdated, animals must decide when to deploy social learning. Social learning of novel skills can lead to distinct traditions or cultures when the innovations are sufficiently rare and effectively transmitted socially. Animal cultures may be common but to date taxonomic coverage is insufficient to know how common. Cultural evolution is potentially powerful, but largely confined to humans, for reasons currently unknown. A general theory of culture is therefore badly needed.

Abstract: Book Description
“Part review, part testament to extraordinary dedication, and part call to get involved, Cetacean Societies highlights the achievements of behavioral ecologists inspired by the challenges of cetaceans and committed to the exploration of a new world.”-from the preface by Richard Wrangham
Long-lived, slow to reproduce, and often hidden beneath the water's surface, whales and dolphins (cetaceans) have remained elusive subjects for scientific study even though they have fascinated humans for centuries. Until recently, much of what we knew about cetaceans came from commercial sources such as whalers and trainers for dolphin acts. Innovative research methods and persistent efforts, however, have begun to penetrate the depths to reveal tantalizing glimpses of the lives of these mammals in their natural habitats.
Cetacean Societies presents the first comprehensive synthesis and review of these new studies. Groups of chapters focus on the history of cetacean behavioral research and methodology; state-of-the-art reviews of information on four of the most-studied species: bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, sperm whales, and humpback whales; and summaries of major topics, including group living, male and female reproductive strategies, communication, and conservation drawn from comparative research on a wide range of species.
Written by some of the world's leading cetacean scientists, this landmark volume will benefit not just students of cetology but also researchers in other areas of behavioral and conservation ecology as well as anyone with a serious interest in the world of whales and dolphins.
Contributors are Robin Baird, Phillip Clapham, Jenny Christal, Richard Connor, Janet Mann, Andrew Read, Randall Reeves, Amy Samuels, Peter Tyack, Linda Weilgart, Hal Whitehead, Randall S. Wells, and Richard Wrangham.