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Author Gibson, B.M.; Shettleworth, S.J.; McDonald, R.J. openurl 
  Title Finding a goal on dry land and in the water: differential effects of disorientation on spatial learning Type Journal Article
  Year 2001 Publication Behavioural brain research Abbreviated Journal Behav. Brain. Res.  
  Volume 123 Issue 1 Pages 103-111  
  Keywords (up) Animals; Cues; Environment; Male; Maze Learning/*physiology; Orientation/*physiology; Rats; Rats, Long-Evans; Spatial Behavior/*physiology; Water  
  Abstract Two previous studies, Martin et al. (J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Process. 23 (1997) 183) and Dudchenko et al. (J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Process. 23 (1997) 194), report that, compared to non-disoriented controls, rats disoriented before testing were disrupted in their ability to learn the location of a goal on a dry radial-arm maze task, but that both groups learned at the same rate in the Morris water maze. However, the radial-arm maze task was much more difficult than the water maze. In the current set of experiments, we examined the performance of control and disoriented rats on more comparable dry land and water maze tasks. Compared to non-disoriented rats, rats that were disoriented before testing were significantly impaired in locating a goal in a circular dry arena, but not a water tank. The results constrain theoretical explanations for the differential effects of disorientation on different spatial tasks.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G3. gibson@psych.utoronto.ca  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0166-4328 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:11377733 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 372  
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Vlasak, A.N. doi  openurl
  Title Global and local spatial landmarks: their role during foraging by Columbian ground squirrels (Spermophilus columbianus) Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 9 Issue 1 Pages 71-80  
  Keywords (up) Animals; Cues; Feeding Behavior/*psychology; Female; *Memory; Mental Recall; Orientation; Sciuridae/*psychology; *Space Perception; *Spatial Behavior  
  Abstract Locating food and refuge is essential for an animal's survival. However, little is known how mammals navigate under natural conditions and cope with given environmental constraints. In a series of six experiments, I investigated landmark-based navigation in free-ranging Columbian ground squirrels (Spermophilus columbianus). Squirrels were trained individually to find a baited platform within an array of nine identical platforms and artificial landmarks set up on their territories. After animals learned the location of the food platform in the array, the position of the latter with respect to local artificial, local natural, and global landmarks was manipulated, and the animal's ability to find the food platform was tested. When only positions of local artificial landmarks were changed, squirrels located food with high accuracy. When the location of the array relative to global landmarks was altered, food-finding accuracy decreased but remained significant. In the absence of known global landmarks, the presence of a familiar route and natural local landmarks resulted in significant but not highly accurate performance. Squirrels likely relied on multiple types of cues when orienting towards a food platform. Local landmarks were used only as a secondary mechanism of navigation, and were not attended to when a familiar route and known global landmarks were present. This study provided insights into landmark use by a wild mammal in a natural situation, and it demonstrated that an array of platforms can be employed to investigate landmark-based navigation under such conditions.  
  Address Biology Department, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. avlasak@sas.upenn.edu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16163480 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2483  
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Author Fiset, S.; Landry, F.; Ouellette, M. doi  openurl
  Title Egocentric search for disappearing objects in domestic dogs: evidence for a geometric hypothesis of direction Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 9 Issue 1 Pages 1-12  
  Keywords (up) Animals; Dogs/*psychology; Female; Form Perception; Male; Mental Recall; *Motion Perception; Orientation; Problem Solving; *Space Perception  
  Abstract In several species, the ability to locate a disappearing object is an adaptive component of predatory and social behaviour. In domestic dogs, spatial memory for hidden objects is primarily based on an egocentric frame of reference. We investigated the geometric components of egocentric spatial information used by domestic dogs to locate an object they saw move and disappear. In experiment 1, the distance and the direction between the position of the animal and the hiding location were put in conflict. Results showed that the dogs primarily used the directional information between their own spatial coordinates and the target position. In experiment 2, the accuracy of the dogs in finding a hidden object by using directional information was estimated by manipulating the angular deviation between adjacent hiding locations and the position of the animal. Four angular deviations were tested: 5, 7.5, 10 and 15 degrees . Results showed that the performance of the dogs decreased as a function of the angular deviations but it clearly remained well above chance, revealing that the representation of the dogs for direction is precise. In the discussion, we examine how and why domestic dogs determine the direction in which they saw an object disappear.  
  Address Secteur Sciences Humaines, Universite de Moncton, Campus d'Edmundston, Edmundston, New-Brunswick, Canada E3V 2S8. sfiset@umce.ca  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:15750805 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2489  
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Author Gibbs, S.E.B.; Lea, S.E.G.; Jacobs, L.F. doi  openurl
  Title Flexible use of spatial cues in the southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 10 Issue 2 Pages 203-209  
  Keywords (up) Animals; Male; Orientation; *Sciuridae; *Space Perception; *Spatial Behavior  
  Abstract Insects, birds, and mammals have been shown capable of encoding spatial information in memory using multiple strategies or frames of reference simultaneously. These strategies include orientation to a goal-specific cue or beacon, to the position of the goal in an array of local landmarks, or to its position in the array of distant landmarks, also known as the global frame of reference. From previous experiments, it appears that birds and mammals that scatter hoard rely primarily on a global frame of reference, but this generalization depends on evidence from only a few species. Here we examined spatial memory in a previously unstudied scatter hoarder, the southern flying squirrel. We dissociated the relative weighting of three potential spatial strategies (beacon, global, or relative array strategy) with three probe tests: transposition of beacon and the rotation or the expansion of the array. The squirrels' choices were consistent with a spatial averaging strategy, where they chose the location dictated by at least two of the three strategies, rather than using a single preferred frame of reference. This adaptive and flexible heuristic has not been previously described in animal orientation studies, yet it may be a common solution to the universal problem of encoding and recalling spatial locations in an ephemeral physical landscape.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1650, USA  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:17265151 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2422  
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Author Healy,S.; Braithwaite, V doi  openurl
  Title Cognitive ecology: a field of substance? Type Journal Article
  Year 2000 Publication Trends in Ecology & Evolution Abbreviated Journal Trends. Ecol. Evol  
  Volume 15 Issue 1 Pages 22-26  
  Keywords (up) Cognitive ecology; Neuroethology; Cognition; Ecology; Evolution; Orientation mechanisms  
  Abstract In 1993, Les Real invented the label 'cognitive ecology'. This label was intended for work that brought cognitive science and behavioural ecology together. Real's article stressed the importance of such an approach to the understanding of behaviour. At the end of a decade in which more interdisciplinary work on behaviour has been seen than for many years, it is time to assess whether cognitive ecology is a label describing an active field.  
  Address Division of Biological Sciences, King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, UK EH9 3JT  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0169-5347 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:10603501 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 837  
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Author Brooks, C.J.; Harris, S. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Directed movement and orientation across a large natural landscape by zebras, Equus burchelli antiquorum Type Journal Article
  Year 2008 Publication Animal Behaviour Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume 76 Issue 2 Pages 277-285  
  Keywords (up) correlated random walk; directed movement; Equus burchelli antiquorum; Gps; movement path; orientation; spatial memory; spatial scale; zebra  
  Abstract We investigated how plains zebras moved across a large natural landscape by analysing the movement paths of nine zebra mares foraging out from spatially confined waterholes during the dry season in the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, Botswana. Since it was essential to investigate directed movement over a range of spatial scales to determine the correct movement behaviour and strategy, we used Nams's scaling test for oriented movement. Zebras followed directed movement paths in the lower to medium spatial scales (10 m–3.7 km) and above their visual, and possibly olfactory, range. The spatial scale of directed movement suggests that zebras had a well-defined spatial awareness and cognitive ability. Seven zebras used directed movement paths, but the remaining two followed paths not significantly different to a correlated random walk (CRW). At large spatial scales (>3 km) no distinct movement pattern could be identified and paths could not be distinguished from a CRW. Foraging strategy affected the extent of directed movement: zebras with a confined dispersion of grazing patches around the central place directed their movements over a longer distance. Zebras may extend the distance at which they can direct their movement after improving their knowledge of the local environment.  
  Address  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6148  
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