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Author Henderson, J.; Hurly, T.A.; Healy, S.D.
Title (down) Spatial relational learning in rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) Type Journal Article
Year 2006 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 9 Issue 3 Pages 201-205
Keywords Animals; *Association Learning; *Birds; *Concept Formation; Flowers; Form Perception; Male; *Orientation; Reward; Size Perception; *Space Perception; Spatial Behavior
Abstract There is increasing evidence that animals can learn abstract spatial relationships, and successfully transfer this knowledge to novel situations. In this study, rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) were trained to feed from either the lower or the higher of two flowers. When presented with a test pair of flowers, one of which was at a novel height, they chose the flower in the appropriate spatial position rather than the flower at the correct height. This response may also have been influenced by a preference for taller flowers as acquisition of the task during experimental training occurred more readily when the reward flower was the taller of the pair. Thus, it appears that although learning abstract relationships may be a general phenomenon across contexts, and perhaps across species, the ease with which they are learned and the context in which they are subsequently used may not be the same.
Address Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, UK
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 PMID:16767469 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2465
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Author Mauck, B.; Dehnhardt, G.
Title (down) Spatial multiple-choice matching in a harbour seal (Phoca vitulina): differential encoding of landscape versus local feature information? Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume Issue Pages
Keywords
Abstract The nature of spatial information used for memorizing and recalling places is largely unclear. Earlier studies tested integration of geometric and feature information mostly during reorientation in artificial environments without including time as a memory-critical component. Here, we tested a harbour seal in a delayed matching-to-sample task (DMTS) in a familiar environment under two spatial multiple-choice conditions. The feature condition consisted of a DMTS task with four comparison stimuli presented on fixed positions in a classic matching apparatus and was designed to make stimulus features the most prominent information. The landscape condition consisted of a DMTS task in a familiar environment with four places marked by comparison stimuli and allowed the use of all available spatial information including geometrical and feature information. The seal's performance was impaired by delays of 3, 6, 9 or 12 s only in the feature condition; a delay of 12 s resulted in chance level performance. Replacing the comparison stimuli at the apparatus with identical spheres resulted in impaired performance. Performance in the landscape condition was impaired neither by delays nor by replacing comparison stimuli with spheres. Landscape information obviously was encoded redundantly and could be recalled more reliably and longer than feature information, which reveals feature information to be a less valuable type of spatial information for memorizing and recalling places.
Address Allgemeine Zoologie and Neurobiologie, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, ND6/33, 44780, Bochum, Germany, Bjoern.Mauck@rub.de
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 PMID:17377825 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2412
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Author López, J.; Gómez, Y.; Rodríguez, F.; Broglio, C.; Vargas, J.; Salas, C.
Title (down) Spatial learning in turtles Type Journal Article
Year 2001 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 4 Issue 1 Pages 49-59
Keywords
Abstract Turtles (Pseudemys scripta) were trained in place, cue and control open-field procedures. The turtles trained in both the place and the cue procedures were able to learn their respective tasks with accuracy. Subsequent probe tests revealed that the turtles trained in the place task relied on the information provided by the extramaze cues to locate the goal. However, for these animals, no single cue was essential for performance, as accurate navigation to the goal was still possible when subsets of extramaze cues were eliminated. Furthermore, the turtles trained in the place task were able to navigate accurately to the goal place from new start locations. These results suggest that the turtles trained in the place task used map-like, relational strategies, by encoding the simultaneous spatial relationships between the goal and the extramaze cues in an allocentric frame of reference. In contrast, the turtles trained in the cue procedure used guidance strategies, i.e. approaching the individual intramaze cue associated to the goal as it were a beacon and largely ignoring the extramaze cues. Thus, the results of this experiment suggest that turtles are able to employ spatial strategies that closely parallel those described in mammals and birds.
Address
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language Summary Language Original Title
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Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3352
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Author Church, D.L.; Plowright, C.M.S.
Title (down) Spatial encoding by bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) of a reward within an artificial flower array Type Journal Article
Year 2006 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 9 Issue 2 Pages 131-140
Keywords Animals; Appetitive Behavior/physiology; Association Learning/*physiology; Bees/*physiology; Chi-Square Distribution; *Cues; Female; Memory/physiology; Reward; Space Perception/*physiology; Spatial Behavior/*physiology
Abstract We presented bumblebees a spatial memory task similar to that used with other species (e.g., cats, dogs, and pigeons). In some conditions we allowed for presence of scent marks in addition to placing local and global spatial cues in conflict. Bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) were presented an array of artificial flowers within a flight cage, one flower offering reward (S+), while the others were empty (S-). Bees were tested with empty flowers. In Experiment 1, flowers were either moved at the time of testing or not. Bees returned to the flower in the same absolute position of the S+ (the flower-array-independent (FAI) position), even if it was in the wrong position relative to the S- and even when new flower covers prevented the use of possible scent marks. New flower covers (i.e., without possible scent marks) had the effect of lowering the frequency of probing behavior. In Experiment 2, the colony was moved between training and testing. Again, bees chose the flower in the FAI position of the S+, and not the flower that would be chosen using strictly memory for a flight vector. Together, these experiments show that to locate the S+ bees did not rely on scent marks nor the positions of the S-, though the S- were prominent objects close to the goal. Also, bees selected environmental features to remember the position of the S+ instead of relying upon a purely egocentric point of view. Similarities with honeybees and vertebrates are discussed, as well as possible encoding mechanisms.
Address Psychology Department, Bag Service #45444, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, E3B 6E4, Canada. dchurchl@unb.ca
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 PMID:16416106 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2474
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Author Dyer, F.C.
Title (down) Spatial Cognition: Lessons from Central-place Foraging Insects Type Book Chapter
Year 1998 Publication Animal Cognition in Nature Abbreviated Journal
Volume Issue Pages 119-154
Keywords
Abstract Summary Spatial orientation has played an extremely important role in the development of ideas about the behavioral capacities of animals. Indeed, as the modern scientific study of animal behavior emerged from its roots in zoology and experimental psychology, studies of spatial orientation figured in the work of many of the pioneering researchers, including Tinbergen (), von ), Watson () and .
Address
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Academic Press Place of Publication London Editor Russell P. Balda; Irene M. Pepperberg; Alan C. Kamil
Language Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN ISBN 9780120770304 Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2913
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Author Arthur, D.; Levin, E.
Title (down) Spatial and non-spatial visual discrimination learning in zebrafish (Danio rerio) Type Journal Article
Year 2001 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 125-131
Keywords
Abstract Zebrafish (Danio rerio) provide an excellent model for assessment of molecular processes of neurodevelopment. To determine the functional importance of molecular events during neurodevelopment, we have developed methods for assessing learning in zebrafish in a three-chambered fish tank. In the first study, simple escape response was assessed. Zebrafish tested with a moving net learned to escape to another chamber more rapidly over the six sessions of training than the fish with the still net which did not learn. Upon reversal of the contingencies, the fish switched to the inactive net rapidly learned to suppress the escape response and fish formerly in the inactive net condition learned to avoid the moving net. In the second study, spatial discrimination learning was assessed. Zebrafish were trained on a right-left position discrimination to avoid the active net. Zebrafish showed significant improvement in escape responses over six sessions of training with three trials per session. In the third study, red-blue non-spatial discrimination learning was assessed. There was a significant improvement over the first six training sessions. With the reversal of contingencies, there was a significant decline of performance. With continued training, the fish again significantly improved avoidance. These studies found an effective motivational stimulus and procedure for studying escape behavior in zebrafish; a procedure whereby zebrafish would learn both spatial and non-spatial discrimination. These methods are being developed to help determine the functional importance of molecular events during zebrafish neurodevelopment.
Address
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Language Summary Language Original Title
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3372
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Author Mercado, E. 3rd; Herman, L.M.; Pack, A.A.
Title (down) Song copying by humpback whales: themes and variations Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 8 Issue 2 Pages 93-102
Keywords Acoustics; Animals; *Imitative Behavior; *Learning; Male; Sound Spectrography; *Vocalization, Animal; Whales/*psychology
Abstract Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) produce long, structured sequences of sound underwater, commonly called “songs.” Humpbacks progressively modify their songs over time in ways that suggest that individuals are copying song elements that they hear being used by other singers. Little is known about the factors that determine how whales learn from their auditory experiences. Song learning in birds is better understood and appears to be constrained by stable core attributes such as species-specific sound repertoires and song syntax. To clarify whether similar constraints exist for song learning by humpbacks, we analyzed changes over 14 years in the sounds used by humpback whales singing in Hawaiian waters. We found that although the properties of individual sounds within songs are quite variable over time, the overall distribution of certain acoustic features within the repertoire appears to be stable. In particular, our findings suggest that species-specific constraints on temporal features of song sounds determine song form, whereas spectral variability allows whales to flexibly adapt song elements.
Address Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, SUNY, Park Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA. emiii@buffalo.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 PMID:15490289 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2505
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Author Webster, S.; Fiorito, G.
Title (down) Socially guided behaviour in non-insect invertebrates Type Journal Article
Year 2001 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 69-79
Keywords
Abstract A review of the past 50 years of literature on socially guided behaviour addresses two questions: (1) whether socially guided behaviour, which has traditionally been considered characteristic of vertebrates, is also found among non-insect invertebrates, and (2) to see whether our classification of socially guided behaviours in invertebrates matches, and thereby supports, A. Whiten and R. Ham's classification of vertebrate behaviours into two broad categories, social learning and social influence. We systematically reviewed the literature on socially guided behaviour in non-insect invertebrates to determine if social behaviours exist. Once this was established, we characterised our findings using 13 behavioural phenomena that are considered to be descriptive of socially guided behaviour. Using a multivariate technique, we then analysed the data to determine if our characterisation scheme produced a similar distribution to that presented by A. Whiten and R. Ham. Our results indicate that socially guided behaviours are present in invertebrates, and invertebrates can be placed into the previously established framework on vertebrate social behaviour. Further, our analysis reveals a prominent separation between representations of the social influence and social learning categories, thereby supporting the previously published framework on socially guided behaviour.
Address
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Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language Summary Language Original Title
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Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3210
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Author Basile, M.; Boivin, S.; Boutin, A.; Blois-Heulin, C.; Hausberger, M.; Lemasson, A.
Title (down) Socially dependent auditory laterality in domestic horses (Equus caballus) Type Journal Article
Year 2009 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 12 Issue Pages 611-619
Keywords
Abstract Laterality is now known to be an ubiquitous phenomenon among the vertebrates. Particularly, laterality of auditory processing has been demonstrated in a variety of species, especially songbirds and primates. Such a hemispheric specialization has been shown to depend on factors such as sound structure, species specificity and types of stimuli. Much less is known on the possible influence of social familiarity although a few studies suggest such an influence. Here we tested the influence of the degree of familiarity on the laterality of the auditory response in the domestic horse. This species is known for its social system and shows visible reactions to sounds, with one or two ears moving towards a sound source. By comparing such responses to the playback of different conspecific whinnies (group member, neighbor and stranger), we could demonstrate a clear left hemisphere (LH) preference for familiar neighbor calls while no preference was found for group member and stranger calls. Yet, we found an opposite pattern of ear side preference for neighbor versus stranger calls. These results are, to our knowledge, the first to demonstrate auditory laterality in an ungulate species. They open further lines of thought on the influence of the social “value” of calls and the listener's arousal on auditory processing and laterality.
Address Universite de Rennes I, EthoS, Ethologie animale et humaine-UMR 6552-CNRS Station Biologique de Paimpont, 35380, Paimpont, France, basilemuriel@hotmail.com
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Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1435-9456 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:19283416 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4761
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Author Merola, I.; Lazzaroni, M.; Marshall-Pescini, S.; Prato-Previde, E.
Title (down) Social referencing and cat–human communication Type Journal Article
Year 2015 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 18 Issue 3 Pages 639-648
Keywords Social referencing; Cats; Gaze alternation; Social learning; Human–cat communication
Abstract Cats’ (Felis catus) communicative behaviour towards humans was explored using a social referencing paradigm in the presence of a potentially frightening object. One group of cats observed their owner delivering a positive emotional message, whereas another group received a negative emotional message. The aim was to evaluate whether cats use the emotional information provided by their owners about a novel/unfamiliar object to guide their own behaviour towards it. We assessed the presence of social referencing, in terms of referential looking towards the owner (defined as looking to the owner immediately before or after looking at the object), the behavioural regulation based on the owner’s emotional (positive vs negative) message (vocal and facial), and the observational conditioning following the owner’s actions towards the object. Most cats (79 %) exhibited referential looking between the owner and the object, and also to some extent changed their behaviour in line with the emotional message given by the owner. Results are discussed in relation to social referencing in other species (dogs in particular) and cats’ social organization and domestication history.
Address
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Springer Berlin Heidelberg 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 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5885
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