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Griffin, A. S. (2008). Socially acquired predator avoidance: Is it just classical conditioning? Special Issue:Brain Mechanisms, Cognition and Behaviour in Birds, 76(3), 264–271.
Abstract: Associative learning theories presume the existence of a general purpose learning process, the structure of which does not mirror the demands of any particular learning problem. In contrast, learning scientists working within an Evolutionary Biology tradition believe that learning processes have been shaped by ecological demands. One potential means of exploring how ecology may have modified properties of acquisition is to use associative learning theory as a framework within which to analyse a particular learning phenomenon. Recent work has used this approach to examine whether socially transmitted predator avoidance can be conceptualised as a classical conditioning process in which a novel predator stimulus acts as a conditioned stimulus (CS) and acquires control over an avoidance response after it has become associated with alarm signals of social companions, the unconditioned stimulus (US). I review here a series of studies examining the effect of CS/US presentation timing on the likelihood of acquisition. Results suggest that socially acquired predator avoidance may be less sensitive to forward relationships than traditional classical conditioning paradigms. I make the case that socially acquired predator avoidance is an exciting novel one-trial learning paradigm that could be studied along side fear conditioning. Comparisons between social and non-social learning of danger at both the behavioural and neural level may yield a better understanding of how ecology might shape properties and mechanisms of learning.
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Rybarczyk, P., Koba, Y., Rushen, J., Tanida, H., & de Passille, A. M. (2001). Can cows discriminate people by their faces? Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 74(3), 175–189.
Abstract: This experiment examines the cues used by cattle to discriminate between people, particularly the role played by facial cues. We trained and tested eight Holstein cows 5 days each week for 2 months. For each cow, we used two people, a rewarder and a non-rewarder, of different size and dressed in overalls of the same colour. The operant chamber was a large box within which stood the two people. The cow could see, smell and touch each person. A lever was placed in front of each person. When the cow pushed the lever in front of the rewarder, it received 75 g of concentrate and nothing when it pushed on the other one. For each test session, the cows made 10 choices. The placement of the people was determined randomly according to the Gellerman series. The success criterion was defined as at least eight correct choices out of 10 trials for two consecutive sessions (binomial law P<0.003). During the shaping, seven cows out of eight learned to press the lever to obtain the food. The cows were then tested in a series of 10 trials with only the rewarder present. Seven out of seven cows succeeded in reaching the success criterion. In experiment 1, both the rewarder and the non-rewarder were present and standing upright at normal height and in full view of the cow. Five out of seven cows achieved the success criterion. In experiment 2, the cows could see only the faces of the two people. None of the cows were able to reach the success criterion. In experiment 3, both people were present standing up and wearing identical masks that completely covered their heads. Five cows out of five achieved the success criterion. In experiment 4, we changed the relative height of the people. Five cows out of five succeeded when the two people stood so they were of equal height but with their faces visible. However, no cows succeeded when the people were both of equal height and had their faces covered. This study suggests that cows seem to use multiple cues to discriminate between people. Cows appear able to use either body height or the face to discriminate between people but use of the face alone is more difficult when the cows cannot see the rest of the body.
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Clayton, H. M. (1993). Development of conditioning programs for dressage horses based on time-motion analysis of competitions. J Appl Physiol, 74(5), 2325–2329.
Abstract: The time-motion characteristics of Canadian basic- and medium-level dressage competitions are described, and the results are applied in formulating sport-specific conditioning programs. One competition was analyzed at the six levels from basic 1 to medium 3. Each test was divided into a series of sequences based on the type and speed of activity. The durations of the sequences were measured from videotapes. The basic-level tests had fewer sequences, and they were shorter in distance and duration than the medium tests (P < 0.10), but the average speed did not differ between the two levels. It is recommended that horses competing at the basic levels be conditioned using 5-min exercise periods, with short (10-s) bursts of lengthened trot and canter included at basic 2 and above. In preparation for medium-level competitions, the duration of the work periods increases to 7 min, 10- to 12-s bursts of medium or extended trot and canter are included, and transitions are performed frequently to simulate the energy expenditure in overcoming inertia.
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Zentall, T. R. (2006). Mental time travel in animals: a challenging question. Behav. Process., 72(2), 173–183.
Abstract: Humans have the ability to mentally recreate past events (using episodic memory) and imagine future events (by planning). The best evidence for such mental time travel is personal and thus subjective. For this reason, it is particularly difficult to study such behavior in animals. There is some indirect evidence, however, that animals have both episodic memory and the ability to plan for the future. When unexpectedly asked to do so, animals can report about their recent past experiences (episodic memory) and they also appear to be able to use the anticipation of a future event as the basis for a present action (planning). Thus, the ability to imagine past and future events may not be uniquely human.
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Zentall, T. R. (1999). Support for a theory of memory for event duration must distinguish between test-trial ambiguity and actual memory loss. J Exp Anal Behav, 72(3), 467–472.
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.
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Boughner, R. L., & Papini, M. R. (2006). Appetitive latent inhibition in rats: preexposure performance does not predict conditioned performance. Behav. Process., 72(1), 42–51.
Abstract: Nonreinforced preexposure to a conditioned stimulus impairs subsequent conditioning with that stimulus. The goal of these studies was to assess the extent to which acquisition performance could be predicted from preexposure performance using a correlational approach. For both preexposure and autoshaping, four measures of performance were computed, including overall average lever pressing, lever pressing in the initial session, percentage change in lever pressing, and slopes. These measures were correlated in a large sample of rats trained in an autoshaping situation. None of the three measures of autoshaping performance was consistently predicted by any of the three measures of preexposure performance. These results are consistent with the view that latent inhibition is not reducible to long-term habituation.
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Heyes, C. M. (1994). Social learning in animals: categories and mechanisms. Biol. Rev., 69(2), 207–231.
Abstract: There has been relatively little research on the psychological mechanisms of social learning. This may be due, in part, to the practice of distinguishing categories of social learning in relation to ill-defined mechanisms (Davis, 1973; Galef, 1988). This practice both makes it difficult to identify empirically examples of different types of social learning, and gives the false impression that the mechanisms responsible for social learning are clearly understood. It has been proposed that social learning phenomena be subsumed within the categorization scheme currently used by investigators of asocial learning. This scheme distinguishes categories of learning according to observable conditions, namely, the type of experience that gives rise to a change in an animal (single stimulus vs. stimulus-stimulus relationship vs. response-reinforcer relationship), and the type of behaviour in which this change is detected (response evocation vs. learnability) (Rescorla, 1988). Specifically, three alignments have been proposed: (i) stimulus enhancement with single stimulus learning, (ii) observational conditioning with stimulus-stimulus learning, or Pavlovian conditioning, and (iii) observational learning with response-reinforcer learning, or instrumental conditioning. If, as the proposed alignments suggest, the conditions of social and asocial learning are the same, there is some reason to believe that the mechanisms underlying the two sets of phenomena are also the same. This is so if one makes the relatively uncontroversial assumption that phenomena which occur under similar conditions tend to be controlled by similar mechanisms. However, the proposed alignments are intended to be a set of hypotheses, rather than conclusions, about the mechanisms of social learning; as a basis for further research in which animal learning theory is applied to social learning. A concerted attempt to apply animal learning theory to social learning, to find out whether the same mechanisms are responsible for social and asocial learning, could lead both to refinements of the general theory, and to a better understanding of the mechanisms of social learning. There are precedents for these positive developments in research applying animal learning theory to food aversion learning (e.g. Domjan, 1983; Rozin & Schull, 1988) and imprinting (e.g. Bolhuis, de Vox & Kruit, 1990; Hollis, ten Cate & Bateson, 1991). Like social learning, these phenomena almost certainly play distinctive roles in the antogeny of adaptive behaviour, and they are customarily regarded as 'special kinds' of learning (Shettleworth, 1993).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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Krzak, W. E., Gonyou, H. W., & Lawrence, L. M. (1991). Wood chewing by stabled horses: diurnal pattern and effects of exercise. J. Anim Sci., 69(3), 1053–1058.
Abstract: Nine yearling horses, stabled in individual stalls, were used in a trial to determine the diurnal pattern of wood chewing and the effects of exercise on this behavior. The trial was a Latin square design conducted over three 2-wk periods during which each horse was exposed to each of the three following treatments: 1) no exercise (NE), 2) exercise after the morning feeding (AM), and 3) exercise in the afternoon (PM). Horses were fed a complete pelleted feed in the morning and both pelleted feed and long-stemmed hay in the afternoon. Exercise consisted of 45 min on a mechanical walker followed by 45 min in a paddock with bare soil. Each stall was equipped with two untreated spruce boards during each period for wood chewing. Wood chewing was evaluated by videotaping each horse for 22 h during each period, determining the weight and volume of the boards before and after each period, and by visual appraisal of the boards. Intake of trace mineralized salt was also measured. Wood chewing occurred primarily between 2200 and 1200. All measures of wood chewing were correlated when totals for the entire 6 wk were analyzed. When analysis was performed on 2-wk values, videotape results were not correlated with volume or weight loss of boards. Horses chewed more when on the NE treatment (511 s/d) than when on AM or PM (57 and 136 s/d, respectively; P less than .05). Salt intake tended to be greater for NE than for the other treatments (P less than .10).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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Santamaria, S., Bobbert, M. F., Back, W., Barneveld, A., & van Weeren, P. R. (2005). Effect of early training on the jumping technique of horses. Am J Vet Res, 66(3), 418–424.
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of early training for jumping by comparing the jumping technique of horses that had received early training with that of horses raised conventionally. ANIMALS: 40 Dutch Warmblood horses. PROCEDURE: The horses were analyzed kinematically during free jumping at 6 months of age. Subsequently, they were allocated into a control group that was raised conventionally and an experimental group that received 30 months of early training starting at 6 months of age. At 4 years of age, after a period of rest in pasture and a short period of training with a rider, both groups were analyzed kinematically during free jumping. Subsequently, both groups started a 1-year intensive training for jumping, and at 5 years of age, they were again analyzed kinematically during free jumping. In addition, the horses competed in a puissance competition to test maximal performance. RESULTS: Whereas there were no differences in jumping technique between experimental and control horses at 6 months of age, at 4 years, the experimental horses jumped in a more effective manner than the control horses; they raised their center of gravity less yet cleared more fences successfully than the control horses. However, at 5 years of age, these differences were not detected. Furthermore, the experimental horses did not perform better than the control horses in the puissance competition. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Specific training for jumping of horses at an early age is unnecessary because the effects on jumping technique and jumping capacity are not permanent.
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Hernandez, J., & Hawkins, D. L. (2001). Training failure among yearling horses. Am J Vet Res, 62(9), 1418–1422.
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To compare financial returns between pinhooked yearling horses (ie, bought and trained for approximately 5 months with the goal of selling the horse at “2-year-olds in training” sales) that had mild or severe training failure and horses that had planned versus nonplanned training failure. ANIMALS: 40 Thoroughbred pinhooked yearling horses. PROCEDURE: During the period from September 1998 through and April 1999, 20 horses had mild training failure (1 to 11 days lost), and 20 horses had severe training failure (13 to 108 days lost). Horses were assigned to these 2 groups on the basis of frequency distribution (median) of days lost during training. Horses were also categorized on the basis of type of training failure (planned vs nonplanned training failure). The outcome of primary interest was financial return. Median financial returns were compared among groups by use of the Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: Median financial returns for horses that had severe training failure ($1,000) were significantly different, compared with horses that had mild training failure ($24,000). Analysis of results also indicated that median returns were significantly different among horses that had planned training failure (-$2,000; eg, horses with radiographic abnormalities detected during routine prepurchase examinations that required surgical treatment, resulting in days lost during training), compared with horses that did not ($10,000). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Training failure has an economic impact on revenues in pinhooked yearling horses. Lameness, planned training failure, respiratory disease, and ringworm were common and important causes of training failure.
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