Diekamp, B., Prior, H., & Güntürkün, O. (1999). Functional lateralization, interhemispheric transfer and position bias in serial reversal learning in pigeons (Columba livia). Anim. Cogn., 2(4), 187–196.
Abstract: In the present study we investigated lateralization of color reversal learning in pigeons. After monocular acquisition of a simple color discrimination with either the left or right eye, birds were tested in a serial reversal procedure. While there was only a slight and non-significant difference in choice accuracy during original color discrimination, a stable superiority of birds using the right eye emerged in serial reversals. Both groups showed a characteristic 'learning-to-learn' effect, but right-eyed subjects improved faster and reached a lower asymptotic error rate. Subsequent testing for interocular transfer demonstrated a difference between pre- and post-shift choice accuracy in pigeons switching from right to left eye but not vice versa. This can be accounted for by differences in maximum performance using either the left or right eye along with an equally efficient but incomplete interocular transfer in both directions. Detailed analysis of the birds' response patterns during serial reversals revealed a preference for the right of two response keys in both groups. This bias was most pronounced at the beginning of a session. It decreased within sessions, but became more pronounced in late reversals, thus indicating a successful strategy for mastering the serial reversal task. Interocular transfer of response patterns revealed an unexpected asymmetry. Birds switching from right to left eye continued to prefer the right side, whereas pigeons shifting from left to right eye were now biased towards the left side. The results suggest that lateralized performance during reversal learning in pigeons rests on a complex interplay of learning about individual stimuli, stimulus dimensions, and lateralized response strategies.
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Á. Miklósi. (1999). The Evolution of Cognition. Anim. Cogn., 2(3), 179–180.
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Wauters, A. M., Richard-Yris, M. - A., Richard, J. P., & Foraste M. (1999). Internal and external factors modulate food-calling in domestic hens. Anim. Cogn., 2(1), 1–10.
Abstract: Two series of experiments investigated factors affecting utterance of food calls in the domestic hen, Gallus domesticus. The first series of experiments tested the effect of food preference and the hen’s internal state on the utterance of food calls. Different food types were presented first singly and then in a choice test to 20 hens, first when hens were laying, and then when they were maternal. The second series of experiments tested the effect of hunger level on the utterance of food calls in laying hens, and maternal hens with or without chicks. These two series of experiments showed that laying hens and maternal hens showed a similar marked preference for certain types of food, but laying hens very rarely emitted food calls, in contrast to maternal hens. This shows the effect of the bird’s psychophysiological state on her tendency to emit food calls. The more a maternal hen preferred a food type, the more food calls she emitted. This was observed from the beginning of a test in single-food tests as well as in choice tests. Hunger level positively affected food-call production under certain feeding conditions in maternal hens, but not in laying hens. When maternal hens were tested in the absence of their chicks, utterance of food calls was more sustained than in the presence of chicks.
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Theall, L. A., & Povinelli, D. J. (1999). Do chimpanzees tailor their gestural signals to fit the attentional states of others? Anim. Cogn., 2(4), 207–214.
Abstract: The use of vocalizations and tactile gestures by seven juvenile chimpanzees was experimentally investigated. The subjects interacted with an experimenter who typically handed them food rewards. In some trials, however, the experimenter waited 20 s before doing so. In these trials the experimenter's eyes were either open or closed, or the experimenter was either looking away from the subject or looking directly at him/her inquisitively with head movements. Although the chimpanzees produced at least one of the non-visual gestures mentioned (touching/tapping the experimenter or vocalizing) in 72% of all experimental trials, these actions and vocalizations were deployed without regard to the attentional state of their potential recipient, despite evidence that the subjects noticed the postures that defined the experimenter's attentional state. The results are discussed in the context of the distinction between the evolution of an understanding of seeing/attention as an internal mental state versus an understanding of behavioral postures alone.
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Griffiths D., Dickinson A., & Clayton N. (1999). Episodic memory: what can animals remember about their past? Trends. Cognit. Sci., 3, 74–80.
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Hanggi, E. B. (1999). Interocular transfer of learning In horses (Equus caballus). J Equine Vet Sci, 19(8), 518–524.
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DUNN, L. J. (1999). PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF EQUINE LEARNING AND MEMORY.
Abstract: ABSTRACT
Six horses demonstrated observation and discrimination learning and memory ability. The purpose of this study was to gain further knowledge in the area of equine learning. Performance on each task was compared in a single subject design. Subjects learned to discriminate between a black and a white bucket. The criterion for learning was set at 80% correct black bucket choice. All subjects successfully performed the discrimination task by the eighth session. Observation learning was unsuccessful; no subject reached the 80% correct criterion. Five horses were tested for memory retention of the discrimination task three weeks after the initial learning. All subjects performed the discrimination by the second session of two. These data support existing results from similar learning and memory tasks.
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Hanggi, E. B. (1999). Categorization Learning in Horses (Equus caballus). J. Comp. Psychol., 113(3), 243–252.
Abstract: Categorization learning was investigated in 2 horses (Equus caballus). Both horses learned to select a 2-dimensional black stimulus with an open center instead of a filled stimulus in a 2-choice discrimination task. After a criterion of 10 out of 10 correct responses in a random series for 2 consecutive sessions was reached, 15 additional pairs of open-center versus filled stimuli were tested. Each was run to criterion and then incorporated into sessions of randomly mixed problems. Both horses solved the 1st problem by simple pattern discrimination and showed evidence of categorical processing for subsequent problems. New pairs were learned with few or no errors, and correct responses on novel trials were significantly above chance. These results suggest that the horses were making their selections on the basis of shared characteristics with the training stimuli and were using categorization skills in problem solving.
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Rendall, D. (1999). Review of Machiavellian Intelligence II: Extensions and Evaluations. Ethology, 105(2), 178–182.
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Wingfield, J. C.,, & Ramenofsky, M. (1999). Hormones and the behavioral ecology of stress. In P. H. M. Balm (Ed.), Stress physiology in animals. (pp. 1–51). Sheffield, United Kingdom: Sheffield Academic Press.
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