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Author Paz-y-Miño C. G.; Bond, A.B.; Kamil, A.C.; Balda, R.P. doi  openurl
  Title Pinyon jays use transitive inference to predict social dominance Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2004 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 430 Issue 7001 Pages 778-781  
  Keywords Animals; Cognition/*physiology; Group Structure; Male; *Social Dominance; Songbirds/*physiology  
  Abstract Living in large, stable social groups is often considered to favour the evolution of enhanced cognitive abilities, such as recognizing group members, tracking their social status and inferring relationships among them. An individual's place in the social order can be learned through direct interactions with others, but conflicts can be time-consuming and even injurious. Because the number of possible pairwise interactions increases rapidly with group size, members of large social groups will benefit if they can make judgments about relationships on the basis of indirect evidence. Transitive reasoning should therefore be particularly important for social individuals, allowing assessment of relationships from observations of interactions among others. Although a variety of studies have suggested that transitive inference may be used in social settings, the phenomenon has not been demonstrated under controlled conditions in animals. Here we show that highly social pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) draw sophisticated inferences about their own dominance status relative to that of strangers that they have observed interacting with known individuals. These results directly demonstrate that animals use transitive inference in social settings and imply that such cognitive capabilities are widespread among social species.  
  Address Center for Avian Cognition, School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, 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 1476-4687 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:15306809 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @; Equine Behaviour @ team @ room B 3.029 Serial 352  
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Author Gentner, T.Q.; Fenn, K.M.; Margoliash, D.; Nusbaum, H.C. doi  openurl
  Title Recursive syntactic pattern learning by songbirds Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 440 Issue 7088 Pages 1204-1207  
  Keywords Acoustic Stimulation; *Animal Communication; Animals; Auditory Perception/*physiology; Humans; *Language; Learning/*physiology; Linguistics; Models, Neurological; Semantics; Starlings/*physiology; Stochastic Processes  
  Abstract Humans regularly produce new utterances that are understood by other members of the same language community. Linguistic theories account for this ability through the use of syntactic rules (or generative grammars) that describe the acceptable structure of utterances. The recursive, hierarchical embedding of language units (for example, words or phrases within shorter sentences) that is part of the ability to construct new utterances minimally requires a 'context-free' grammar that is more complex than the 'finite-state' grammars thought sufficient to specify the structure of all non-human communication signals. Recent hypotheses make the central claim that the capacity for syntactic recursion forms the computational core of a uniquely human language faculty. Here we show that European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) accurately recognize acoustic patterns defined by a recursive, self-embedding, context-free grammar. They are also able to classify new patterns defined by the grammar and reliably exclude agrammatical patterns. Thus, the capacity to classify sequences from recursive, centre-embedded grammars is not uniquely human. This finding opens a new range of complex syntactic processing mechanisms to physiological investigation.  
  Address Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA. tgentner@ucsd.edu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  ISSN 1476-4687 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16641998 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 353  
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Author Arnold, K.; Zuberbuhler, K. doi  openurl
  Title Language evolution: semantic combinations in primate calls Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 441 Issue 7091 Pages 303  
  Keywords Animal Migration; Animals; Eagles/physiology; *Evolution; Female; Haplorhini/*physiology; Male; Predatory Behavior; *Semantics; *Vocalization, Animal  
  Abstract Syntax sets human language apart from other natural communication systems, although its evolutionary origins are obscure. Here we show that free-ranging putty-nosed monkeys combine two vocalizations into different call sequences that are linked to specific external events, such as the presence of a predator and the imminent movement of the group. Our findings indicate that non-human primates can combine calls into higher-order sequences that have a particular meaning.  
  Address School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  ISSN 1476-4687 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16710411 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 354  
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Author Shettleworth, S.J. doi  openurl
  Title Animal behaviour: planning for breakfast Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 445 Issue 7130 Pages 825-826  
  Keywords Animals; Feeding Behavior/*physiology; *Food; Haplorhini/physiology; Memory/physiology; Songbirds/*physiology; Thinking/*physiology  
  Abstract  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1476-4687 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:17314961 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 356  
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Author Skov-Rackette, S.I.; Miller, N.Y.; Shettleworth, S.J. doi  openurl
  Title What-where-when memory in pigeons Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 32 Issue 4 Pages 345-358  
  Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal/physiology; Columbidae; Conditioning, Operant/physiology; Memory/*physiology; Reinforcement (Psychology); Space Perception/*physiology; Spatial Behavior/physiology; Teaching; Visual Perception/physiology  
  Abstract The authors report a novel approach to testing episodic-like memory for single events. Pigeons were trained in separate sessions to match the identity of a sample on a touch screen, to match its location, and to report on the length of the retention interval. When these 3 tasks were mixed randomly within sessions, birds were more than 80% correct on each task. However, performance on 2 different tests in succession after each sample was not consistent with an integrated memory for sample location, time, and identity. Experiment 2 tested binding of location and identity memories in 2 different ways. The results were again consistent with independent feature memories. Implications for tests of episodic-like memory are discussed.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0097-7403 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:17044738 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 357  
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Author Ratcliffe, J.M.; Fenton, M.B.; Shettleworth, S.J. doi  openurl
  Title Behavioral flexibility positively correlated with relative brain volume in predatory bats Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Brain, behavior and evolution Abbreviated Journal Brain Behav Evol  
  Volume 67 Issue 3 Pages 165-176  
  Keywords Adaptation, Psychological; Animals; Behavior, Animal/*physiology; Brain/*anatomy & histology/physiology; Chiroptera/*anatomy & histology/*physiology; Organ Size; Predatory Behavior/*physiology  
  Abstract We investigated the potential relationships between foraging strategies and relative brain and brain region volumes in predatory (animal-eating) echolocating bats. The species we considered represent the ancestral state for the order and approximately 70% of living bat species. The two dominant foraging strategies used by echolocating predatory bats are substrate-gleaning (taking prey from surfaces) and aerial hawking (taking airborne prey). We used species-specific behavioral, morphological, and ecological data to classify each of 59 predatory species as one of the following: (1) ground gleaning, (2) behaviorally flexible (i.e., known to both glean and hawk prey), (3) clutter tolerant aerial hawking, or (4) open-space aerial hawking. In analyses using both species level data and phylogenetically independent contrasts, relative brain size was larger in behaviorally flexible species. Further, relative neocortex volume was significantly reduced in bats that aerially hawk prey primarily in open spaces. Conversely, our foraging behavior index did not account for variability in hippocampus and inferior colliculus volume and we discuss these results in the context of past research.  
  Address Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. jmr247@cornell.edu  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0006-8977 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16415571 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 358  
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Author Gibson, B.M.; Juricevic, I.; Shettleworth, S.J.; Pratt, J.; Klein, R.M. openurl 
  Title Looking for inhibition of return in pigeons Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Learning & behavior : a Psychonomic Society publication Abbreviated Journal Learn Behav  
  Volume 33 Issue 3 Pages 296-308  
  Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal/*physiology; Columbidae; *Inhibition (Psychology); Reinforcement (Psychology)  
  Abstract We conducted four experiments in order to investigate whether pigeons' responses to a recently attended (i.e., recently pecked) location are inhibited. In Experiments 1 and 2, stimulus displays were similar to those used in studies of inhibition of return (IOR) with humans; responses to cued targets tended to be facilitated rather than inhibited. In Experiments 3 and 4, birds were presented with stimulus displays that mimicked clusters of small grains and were relatively localized, which should have been more appropriate for detecting IOR in pigeons. The results from these experiments again provided evidence for facilitation of responding to cued targets, rather than for IOR.  
  Address University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. bgibson@cisunix.unh.edu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1543-4494 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16396077 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 359  
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Author Shettleworth, S.J. doi  openurl
  Title Cognitive science: rank inferred by reason Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2004 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 430 Issue 7001 Pages 732-733  
  Keywords Animals; Cognition/*physiology; Group Structure; Male; *Social Dominance; Songbirds/*physiology  
  Abstract  
  Address  
  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 1476-4687 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:15306792 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 365  
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Shettleworth, S.J. doi  openurl
  Title Memory and hippocampal specialization in food-storing birds: challenges for research on comparative cognition Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2003 Publication Brain, behavior and evolution Abbreviated Journal Brain Behav Evol  
  Volume 62 Issue 2 Pages 108-116  
  Keywords Animals; Birds/*physiology; Cognition/*physiology; Color Perception/physiology; Feeding Behavior/*physiology; Hippocampus/*physiology; Memory/*physiology; Species Specificity  
  Abstract The three-way association among food-storing behavior, spatial memory, and hippocampal enlargement in some species of birds is widely cited as an example of a new 'cognitive ecology' or 'neuroecology.' Whether this relationship is as strong as it first appears and whether it might be evidence for an adaptive specialization of memory and hippocampus in food-storers have recently been the subject of some controversy [Bolhuis and Macphail, 2001; Macphail and Bolhuis, 2001]. These critiques are based on misconceptions about the nature of adaptive specializations in cognition, misconceptions about the uniformity of results to be expected from applying the comparative method to data from a wide range of species, and a narrow view of what kinds of cognitive adaptations are theoretically interesting. New analyses of why food-storers (black-capped chickadees, Poecile Atricapilla) respond preferentially to spatial over color cues when both are relevant in a memory task show that this reflects a relative superiority of spatial memory as compared to memory for color rather than exceptional spatial attention or spatial discrimination ability. New studies of chickadees from more or less harsh winter climates also support the adaptive specialization hypothesis and suggest that within-species comparisons may be especially valuable for unraveling details of the relationships among ecology, memory, and brain in food-storing species.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont., M5S 3G3, Canada. shettle@psych.utoronto.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 0006-8977 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:12937349 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 367  
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Author Jones, J.E.; Antoniadis, E.; Shettleworth, S.J.; Kamil, A.C. openurl 
  Title A comparative study of geometric rule learning by nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana), pigeons (Columba livia), and jackdaws (Corvus monedula) Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983) Abbreviated Journal J Comp Psychol  
  Volume 116 Issue 4 Pages 350-356  
  Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal/physiology; Birds; Feeding Behavior/physiology; Learning/*physiology; *Mathematics; Random Allocation; Spatial Behavior/*physiology  
  Abstract Three avian species, a seed-caching corvid (Clark's nutcrackers; Nucifraga columbiana), a non-seed-caching corvid (jackdaws; Corvus monedula), and a non-seed-caching columbid (pigeons; Columba livia), were tested for ability to learn to find a goal halfway between 2 landmarks when distance between the landmarks varied during training. All 3 species learned, but jackdaws took much longer than either pigeons or nutcrackers. The nutcrackers searched more accurately than either pigeons or jackdaws. Both nutcrackers and pigeons showed good transfer to novel landmark arrays in which interlandmark distances were novel, but inconclusive results were obtained from jackdaws. Species differences in this spatial task appear quantitative rather than qualitative and are associated with differences in natural history rather than phylogeny.  
  Address School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 68588-0118, USA  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0735-7036 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:12539930 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 369  
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