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Author Call, J. doi  openurl
  Title Beyond learning fixed rules and social cues: abstraction in the social arena Type Journal Article
  Year 2003 Publication Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Phil. Trans. Biol. Sci.  
  Volume 358 Issue 1435 Pages 1189-1196  
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  Abstract Abstraction is a central idea in many areas of physical comparative cognition such as categorization, numerical competence or problem solving. This idea, however, has rarely been applied to comparative social cognition. In this paper, I propose that the notion of abstraction can be applied to the social arena and become an important tool to investigate the social cognition and behaviour processes in animals. To make this point, I present recent evidence showing that chimpanzees know about what others can see and about what others intend. These data do not fit either low-level mechanisms based on stimulus-response associations or high-level explanations based on metarepresentational mechanisms such as false belief attribution. Instead, I argue that social abstraction, in particular the development of concepts such as seeing in others, is key to explaining the behaviour of our closest relative in a variety of situations.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 3524  
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Author Gerber, B.; Hendel, T. doi  openurl
  Title Outcome expectations drive learned behaviour in larval Drosophila Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.  
  Volume 273 Issue 1604 Pages 2965-2968  
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  Abstract Why does Pavlov's dog salivate? In response to the tone, or in expectation of food? While in vertebrates behaviour can be driven by expected outcomes, it is unknown whether this is true for non-vertebrates as well. We find that, in the Drosophila larva, odour memories are expressed behaviourally only if animals can expect a positive outcome from doing so. The expected outcome of tracking down an odour is determined by comparing the value of the current situation with the value of the memory for that odour. Memory is expressed behaviourally only if the expected outcome is positive. This uncovers a hitherto unrecognized evaluative processing step between an activated memory trace and behaviour control, and argues that learned behaviour reflects the pursuit of its expected outcome. Shown in a system with a simple brain, an apparently cognitive process like representing the expected outcome of behaviour seems to be a basic feature of behaviour control.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 3525  
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Author Hunt, G.R.; Gray, R.D. doi  openurl
  Title The crafting of hook tools by wild New Caledonian crows Type Journal Article
  Year 2004 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.  
  Volume 271 Issue Pages S88-S90  
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  Abstract The 'crafting' of tools involves (i) selection of appropriate raw material, (ii) preparatory trimming and (iii) fine, three-dimensional sculpting. Its evolution is technologically important because it allows the open-ended development of tools. New Caledonian crows manufacture an impressive range of stick and leaf tools. We previously reported that their toolkit included hooked implements made from leafy twigs, although their manufacture had never been closely observed. We describe the manufacture of 10 hooked-twig tools by an adult crow and its dependent juvenile. To make all 10 tools, the crows carried out a relatively invariant three-step sequence of complex manipulations that involved (i) the selection of raw material, (ii) trimming and (iii) a lengthy sculpting of the hook. Hooked-twig manufacture contrasts with the lack of sculpting in the making of wooden tools by other non-humans such as chimpanzees and woodpecker finches. This fine, three-stage crafting process removes another alleged difference between humans and other animals.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 3526  
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Author Byrne, R.W. doi  openurl
  Title Culture in great apes: using intricate complexity in feeding skills to trace the evolutionary origin of human technical prowess Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Phil. Trans. Biol. Sci.  
  Volume 362 Issue 1480 Pages 577-585  
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  Abstract Geographical cataloguing of traits, as used in human ethnography, has led to the description of “culture” in some non-human great apes. Culture, in these terms, is detected as a pattern of local ignorance resulting from environmental constraints on knowledge transmission. However, in many cases, the geographical variations may alternatively be explained by ecology. Social transmission of information can reliably be identified in many other animal species, by experiment or distinctive patterns in distribution; but the excitement of detecting culture in great apes derives from the possibility of understanding the evolution of cumulative technological culture in humans. Given this interest, I argue that great ape research should concentrate on technically complex behaviour patterns that are ubiquitous within a local population; in these cases, a wholly non-social ontogeny is highly unlikely. From this perspective, cultural transmission has an important role in the elaborate feeding skills of all species of great ape, in conveying the “gist” or organization of skills. In contrast, social learning is unlikely to be responsible for local stylistic differences, which are apt to reflect sensitive adaptations to ecology.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 3527  
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Author Emery, N.J.; Seed, A.M.; von Bayern, A.M.P.; Clayton, N.S. doi  openurl
  Title Cognitive adaptations of social bonding in birds Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Phil. Trans. Biol. Sci.  
  Volume 362 Issue 1480 Pages 489-505  
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  Abstract The “social intelligence hypothesis” was originally conceived to explain how primates may have evolved their superior intellect and large brains when compared with other animals. Although some birds such as corvids may be intellectually comparable to apes, the same relationship between sociality and brain size seen in primates has not been found for birds, possibly suggesting a role for other non-social factors. But bird sociality is different from primate sociality. Most monkeys and apes form stable groups, whereas most birds are monogamous, and only form large flocks outside of the breeding season. Some birds form lifelong pair bonds and these species tend to have the largest brains relative to body size. Some of these species are known for their intellectual abilities (e.g. corvids and parrots), while others are not (e.g. geese and albatrosses). Although socio-ecological factors may explain some of the differences in brain size and intelligence between corvids/parrots and geese/albatrosses, we predict that the type and quality of the bonded relationship is also critical. Indeed, we present empirical evidence that rook and jackdaw partnerships resemble primate and dolphin alliances. Although social interactions within a pair may seem simple on the surface, we argue that cognition may play an important role in the maintenance of long-term relationships, something we name as “relationship intelligence”.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 3528  
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Author Mithen, S. doi  openurl
  Title Did farming arise from a misapplication of social intelligence? Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Phil. Trans. Biol. Sci.  
  Volume 362 Issue 1480 Pages 705-718  
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  Abstract The origins of farming is the defining event of human history – the one turning point that has resulted in modern humans having a quite different type of lifestyle and cognition to all other animals and past types of humans. With the economic basis provided by farming, human individuals and societies have developed types of material culture that greatly augment powers of memory and computation, extending the human mental capacity far beyond that which the brain alone can provide. Archaeologists have long debated and discussed why people began living in settled communities and became dependent on cultivated plants and animals, which soon evolved into domesticated forms. One of the most intriguing explanations was proposed more than 20 years ago not by an archaeologist but by a psychologist: Nicholas Humphrey suggested that farming arose from the “misapplication of social intelligence”. I explore this idea in relation to recent discoveries and archaeological interpretations in the Near East, arguing that social intelligence has indeed played a key role in the origin of farming and hence the emergence of the modern world.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 3529  
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Author Flannery, B. url  doi
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  Title Relational discrimination learning in horses Type Journal Article
  Year 1997 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages 267-280  
  Keywords Horses; Shaping; Complex discrimination; Concept formation; Generalization ability; Training  
  Abstract This series of studies investigated horses' ability to learn the concept of sameness under several different conditions. Before experimentation began, three horses were shaped to touch individually presented stimuli with their muzzles, and then to make two responses to two matching cards from an array of three. A modified version of the identity matching-to-sample (IMTS) procedure was used to present stimuli in a variety of configural arrangements on a barn wall (Experiment 1 and Experiment 2), and on a flat panel mounted to a barn door (Experiment 3). The task in each experiment was to select the two stimulus cards that were the same (either circles or Xs) and to avoid the nonmatching stimulus card (either a star or a square). In Experiment 1, the mean accuracy rate for selecting the matching alternatives was 74%. The horses' accuracy levels reached a mean level of 83% during Experiment 2, in which they received additional trials and an intermittent secondary reinforcement schedule. In Experiment 3, when the stimuli were moved further apart from each other within arrangements and were presented on a novel background, the mean accuracy rate was 73%. These data demonstrate that horses can learn complex discrimination problems involving the concept of sameness, and that they are able to generalize this learning to a novel stimulus presentation situation. These results also suggest that a relational discrimination test may be useful for assessing horses' learning ability and the level of training appropriate for individual horses.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3557  
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Author Rubin, L.; Oppegard, C.; Hindz, H.F. url  doi
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  Title The effect of varying the temporal distribution of conditioning trials on equine learning behavior Type Journal Article
  Year 1980 Publication Journal of Animal Science Abbreviated Journal J. Anim Sci.  
  Volume 50 Issue 6 Pages 1184-1187  
  Keywords Animals; Conditioning (Psychology); *Horses; *Learning  
  Abstract Two experiments were conducted to study the effect of varying the temporal distrbution of conditioning sessions on equine learning behavior. In the first experiment, 15 ponies were trained to clear a small hurdle in response to a buzzer in order to avoid a mild electric shock. Three treatments were used. One group received 10 learning trials daily, seven times a week; one group was trained in the same fashion two times a week and one group was trained once a week. The animals conditioned only once a week achieved a high level of performance in significantly fewer sessions than the ones conditioned seven times a week, although elapsed time from start of training to completion was two to three times greater for the former group. The twice-a-week group learned at an intermediate rate. In the second experiment, the ponies were rearranged into three new groups. They were taught to move backward a specific distance in response to a visual cue in order to avoid an electric shock. Again, one group was trained seven times a week, one group was trained two times and one group was trained once a week. As in the first experiment, the animals trained once a week achieved the learning criteria in significantly fewer sessions than those trained seven times a week, but, as in trial 1, elapsed time from start to finish was greater for them. The two times-a-week group learned at a rate in-between the rates of the other two groups.  
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  ISSN 0021-8812 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:7400060 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3558  
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Author Murphy, J.; Waldmann, T.; Arkins, S. url  openurl
  Title Sex differences in equine learning skills and visuo-spatial ability Type Journal Article
  Year 2004 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume 87 Issue 1-2 Pages 119-130  
  Keywords Horses; Sex differences; Visuo-spatial ability; Learning  
  Abstract There is evidence of superior visuo-spatial ability in males compared to females in most species investigated to-date. However, no known studies have addressed this issue in the equine. Equine visuo-spatial ability was investigated using a novel test apparatus with a sample of 62 horses (males=34 and females=28) during a series of six tests, where the horses were required to access a food source. The test apparatus consisted of a series of four adjacent stalls, each of which had a feed bin and a moveable barrier. The test apparatus was designed such that the breastplate barriers controlled and limited access by the horses to feed bins in all but one stall during each test. Male horses performed such that there were significant differences (P<0.05) in the ability of the subjects to complete all six tests in a mean time of 30 s or less per test. There were significant differences in mean completion times for male subjects between test 1 and test 2 (P<0.05), test 1 and test 3 (P<0.001), test 1 and test 4 (P<0.05) and test 1 and test 5 (P<0.05). There were no significant differences in mean completion times between any of the six tests for female subjects. Males had a lower mean total number of errors during all tests. Male horses also successfully completed significantly more tests than females (P<0.05). These results provide the first behavioural demonstration of superior visuo-spatial ability in male horses, similar to that reported in other species.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3560  
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Author Steelman, S.M.; Michael-Eller, E.M.; Gibbs, P.G.; Potter, G.D. url  doi
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  Title Meal size and feeding frequency influence serum leptin concentration in yearling horses Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Journal of Animal Science Abbreviated Journal J. Anim Sci.  
  Volume 84 Issue 9 Pages 2391-2398  
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  Abstract Energy is an essential nutrient for all horses, and it is especially important in performance horses, pregnant and lactating mares, and young growing horses. A negative energy balance in horses such as these may result in unsatisfactory performance, decreased fertility, or slow growth. Therefore, ensuring adequate energy intake is an important aspect of the nutritional management of the equine. This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of feeding large, carbohydrate-rich, concentrate meals on the satiety-inducing hormone, leptin. Three groups of yearling horses were rotated through 3 feeding schedules in a replicated 3x3 Latin square design. Horses were fed 2, 3, or 4 times per day (2x, 3x, and 4xfeeding schedules, respectively), each for a period of 11 d, with the total amount of daily feed held constant. Horses were weighed and BCS was determined on the first day of each period. Blood samples were collected before the morning meal on d 1, 4, and 7 of each period. Additionally, blood was sampled for the last 24 h of the 2xand 4xdietary periods. Neither weight nor BCS changed during the study (P = 0.99 and P = 0.28, respectively). Both mean and peak plasma glucose were greatest in 2xhorses (P < 0.05), as were mean areas under the curve. Serum leptin concentration increased in 2xhorses (P < 0.05), but not in horses fed 3 or 4 times daily. Leptin was elevated in horses with greater BCS (P < 0.05) and increased steadily throughout the study (P < 0.05). Data from the 24-h collection indicated that 2xhorses had fluctuations in leptin production throughout the day (P < 0.05), whereas horses fed 4 times daily did not. Overall, this study indicates that feeding horses 2 large concentrate meals daily can increase mean serum leptin concentrations and may cause fluctuations in leptin production over a 24-h period. This departure from baseline leptin concentration has the potential to affect appetite, along with numerous other physiological processes.  
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  Notes 10.2527/jas.2005-281 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3561  
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