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Author |
Chiesa, A.D.; Pecchia, T.; Tommasi, L.; Vallortigara, G. |
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Title |
Multiple landmarks, the encoding of environmental geometry and the spatial logics of a dual brain |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
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Volume |
9 |
Issue  |
4 |
Pages |
281-293 |
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Keywords |
Animals; Association Learning/*physiology; Chickens; *Cues; Dominance, Cerebral/*physiology; *Environment; Exploratory Behavior/*physiology; Logic; Space Perception/*physiology; Spatial Behavior/physiology |
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Abstract |
A series of place learning experiments was carried out in young chicks (Gallus gallus) in order to investigate how the geometry of a landmark array and that of a walled enclosure compete when disoriented animals could rely on both of them to re-orient towards the centre of the enclosure. A square-shaped array (four wooden sticks) was placed in the middle of a square-shaped enclosure, the two structures being concentric. Chicks were trained to ground-scratch to search for food hidden in the centre of the enclosure (and the array). To check for effects of array degradation, one, two, three or all landmarks were removed during test trials. Chicks concentrated their searching activity in the central area of the enclosure, but their accuracy was inversely contingent on the number of landmarks removed; moreover, the landmarks still present within the enclosure appeared to influence the shape of the searching patterns. The reduction in the number of landmarks affected the searching strategy of chicks, suggesting that they had focussed mainly on local cues when landmarks were present within the enclosure. When all the landmarks were removed, chicks searched over a larger area, suggesting an absolute encoding of distances from the local cues and less reliance on the relationships provided by the geometry of the enclosure. Under conditions of monocular vision, chicks tended to rely on different strategies to localize the centre on the basis of the eye (and thus the hemisphere) in use, the left hemisphere attending to details of the environment and the right hemisphere attending to the global shape. |
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Department of Psychology and B.R.A.I.N. Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, via S. Anastasio 12, 34100, Trieste, Italy |
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1435-9448 |
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PMID:16941155 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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2443 |
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Author |
Tommasi, L.; Vallortigara, G. |
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Title |
Searching for the center: spatial cognition in the domestic chick (Gallus gallus) |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
2000 |
Publication |
Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Behavior Processes |
Abbreviated Journal |
J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process |
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Volume |
26 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
477-486 |
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Keywords |
Animals; Behavior, Animal/physiology; Chickens; Cognition/*physiology; Learning/physiology; Male; Space Perception/*physiology; Spatial Behavior/*physiology |
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Abstract |
Chicks learned to find food hidden under sawdust by ground-scratching in the central position of the floor of a closed arena. When tested inan arena of identical shape but a larger area, chicks searched at 2 different locations, one corresponding to the correct distance (i.e., center) in the smaller (training) arena and the other to the actual center of the test arena. When tested in an arena of the same shape but a smaller area, chicks searched in the center of it. These results suggest that chicks are able to encode information on the absolute and relative distance of the food from the walls of the arena. After training in the presence of a landmark located at the center of the arena, animals searched at the center even after the removal of the landmark. Marked changes in the height of the walls of the arena produced some displacement in searching behavior, suggesting that chicks used the angular size of the walls to estimate distances. |
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Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Italy |
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0097-7403 |
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PMID:11056887 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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2774 |
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Author |
Vallortigara, G.; Rogers, L.J. |
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Title |
Survival with an asymmetrical brain: advantages and disadvantages of cerebral lateralization |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
2005 |
Publication |
The Behavioral and Brain Sciences |
Abbreviated Journal |
Behav Brain Sci |
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Volume |
28 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
575-89; discussion 589-633 |
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Keywords |
Animals; Attention/*physiology; Behavior/*physiology; Behavior, Animal/*physiology; Dominance, Cerebral/*physiology; *Evolution; Humans; Models, Biological; Visual Perception/physiology |
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Abstract |
Recent evidence in natural and semi-natural settings has revealed a variety of left-right perceptual asymmetries among vertebrates. These include preferential use of the left or right visual hemifield during activities such as searching for food, agonistic responses, or escape from predators in animals as different as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. There are obvious disadvantages in showing such directional asymmetries because relevant stimuli may be located to the animal's left or right at random; there is no a priori association between the meaning of a stimulus (e.g., its being a predator or a food item) and its being located to the animal's left or right. Moreover, other organisms (e.g., predators) could exploit the predictability of behavior that arises from population-level lateral biases. It might be argued that lateralization of function enhances cognitive capacity and efficiency of the brain, thus counteracting the ecological disadvantages of lateral biases in behavior. However, such an increase in brain efficiency could be obtained by each individual being lateralized without any need to align the direction of the asymmetry in the majority of the individuals of the population. Here we argue that the alignment of the direction of behavioral asymmetries at the population level arises as an “evolutionarily stable strategy” under “social” pressures occurring when individually asymmetrical organisms must coordinate their behavior with the behavior of other asymmetrical organisms of the same or different species. |
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Department of Psychology and B.R.A.I.N. Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, 34123 Trieste, Italy. vallorti@univ.trieste.it |
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0140-525X |
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PMID:16209828 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4622 |
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Author |
Ventolini, N.; Ferrero, E.A.; Sponza, S.; Della Chiesa, A.; Zucca, P.; Vallortigara, G. |
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Title |
Laterality in the wild: preferential hemifield use during predatory and sexual behaviour in the black-winged stilt |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
2005 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
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Volume |
69 |
Issue |
5 |
Pages |
1077-1084 |
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Abstract |
We recorded preferential use of the left and right monocular visual field in black-winged stilts, Himantopus himantopus, during predatory pecking and during courtship and mating behaviour in a naturalistic setting. The stilts had a population-level preference for using their right monocular visual field before predatory pecking; pecks that followed right-hemifield detection were more likely to be successful than pecks that followed left-hemifield detection, as evinced by the occurrence of swallowing and shaking head movements after pecking. In contrast, shaking behaviour, a component of courtship displays, and copulatory attempts by males were more likely to occur when females were seen with the left monocular visual field. Asymmetric hemifield use observed in natural conditions raises interesting issues as to the costs and benefits of population-level behavioural lateralization in wild animals. |
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0003-3472 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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5589 |
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Author |
Quaranta, A.; Siniscalchi, M.; Vallortigara, G. |
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Title |
Asymmetric tail-wagging responses by dogs to different emotive stimuli |
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Abstract |
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Year |
2007 |
Publication |
Current biology : CB |
Abbreviated Journal |
Curr Biol |
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Volume |
17 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
R199-R201 |
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Cell Press |
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0960-9822 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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5733 |
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