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Author Treichler, F.R.
Title Successive reversal of concurrent discriminations by macaques (Macaca mulatta): proactive interference effects Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 8 Issue 2 Pages 75-83
Keywords Animals; Choice Behavior; *Discrimination Learning; Female; Macaca mulatta/*psychology; *Memory; *Proactive Inhibition; Random Allocation; *Reversal Learning
Abstract Rhesus monkeys received concurrent within-session training on eight, two-choice object pairs and then underwent successive reversals of these problems. Initially, reversals required about six times more training than acquisition with no improvement over seven successive reversals. Surprisingly, performance on these eight problems was unimpaired if they were embedded in different eight-problem tasks, thereby indicating a release from proactive interference. When the original eight problems again underwent successive reversal, no improvement was seen over seven reversals, although there was significantly less error-per-reversal than in the initial test. Subsequently, monkeys appeared to be developing a learning set for successive reversal because performance on successive reversal of eight novel problems was not different from that seen with the old familiar task. Set acquisition was confirmed when proficient reversal was eventually achieved on both old and new concurrent tasks. Thus, “concurrent reversal set” did develop, but it required arduous training to overcome proactive interference effects on memory. The ubiquitous influence of measurement context on organization of monkey memory was noted.
Address Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242, USA. rtreichl@kent.edu
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
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 (up) PMID:15365875 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2512
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Author Barth, J.; Reaux, J.E.; Povinelli, D.J.
Title Chimpanzees' (Pan troglodytes) use of gaze cues in object-choice tasks: different methods yield different results Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 8 Issue 2 Pages 84-92
Keywords Animals; *Attention; *Choice Behavior; *Cues; *Eye Movements; Female; Male; *Nonverbal Communication; Orientation; Pan troglodytes/*psychology; Social Environment
Abstract To assess the influence of different procedures on chimpanzees' performance in object-choice tasks, five adult chimpanzees were tested using three experimenter-given cues to food location: gazing, glancing, and pointing. These cues were delivered to the subjects in an identical fashion but were deployed within the context of two distinct meta-procedures that have been previously employed with this species with conflicting results. In one procedure, the subjects entered the test unit and approached the experimenter (who had already established the cue) on each trial. In the other procedure, the subjects stayed in the test unit throughout a session, witnessed the hiding procedure, and waited for a delay of 10 s during which the cue was provided. The subjects scored at high levels far exceeding chance in response to the gaze cue only when they approached the experimenter for each trial. They performed at chance levels when they stayed inside the test unit throughout the session. They scored at chance levels on all other cues irrespective of the procedure. These findings imply that (a) chimpanzees can immediately exploit social gaze cues, and (b) previous conflicting findings were likely due to the different meta-procedures that were used.
Address Department of Neurocognition, Faculty of Psychology, Universiteit Maastricht, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands. j.barth@psychology.unimaas.nl
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
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 (up) PMID:15449100 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2510
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Author Brosnan, S.F.; de Waal, F.B.M.
Title A concept of value during experimental exchange in brown capuchin monkeys, Cebus apella Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Folia primatologica; international journal of primatology Abbreviated Journal Folia Primatol (Basel)
Volume 75 Issue 5 Pages 317-330
Keywords Animals; Cebus/*psychology; *Choice Behavior; Female; Food Preferences; *Learning; Male; Sex Factors; Statistics, Nonparametric; *Token Economy; Video Recording
Abstract We evaluated the response of brown capuchin monkeys to two differentially valued tokens in an experimental exchange situation akin to a simple barter. Monkeys were given a series of three tests to evaluate their ability to associate tokens with food, then their responses were examined in a barter situation in which tokens were either limited or unlimited. Capuchins did not perform barter in the typical sense, returning the tokens which were associated with the reward. However, females, but not males, showed a different response, preferring the higher-value token. This may indicate that they learned to prefer one token over the other rather than to associate the tokens with their specific rewards. This sex difference parallels previous findings of greater reciprocity in female brown capuchins than in males.
Address Living Links Center, Emory University, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, 954 N. Gatewood Drive, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA. sbrosna@emory.edu
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0015-5713 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes (up) PMID:15486443 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 170
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Author Friedrich, A.M.; Zentall, T.R.
Title Pigeons shift their preference toward locations of food that take more effort to obtain Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Behavioural processes Abbreviated Journal Behav. Process.
Volume 67 Issue 3 Pages 405-415
Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Choice Behavior; Columbidae; *Exertion; *Feeding Behavior; Reward
Abstract Although animals typically prefer to exert less effort rather than more effort to obtain food, the present research shows that requiring greater effort to obtain food at a particular location appears to increase the value of that location. In Experiment 1, pigeons' initial preference for one feeder was significantly reduced by requiring 1 peck to obtain food from that feeder and requiring 30 pecks to obtain food from the other feeder. In Experiment 2, a similar decrease in preference was not found when pigeons received reinforcement from both feeders independently of the amount of effort required. These results are consistent with the within-trial contrast effect proposed by in which the relative hedonic value of a reward depends on the state of the animal immediately prior to the reward. The greater the improvement from that prior state the greater the value of the reinforcer.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0044, USA
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0376-6357 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes (up) PMID:15518990 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 227
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Author Neuringer, A.
Title Reinforced variability in animals and people: implications for adaptive action Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication The American Psychologist Abbreviated Journal Am Psychol
Volume 59 Issue 9 Pages 891-906
Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal; *Choice Behavior; Conditioning, Operant; Creativeness; Discrimination (Psychology); Humans; Memory; Problem Solving; *Reinforcement (Psychology)
Abstract Although reinforcement often leads to repetitive, even stereotyped responding, that is not a necessary outcome. When it depends on variations, reinforcement results in responding that is diverse, novel, indeed unpredictable, with distributions sometimes approaching those of a random process. This article reviews evidence for the powerful and precise control by reinforcement over behavioral variability, evidence obtained from human and animal-model studies, and implications of such control. For example, reinforcement of variability facilitates learning of complex new responses, aids problem solving, and may contribute to creativity. Depression and autism are characterized by abnormally repetitive behaviors, but individuals afflicted with such psychopathologies can learn to vary their behaviors when reinforced for so doing. And reinforced variability may help to solve a basic puzzle concerning the nature of voluntary action.
Address Department of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, OR 97202, USA. allen.neuringer@reed.edu
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0003-066X ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes (up) PMID:15584823 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4106
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Author Santos, L.R.; Rosati, A.; Sproul, C.; Spaulding, B.; Hauser, M.D.
Title Means-means-end tool choice in cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus): finding the limits on primates' knowledge of tools Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 8 Issue 4 Pages 236-246
Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Choice Behavior; Female; Male; *Problem Solving; Saguinus/*psychology
Abstract Most studies of animal tool use require subjects to use one object to gain access to a food reward. In many real world situations, however, animals perform more than one action in sequence to achieve their goals. Of theoretical interest is whether animals have the cognitive capacity to recognize the relationship between consecutive action sequences in which there may be one overall goal and several subgoals. Here we ask if cotton-top tamarins, a species that in captivity uses tools to solve means-end problems, can go one step further and use a sequence of tools (means) to obtain food (end). We first trained subjects to use a pulling tool to obtain a food reward. After this initial training, subjects were presented with problems in which one tool had to be used in combination with a second in order to obtain food. Subjects showed great difficulty when two tools were required to obtain the food reward. Although subjects attended to the connection between the tool and food reward, they ignored the physical connection between the two tools. After training on a two-tool problem, we presented subjects with a series of transfer tests to explore if they would generalize to new types of connections between the tools. Subjects readily transferred to new connections. Our results therefore provide the first evidence to date that tamarins can learn to solve problems involving two tools, but that they do so only with sufficient training.
Address Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. laurie.santos@yale.edu
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
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 (up) PMID:15668762 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2495
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Author Uehara, T.; Yokomizo, H.; Iwasa, Y.
Title Mate-choice copying as Bayesian decision making Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication The American naturalist Abbreviated Journal Am Nat
Volume 165 Issue 3 Pages 403-410
Keywords Animals; *Bayes Theorem; *Choice Behavior; Female; Male; *Models, Biological; *Sexual Behavior, Animal
Abstract Mate-choice copying by females has been reported in fishes (e.g., guppies) and lekking birds. Presumably, females assess males' quality using both information from direct observation of males and information acquired by observing other females' choices. Here, we study mathematically the conditions under which mate-choice copying is advantageous on the basis of Bayesian decision theory. A female may observe the mate choice of another female, called the model female, who has performed an optimal choice based on her own judgment. The conditions required for the focal female to choose the same mate as that chosen by the model female should depend on the male's appearance to her, the reliability of her own judgment of male quality, and the reliability of the model females. When three or more females are involved, the optimal mate choice critically depends on whether multiple model females make decisions independently or they themselves copy the choices of others. If two equally reliable females choose different males, the choice of the second female, made knowing the choice of the first, should have a stronger effect on the choice of the third (focal) female. This “last-choice precedence” should be tested experimentally.
Address Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan. uehara@bio-math.biology.kyushu-u.ac.jp
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1537-5323 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes (up) PMID:15729669 Approved no
Call Number Serial 1821
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Author DiGian, K.A.; Friedrich, A.M.; Zentall, T.R.
Title Discriminative stimuli that follow a delay have added value for pigeons Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Psychonomic bulletin & review Abbreviated Journal Psychon Bull Rev
Volume 11 Issue 5 Pages 889-895
Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal; Choice Behavior; Columbidae; *Cues; *Discrimination (Psychology)
Abstract Clement, Feltus, Kaiser, and Zentall (2000) reported that pigeons prefer discriminative stimuli that require greater effort (more pecks) to obtain over those that require less effort. In the present experiment, we examined two variables associated with this phenomenon. First, we asked whether delay of reinforcement, presumably a relatively aversive event similar to effort, would produce similar effects. Second, we asked whether the stimulus preference produced by a prior relatively aversive event depends on its anticipation. Anticipation of delay was accomplished by signaling its occurrence. Results indicated that delays can produce preferences similar to those produced by increased effort, but only if the delays are signaled.
Address University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0044, USA
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1069-9384 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes (up) PMID:15732699 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 226
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Author Martin, T.I.; Zentall, T.R.
Title Post-choice information processing by pigeons Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Animal cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 8 Issue 4 Pages 273-278
Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Choice Behavior; *Columbidae; Discrimination Learning
Abstract In a conditional discrimination (matching-to-sample), a sample is followed by two comparison stimuli, one of which is correct, depending on the sample. Evidence from previous research suggests that if the stimulus display is maintained following an incorrect response (the so-called penalty-time procedure), acquisition by pigeons is facilitated. The present research tested the hypothesis that the penalty-time procedure allows the pigeons to review and learn from the maintained stimulus display following an incorrect choice. It did so by including a penalty-time group for which, following an incorrect choice, the sample changed to match the incorrect comparison, thus providing the pigeons with post-choice 'misinformation.' This misinformation group acquired the matching task significantly slower than the standard penalty-time group (that had no change in the sample following an error). Furthermore, acquisition of matching by a control group that received no penalty time fell midway between the other two groups, suggesting that the pigeons did not merely take more care in making choices because of the aversiveness of penalty-time. Thus, it appears that in the acquisition of matching-to-sample, when the stimulus display is maintained following an incorrect choice, the pigeons can review or acquire information from the display. This is the first time that such an effect has been reported for a nonhuman species.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
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 (up) PMID:15744507 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 225
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Brosnan, S.F.; de Waal, F.B.M.
Title Responses to a simple barter task in chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Primates Abbreviated Journal Primates
Volume 46 Issue 3 Pages 173-182
Keywords Analysis of Variance; Animals; Choice Behavior/*physiology; Conditioning (Psychology)/physiology; Learning/*physiology; Pan troglodytes/*physiology; Reward; Sex Factors; *Social Behavior; *Token Economy
Abstract Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) frequently participate in social exchange involving multiple goods and services of variable value, yet they have not been tested in a formalized situation to see whether they can barter using multiple tokens and rewards. We set up a simple barter economy with two tokens and two associated rewards and tested chimpanzees on their ability to obtain rewards by returning the matching token in situations in which their access to tokens was unlimited or limited. Chimpanzees easily learned to associate value with the tokens, as expected, and did barter, but followed a simple strategy of favoring the higher-value token, regardless of the reward proffered, instead of a more complex but more effective strategy of returning the token that matched the reward. This response is similar to that shown by capuchin monkeys in our previous study. We speculate that this response, while not ideal, may be sufficient to allow for stability of the social exchange system in these primates, and that the importance of social barter to both species may have led to this convergence of strategies.
Address Living Links, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. sbrosna@emory.edu
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0032-8332 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes (up) PMID:15824938 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 167
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