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Author Nathan J. Emery url  openurl
  Title The Evolution of Social Cognition Type Book Chapter
  Year 2005 Publication The Cognitive Neuroscience of Social BehaviourGarten Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume Issue Pages  
  Keywords  
  Abstract Although this bookis focusedon the cognitive neuroscience ofhuman social behaviour, an

understandingofsocial cognition in non-human animals is critical for unravellingthe neural basis of

social cognition in humans as well as the selective pressures that have shapedthe evolution ofcomplex

social cognition. Thanks to methodological limitations, we know little about the relationships between

certain biochemical andelectrophysiological properties ofthe human brain andhow theycompute the

behaviour andmental states ofother individuals. Traditional techniques for examiningneural function

in humans, such as event-relatedpotentials (ERP),positron emission tomography(PET),and

functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI),are constrainedbythe fact that subjects are placed

either into an immoveable scanner with a lot ofbackgroundnoise or wiredup with dozens of

electrodes that are sensitive to slight movements. The possibilityofscanningor recordingbrain waves

from two individuals that are physicallyinteractingsociallyis technicallyimpossible at present

(however, see Montague et al, 2002 for a new methodfor simultaneouslyscanningtwo individuals

interactingvia a computer).

The onlywayto understandthe neurocognitive architecture ofhuman social behaviour is to examine

similar social processes in both human andnon-human animal minds andmake comparisons at the

species level. An additional argument is that traditional human socio-cognitive tasks are dependent on

the use ofstories, cartoons andverbal cues andinstructions (Heberlein & Adolphs, this volume)which

themselves will elicit specific neural responses that have to be eliminatedfrom neural responses

specificallyrelatedto mindreading. Therefore, the development ofnon-verbal tasks wouldprovide a

breakthrough for studies in non-linguistic animals, pre-verbal human infants andhuman cognitive

neuroimaging.
 
  Address  
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  Publisher Psychology Press Place of Publication Editor  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 543  
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Author Reeve, H. Kern url  doi
openurl 
  Title Evolutionarily stable communication between kin: a general model Type Journal Article
  Year 1997 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.  
  Volume 264 Issue (1384) Pages 1037-1040.  
  Keywords Signalling Systems  
  Abstract At present, the most general evolutionary theory of honest communication is Grafen's model of Zahavi's 'handicap' signalling system, in which honesty of signals about the signaller's quality (e.g. mate suitability or fighting ability) is maintained by the differentially high cost of signals to signallers having lower quality. The latter model is here further generalized to include any communication between signallers and receivers that are genetically related (e.g. parents and begging offspring, cooperative or competing siblings). Signalling systems involving relatives are shown to be evolutionarily stable, despite a potential pay-off for false signalling, if the Zahavian assumption of differential signal costs holds and there are diminishing reproductive returns to the signaller as the receiver's assessed value of its attribute increases, or if, regardless of whether the Zahavian assumption holds, signallers with high values of the attribute benefit more from a given receiver assessment than signallers with low values (e.g. begging chicks that are hungrier benefit more from being fed). In stable systems of signalling among kin, it is also shown to be generally true that (i) levels of signalling and thus observed signal costs will decline as relatedness increases or as the receiver's reproductive penalty for erroneous assessment increases, and (ii) receivers will consistently, altruistically overestimate the true value of the signalled attribute.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 557  
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Author Bergstrom,C. T.; Lachmann, M. openurl 
  Title Signalling among relatives. I. Is costly signalling too costly? Type Journal Article
  Year 1997 Publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Abbreviated Journal Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.  
  Volume 352(1353) Issue Pages 609-617  
  Keywords Signalling  
  Abstract ahavi's handicap principle,originally proposed as an explanation for sexual selection ofelaborate male traits, suggests that a sufficient cost to dishonest signals can outweigh the rewards of deception and allow individuals to communicate honestly. Maynard Smith (1991) and Johnstone and Grafen (1992) introduce the Sir Philip Sidney game in order to extend the handicap principle to interactions among related individuals, and to demonstrate that stable costly signalling systems can exist among relatives.

In this paper we demonstrate that despite the benefits associated with honest information transfer, the costs incurred in a stable costly signalling system may leave all participants worse off than they would be in a system with no signalling at all. In both the discrete and continuous forms of the Sir Philip Sidney game, there exist conditions under which costly signalling among relatives, while stable, is so costly that it is disadvantageous compared with no signalling at all. We determine the factors which dictate signal cost and signal benefit in a generalized version of this game, and explain how signal cost can exceed signal value. Such results raise concerns about theevolutionary pathways which could have led to the existence of signalling equilibria in nature. The paper stresses the importance of comparing signalling equilibria with other possible strategies, beforedrawing conclusions regarding the optimality of signalling.
 
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 559  
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Author Lindberg, A.C.; Kelland, A.; Nicol, C.J. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Effects of observational learning on acquisition of an operant response in horses Type Journal Article
  Year 1999 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume 61 Issue 3 Pages 187-199  
  Keywords Horse; Observational learning; Stereotyped behaviour; Operant behaviour; Breed influence; Age influence  
  Abstract The effect of observational learning on the acquisition of an operant response was examined in eighteen riding horses and ponies. The test horses were randomly divided into three groups of six and individually exposed to one of three treatments. An additional horse was trained as a demonstrator, to perform the operant response. The observer horses watched either the demonstrator performing the bin-opening response (Group D+B); the demonstrator standing passively (Group D); or the operant bin in the absence of the demonstrator (Group B). Observers had access to and were free to interact with an identical bin during testing. Observers in Groups D+B and D were socially familiar with the demonstrator. Each test horse was tested once a day for 10 days. An ANOVA revealed no significant differences between treatment groups in the number of responses or the time taken to reach the learning criterion. However, there were highly significant differences between breed types, with non-warmbloods performing more bouts of opening the bin and feeding (p=0.02), feeding from the bin sooner (p=0.01) and reaching the criterion for learning sooner than warmbloods (p=0.05). There was also a significant negative linear relationship between horses' ages and time spent investigating the bin, with younger horses performing more investigative behaviour (y=-3.08x+106.86; p=0.02).  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 562  
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Author Clarke, J.V.; Nicol, C.J.; Jones, R.; McGreevy, P.D. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Effects of observational learning on food selection in horses Type Journal Article
  Year 1996 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume 50 Issue 2 Pages 177-184  
  Keywords Horse; Observational learning; Food discrimination  
  Abstract Fourteen riding horses of mixed age and breed were randomly allocated to observer and control treatments. An additional horse was pre-trained as a demonstrator to walk the 13.8 m length of the test arena and select one of two food buckets using colour and pattern cues. Observer horses were exposed to correct performances of the task by the trained demonstrator, for 20 trials held over 2 days. Control horses were subjected to the same handling and placement procedures as the observer horses but without exposure to the behaviour of the demonstrator. The third day for all subjects was designated as a test day. Each subject was released individually in a predetermined place in the arena, and the latency to walk the length of the test arena to the food buckets, the latency to feed, the identity of the bucket approached and the identity of the bucket selected were recorded on ten consecutive trials. During tests both food buckets contained food to minimize the possibility of individual trial and error learning. On the first trial the mean latency to approach the goal area was 18 s for observer horses, compared with 119 s for control horses (t = 2.8, d.f. = 12, P < 0.01) and the mean latency to eat was 35 s for observer horses, compared with 181 s for control horses (t = 4.86, d.f. = 11, P < 0.001). However, observer horses were no more likely to choose the demonstrated bucket than control horses on the first trial. Twelve of the 14 horses decreased their latency to approach the goal area during the series of ten trials, but there were no significant changes in the buckets selected.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 563  
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Author Nicol, C.J. url  doi
openurl 
  Title How animals learn from each other Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume 100 Issue 1-2 Pages 58-63  
  Keywords Social learning; Chickens; Demonstrators; Dominance  
  Abstract This paper explores ways by which animals may learn from one another, using examples drawn mostly from the chicken, an animal for which social learning is likely to be less dangerous than individual learning. In early life, the behaviour of the hen is important in encouraging chicks to peck at edible items. Maternal display not only attracts chicks to profitable food items, but also redirects their attention away from harmful or non-profitable items. Older chicks can enhance their foraging success by observing the behaviour of conspecifics within their own social group. Hens have been trained to perform a novel behaviour (key-pecking for food) by observation of a trained demonstrator bird. Moreover, observers learnt most from watching dominant demonstrators. Thus the ability to learn from others is not `fixed', but depends on the context and the social identity of both the observer and the demonstrator.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 564  
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Author Nicol, C.J. url  openurl
  Title The social transmission of information and behaviour Type Journal Article
  Year 1995 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume 44 Issue 2-4 Pages 79-98  
  Keywords Social learning; Imitation; Social facilitation; Cultural transmission; Stereotypies  
  Abstract Social influences on established behaviour and on the acquisition of new information and behaviour are reviewed. Distinctions between social facilitation and contagious behaviour are drawn and suggestions for further research on contagious behaviour are made. Socially derived visual, olfactory and auditory cues are considered as important influences on behaviour and subsequent learning. The evidence supporting two potential mechanisms of social learning, i.e. stimulus enhancement followed by individual learning, and imitation, is reviewed in detail. It is argued that the functions of social learning are similarly heterogeneous and include motor skill acquisition, gathering of environmental information, and social conformity. Factors affecting the spread of socially acquired skills, including the social relationship between demonstrator and observer, are highlighted. Lastly, the few studies of social learning that have been conducted with domestic species are reviewed and potential applied goals that could stimulate further research in this area are suggested.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 577  
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Author Pepperberg, I.M. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Current Directions in Psychological Science Abbreviated Journal Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci.  
  Volume 11 Issue 3 Pages 83-87  
  Keywords  
  Abstract Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) solve various cognitive tasks and acquire and use English speech in ways that often resemble those of very young children. Given that the psittacine brain is organized very differently from that of mammals, these results have intriguing implications for the study and evolution of vocal learning, communication, and cognition.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 580  
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Author Quesada, J; Kintsch, W.; Gomez, E. doi  openurl
  Title Complex problem-solving: a field in search of a definition? Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science Abbreviated Journal Theor Issues Ergon Sci  
  Volume 6 Issue 1 Pages 5-33  
  Keywords Problem solving; Dynamic decision making; Micro-worlds; Expertise  
  Abstract Complex problem-solving (CPS) is as an area of cognitive science that has received a good amount of attention, but theories in the field have not progressed accordingly. The reasons could be the lack of good definitions and classifications of the tasks (taxonomies). Although complexity is a term used pervasively in psychology and is operationalized in different ways, there are no psychological theories of complexity. The definition of problem-solving has been changed in the past to reflect the varied interests of the researchers and has lost its initial concreteness. These two facts together make it difficult to define CPS or make clear if CPS should reuse the theory and methods of classical problem-solving or on the contrary should build a theoretical structure starting from scratch. A taxonomy is offered of tasks using both formal features and psychological features that are theory-independent that could help compare the CPS tasks used in the literature. The adequateness is also reviewed of the most extended definitions of CPS and conclude that they are in serious need of review, since they cover tasks that are not considered problem-solving by their own authors or are not complex, but ignore others that should clearly be included.  
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  Publisher Taylor and Francis Ltd Place of Publication Editor  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 604  
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Author Schnall, Simone; Gattis,Merideth url  openurl
  Title Transitive Inference by Visual Reasoning Type Conference Volume
  Year 1998 Publication Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume Issue Pages 929-934  
  Keywords  
  Abstract Two experiments are reported that investigated the influence

of linear spatial organization on transitive inference

performance. Reward/no-reward relations between

overlapping pairs of elements were presented in a context of

linear spatial order or random spatial order. Participants in

the linear arrangement condition showed evidence for visual

reasoning: They systematically mapped spatial relations to

conceptual relation and used the spatial relations to make

inferences on a reasoning task in a new spatial context. We

suggest that linear ordering may be a “good figure”, by

constituting a parsimonious representation for the integration

of premises, as well as for the inferencing process. The late

emergence of transitive inference in children may be the

result of limited cognitive capacity, which --unless an

external spatial array is available --constrains the

construction of an internal spatial array.
 
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 610  
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