Records |
Author |
Pepperberg, I.M. |
Title |
In search of king Solomon's ring: cognitive and communicative studies of Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2002 |
Publication |
Brain, behavior and evolution |
Abbreviated Journal |
Brain Behav Evol |
Volume |
59 |
Issue |
1-2 |
Pages |
54-67 |
Keywords |
*Animal Communication; Animals; Attention/physiology; Cognition/*physiology; Cues; Form Perception/physiology; Humans; Intelligence; Learning/physiology; Male; Models, Psychological; Parrots/*physiology; Psychomotor Performance/physiology; Reward; Social Behavior |
Abstract |
During the past 24 years, I have used a modeling technique (M/R procedure) to train Grey parrots to use an allospecific code (English speech) referentially; I then use the code to test their cognitive abilities. The oldest bird, Alex, labels more than 50 different objects, 7 colors, 5 shapes, quantities to 6, 3 categories (color, shape, material) and uses 'no', 'come here', wanna go X' and 'want Y' (X and Y are appropriate location or item labels). He combines labels to identify, request, comment upon or refuse more than 100 items and to alter his environment. He processes queries to judge category, relative size, quantity, presence or absence of similarity/difference in attributes, and show label comprehension. He semantically separates labeling from requesting. He thus exhibits capacities once presumed limited to humans or nonhuman primates. Studies on this and other Greys show that parrots given training that lacks some aspect of input present in M/R protocols (reference, functionality, social interaction) fail to acquire referential English speech. Examining how input affects the extent to which parrots acquire an allospecific code may elucidate mechanisms of other forms of exceptional learning: learning unlikely in the normal course of development but that can occur under certain conditions. |
Address |
The MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, Mass. 02139, USA. impepper@media.mit.edu |
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0006-8977 |
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PMID:12097860 |
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no |
Call Number |
refbase @ user @ |
Serial |
579 |
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Author |
Shettleworth, S.J. |
Title |
Memory and hippocampal specialization in food-storing birds: challenges for research on comparative cognition |
Type |
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 |
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0006-8977 |
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PMID:12937349 |
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no |
Call Number |
refbase @ user @ |
Serial |
367 |
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Author |
Zentall, T.R. |
Title |
Support for a theory of memory for event duration must distinguish between test-trial ambiguity and actual memory loss |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
1999 |
Publication |
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior |
Abbreviated Journal |
J Exp Anal Behav |
Volume |
72 |
Issue |
3 |
Pages |
467-472 |
Keywords |
Animals; Behavior, Animal/physiology; Columbidae; Conditioning, Operant/physiology; Discrimination Learning/physiology; Memory/*physiology; *Psychological Theory; Time Factors; Time Perception/physiology |
Abstract |
Staddon and Higa's (1999) trace-strength theory of timing and memory for event duration can account for pigeons' bias to “choose short” when retention intervals are introduced and to “choose long” when, following training with a fixed retention interval, retention intervals are shortened. However, it does not account for the failure of pigeons to choose short when the intertrial interval is distinct from the retention interval. That finding suggests that stimulus generalization (or ambiguity) between the intertrial interval and the retention interval may result in an effect that has been attributed to memory loss. Such artifacts must be eliminated before a theory of memory for event duration can be adequately tested. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506, USA. zentall@pop.uky.edu |
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0022-5002 |
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PMID:10605105 |
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no |
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refbase @ user @ |
Serial |
251 |
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Author |
Rogers, L.J. |
Title |
Evolution of hemispheric specialization: advantages and disadvantages |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2000 |
Publication |
Brain and Language |
Abbreviated Journal |
Brain Lang |
Volume |
73 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
236-253 |
Keywords |
Aggression/psychology; Animals; Behavior, Animal/physiology; Brain/*physiology; Chickens/physiology; *Evolution; Feeding Behavior/physiology; Functional Laterality/*physiology; Visual Fields/physiology; Visual Perception/physiology |
Abstract |
Lateralization of the brain appeared early in evolution and many of its features appear to have been retained, possibly even in humans. We now have a considerable amount of information on the different forms of lateralization in a number of species, and the commonalities of these are discussed, but there has been relatively little investigation of the advantages of being lateralized. This article reports new findings on the differences between lateralized and nonlateralized chicks. The lateralized chicks were exposed to light for 24 h on day 19 of incubation, a treatment known to lead to lateralization of a number of visually guided responses, and the nonlateralized chicks were incubated in the dark. When they were feeding, the lateralized chicks were found to detect a stimulus resembling a raptor with shorter latency than nonlateralized chicks. This difference was not a nonspecific effect caused by the light-exposed chicks being more distressed by the stimulus. Instead, it appears to be a genuine advantage conferred by having a lateralized brain. It is suggested that having a lateralized brain allows dual attention to the tasks of feeding (right eye and left hemisphere) and vigilance for predators (left eye and right hemisphere). Nonlateralized chicks appear to perform these dual tasks less efficiently than lateralized ones. Reference is made to other species in discussing these results. |
Address |
Division of Zoology, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. lrogers@metz.une.edu.au |
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0093-934X |
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PMID:10856176 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
4621 |
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Author |
Lazareva, O.F.; Smirnova, A.A.; Bagozkaja, M.S.; Zorina, Z.A.; Rayevsky, V.V.; Wasserman, E.A. |
Title |
Transitive responding in hooded crows requires linearly ordered stimuli |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2004 |
Publication |
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior |
Abbreviated Journal |
J Exp Anal Behav |
Volume |
82 |
Issue |
1 |
Pages |
1-19 |
Keywords |
Animals; *Association; Cognition/physiology; Crows; Discrimination (Psychology); *Discrimination Learning; Feedback; Reinforcement (Psychology); Visual Perception/physiology |
Abstract |
Eight crows were taught to discriminate overlapping pairs of visual stimuli (A+ B-, B+ C-, C+ D-, and D+ E-). For 4 birds, the stimuli were colored cards with a circle of the same color on the reverse side whose diameter decreased from A to E (ordered feedback group). These circles were made available for comparison to potentially help the crows order the stimuli along a physical dimension. For the other 4 birds, the circles corresponding to the colored cards had the same diameter (constant feedback group). In later testing, a novel choice pair (BD) was presented. Reinforcement history involving stimuli B and D was controlled so that the reinforcement/nonreinforcement ratios for the latter would be greater than for the former. If, during the BD test, the crows chose between stimuli according to these reinforcement/nonreinforcement ratios, then they should prefer D; if they chose according to the diameter of the feedback stimuli, then they should prefer B. In the ordered feedback group, the crows strongly preferred B over D; in the constant feedback group, the crows' choice did not differ significantly from chance. These results, plus simulations using associative models, suggest that the orderability of the postchoice feedback stimuli is important for crows' transitive responding. |
Address |
Institute of Higher Nervous Activity, Moscow State University. olga-lazareva@uiowa.edu |
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0022-5002 |
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PMID:15484868 |
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Call Number |
refbase @ user @ |
Serial |
612 |
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Author |
Heffner, R.S.; Heffner, H.E. |
Title |
Localization of tones by horses: use of binaural cues and the role of the superior olivary complex |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
1986 |
Publication |
Behavioral Neuroscience |
Abbreviated Journal |
Behav Neurosci |
Volume |
100 |
Issue |
1 |
Pages |
93-103 |
Keywords |
Animals; Auditory Pathways/physiology; Auditory Perception/*physiology; Avoidance Learning/physiology; Brain Mapping; Electroshock; Female; Horses/*physiology; Male; Olivary Nucleus/anatomy & histology/*physiology; Orientation/physiology; Pitch Perception/physiology; Sound Localization/*physiology |
Abstract |
The ability of horses to use binaural time and intensity difference cues to localize sound was assessed in free-field localization tests by using pure tones. The animals were required to discriminate the locus of a single tone pip ranging in frequency from 250 Hz to 25 kHz emitted by loudspeakers located 30 degrees to the left and right of the animals' midline (60 degrees total separation). Three animals were tested with a two-choice procedure; 2 additional animals were tested with a conditioned avoidance procedure. All 5 animals were able to localize 250 Hz, 500 Hz, and 1 kHz but were completely unable to localize 2 kHz and above. Because the frequency of ambiguity for the binaural phase cue delta phi for horses in this test was calculated to be 1.5 kHz, these results indicate that horses can use binaural time differences in the form of delta phi but are unable to use binaural intensity differences. This finding was supported by an unconditioned orientation test involving 4 additional horses, which showed that horses correctly orient to a 500-Hz tone pip but not to an 8-kHz tone pip. Analysis of the superior olivary complex, the brain stem nucleus at which binaural interactions first take place, reveals that the lateral superior olive (LSO) is relatively small in the horse and lacks the laminar arrangement of bipolar cells characteristic of the LSO of most mammals that can use binaural delta I. |
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0735-7044 |
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PMID:3954885 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
5634 |
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Author |
Wolfe, J.M. |
Title |
Hidden visual processes |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
1983 |
Publication |
Scientific American |
Abbreviated Journal |
Sci Am |
Volume |
248 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
94-103 |
Keywords |
Color Perception/*physiology; Humans; Motion Perception/physiology; Ocular Physiology; Vision; Visual Perception/*physiology |
Abstract |
Isoluminant stimulus is an image whose edges are defined only by a change in color, not by change in brightness. The stimulus here is imperfect: the blue parts and the green parts of the image are only as nearly equal in brightness as they can be on the printed page. Moreover, the change in brightness beyond the edge of the page is apparent, and so is the fact that the reader is holding the magazine at reading distance. When such cues are removed under laboratory conditions, subjects faced with an isoluminant stimulus prove unable to bring its edges into focus. This deficiency contributes to making a familiar face hard to recognize. The experiment indicates that the brain process underlying visual accommodation (the focusing of the eyes) cannot “see” color; it is a hidden process distinct from the processes that lead to perception. The image shows Groucho Marx as he appeared in the motion picture Horse Feathers. |
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0036-8733 |
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PMID:6836258 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4066 |
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Author |
Levy, J. |
Title |
The mammalian brain and the adaptive advantage of cerebral asymmetry |
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Journal Article |
Year |
1977 |
Publication |
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences |
Abbreviated Journal |
Ann N Y Acad Sci |
Volume |
299 |
Issue |
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Pages |
264-272 |
Keywords |
*Adaptation, Physiological; Adaptation, Psychological/physiology; Animals; Behavior, Animal/physiology; Brain/*physiology; Cognition/physiology; Dominance, Cerebral/*physiology; *Evolution; Humans; Intelligence; Perception/physiology |
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0077-8923 |
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PMID:280207 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4137 |
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