| Records |
| Author |
Amé, J.-M.; Halloy, J.; Rivault, C.; Detrain, C.; Deneubourg, J.L. |
| Title |
Collegial decision making based on social amplification leads to optimal group formation |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year  |
2006 |
Publication |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
Abbreviated Journal |
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. |
| Volume |
103 |
Issue |
15 |
Pages |
5835-5840 |
| Keywords |
Animals; Blattellidae/*physiology; Choice Behavior; Decision Making; Leadership; *Social Behavior |
| Abstract |
Group-living animals are often faced with choosing between one or more alternative resource sites. A central question in such collective decision making includes determining which individuals induce the decision and when. This experimental and theoretical study of shelter selection by cockroach groups demonstrates that choices can emerge through nonlinear interaction dynamics between equal individuals without perfect knowledge or leadership. We identify a simple mechanism whereby a decision is taken on the move with limited information and signaling and without comparison of available opportunities. This mechanism leads to optimal mean benefit for group individuals. Our model points to a generic self-organized collective decision-making process independent of animal species. |
| Address |
Service d'Ecologie Sociale CP231, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Avenue F. D. Roosevelt 50, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium |
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0027-8424 |
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PMID:16581903 |
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no |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2042 |
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| Author |
Cheng, K.; Wignall, A.E. |
| Title |
Honeybees (Apis mellifera) holding on to memories: response competition causes retroactive interference effects |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
| Volume |
9 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
141-150 |
| Keywords |
Animals; Bees/*physiology; Choice Behavior/physiology; *Cues; Memory/*physiology; Perceptual Masking/physiology; Space Perception/*physiology; Spatial Behavior/*physiology |
| Abstract |
Five experiments on honeybees examined how the learning of a second task interferes with what was previously learned. Free flying bees were tested for landmark-based memory in variations on a paradigm of retroactive interference. Bees first learned Task 1, were tested on Task 1 (Test 1), then learned Task 2, and were tested again on Task 1 (Test 2). A 60-min delay (waiting in a box) before Test 2 caused no performance decrements. If the two tasks had conflicting response requirements, (e.g., target right of a green landmark in Task 1 and left of a blue landmark in Task 2), then a strong decrement on Test 2 was found (retroactive interference effect). When response competition was minimised during training or testing, however, the decrement on Test 2 was small or nonexistent. The results implicate response competition as a major contributor to the retroactive interference effect. The honeybee seems to hold on to memories; new memories do not wipe out old ones. |
| Address |
Centre for the Integrative Study of Animal Behaviour and Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia. ken@galliform.bhs.mq.edu.au |
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1435-9448 |
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PMID:16374626 |
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no |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2477 |
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| Author |
Ward, C.; Smuts, B.B. |
| Title |
Quantity-based judgments in the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2007 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
| Volume |
10 |
Issue |
1 |
Pages |
71-80 |
| Keywords |
Animals; *Choice Behavior; Dogs; Female; Food; Male; *Size Perception |
| Abstract |
We examined the ability of domestic dogs to choose the larger versus smaller quantity of food in two experiments. In experiment 1, we investigated the ability of 29 dogs (results from 18 dogs were used in the data analysis) to discriminate between two quantities of food presented in eight different combinations. Choices were simultaneously presented and visually available at the time of choice. Overall, subjects chose the larger quantity more often than the smaller quantity, but they found numerically close comparisons more difficult. In experiment 2, we tested two dogs from experiment 1 under three conditions. In condition 1, we used similar methods from experiment 1 and tested the dogs multiple times on the eight combinations from experiment 1 plus one additional combination. In conditions 2 and 3, the food was visually unavailable to the subjects at the time of choice, but in condition 2, food choices were viewed simultaneously before being made visually unavailable, and in condition 3, they were viewed successively. In these last two conditions, and especially in condition 3, the dogs had to keep track of quantities mentally in order to choose optimally. Subjects still chose the larger quantity more often than the smaller quantity when the food was not simultaneously visible at the time of choice. Olfactory cues and inadvertent cuing by the experimenter were excluded as mechanisms for choosing larger quantities. The results suggest that, like apes tested on similar tasks, some dogs can form internal representations and make mental comparisons of quantity. |
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Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 1012 East Hall, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043, USA. rameses@unich.edu |
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1435-9448 |
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| Notes |
PMID:16941158 |
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no |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2440 |
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| Author |
Naug, D.; Arathi, H.S. |
| Title |
Sampling and decision rules used by honey bees in a foraging arena |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2007 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
| Volume |
10 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
117-124 |
| Keywords |
Animals; Bees/*physiology; *Choice Behavior; Cooperative Behavior; *Feeding Behavior; Flight, Animal |
| Abstract |
Animals must continuously choose among various available options to exploit the most profitable resource. They also need to keep themselves updated about the values of all available options, since their relative values can change quickly due to depletion or exploitation by competitors. While the sampling and decision rules by which foragers profitably exploit a flower patch have attracted a great deal of attention in theory and experiments with bumble bees, similar rules for honey bee foragers, which face similar foraging challenges, are not as well studied. By presenting foragers of the honey bee Apis cerana with choice tests in a foraging arena and recording their behavior, we investigate possible sampling and decision rules that the foragers use to choose one option over another and to track other options. We show that a large part of the sampling and decision-making process of a foraging honey bee can be explained by decomposing the choice behavior into dichotomous decision points and incorporating the cost of sampling. The results suggest that a honey bee forager, by using a few simple rules as part of a Bayesian inference process, is able to effectively deal with the complex task of successfully exploiting foraging patches that consist of dynamic and multiple options. |
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Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA. dhruba@lamar.colostate.edu |
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1435-9448 |
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| Notes |
PMID:16941157 |
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no |
| Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2441 |
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| Author |
Bryson, J.; Leong, J. |
| Title |
Primate errors in transitive inference: a two-tier learning model |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2007 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
| Volume |
10 |
Issue |
1 |
Pages |
1-15 |
| Keywords |
Transitive inference, choice or performance – Task learning – Hippocampal learning – Modelling |
| Abstract |
Abstract Transitive performance (TP) is a learning-based behaviour exhibited by a wide range of species, where if a subject has been taught to prefer A when presented with the pair AB but to prefer B when presented with the pair BC, then the subject will also prefer A when presented with the novel pair AC. Most explanations of TP assume that subjects recognize and learn an underlying sequence from observing the training pairs. However, data from squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) and young children contradict this, showing that when three different items (a triad) are drawn from the sequence, subjects`` performance degrades systematically (McGonigle and Chalmers, Nature 267:694-696, 1977; Chalmers and McGonigle, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 37:355-377, 1984; Harris and McGonigle, The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 47B:319-348, 1994). We present here the two-tier model, the first learning model of TP which accounts for this systematic performance degradation. Our model assumes primate TP is based on a general-purpose task learning system rather than a special-purpose sequence-learning system. It supports the hypothesis of Heckers et al. (Hippocampus 14:153-162, 2004) that TP is an expression of two separate general learning elements: one for associating actions and contexts, another for prioritising associations when more than one context is present. The two-tier model also provides explanations for why phased training is important for helping subjects learn the initial training pairs and why some subjects fail to do so. It also supports the Harris and McGonigle (The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 47B:319-348, 1994) explanation of why, once the training pairs have been acquired, subjects perform transitive choice automatically on two-item diads, but not when exposed to triads from the same sequence. |
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Admin @ knut @ |
Serial |
4221 |
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Fleurance, G.; Duncan, P.; Fritz, H.; Cabaret, J.; Cortet, J.; Gordon, I.J. |
| Title |
Selection of feeding sites by horses at pasture: Testing the anti-parasite theory |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2007 |
Publication |
Applied Animal Behaviour Science |
Abbreviated Journal |
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. |
| Volume |
108 |
Issue |
3-4 |
Pages |
228-301 |
| Keywords |
Foraging strategies; Horses; Parasite risk; Patch choice |
| Abstract |
Management of grazed grasslands for production and/or conservation objectives requires a thorough understanding of the choices of feeding sites by herbivores, and of the biological processes involved. Most models of the feeding strategies of herbivores are based on the principle that optimising the intake of energy (or some nutrient) is the primary goal of foragers but other selective forces, such as parasitism, could be important. Gastrointestinal parasites (including cyathostome nematodes) have powerful effects on the fitness of herbivores and may act as a major selection pressure favouring host behaviour that reduces the risk of encountering parasites. Among large herbivores, horses have perhaps the most marked tendency to select particular feeding sites within grasslands. We test here: (1) whether horses select feeding patches with relatively low parasite densities and (2) if their choice is affected by their parasite load. We used 10 two-year old saddle-horses and three periods. In the first period, the horses were under natural parasitism which varied strongly among individuals; in the second period they were all dewormed, and in the third, a sub-set of the horses was experimentally infected with cyathostome larvae. Ninety-eight percent of the infective larvae in the pasture were found <1 m from faeces. The main determinant of the choice of feeding patch by horses was the availability of patches of different parasite risk and grass height. Controlling for availability, the horses used tall grasses (>16 cm) less than expected, whether the grass was contaminated or not, and they selected for short patches >1 m from faeces, where the risk of encountering parasites was low. These results suggest that selection of feeding sites by horses is driven by an interaction between their nutritional and anti-parasite strategies: the horses avoid the patches of tall grass which are generally of low quality and areas contaminated by parasite larvae which leads them to prefer the patches of short grass far from faeces. The parasite status of the horses at the time of the experiment had no effect on their feeding choices. However, before concluding that the challenge by cyathostomes has no effect on the selection of feeding sites in horses, it will be necessary to test whether the history of parasitism of the individuals, rather than the current status, is important. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
4228 |
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Scordato, E.S.; Drea, C.M. |
| Title |
Scents and sensibility: information content of olfactory signals in the ringtailed lemur, Lemur catta |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2007 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
| Volume |
73 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
301-314 |
| Keywords |
chemical communication; female dominance; individual recognition; intrasexual competition; Lemur catta; mate choice; reproductive signalling; ringtailed lemur; scent marking; seasonality |
| Abstract |
The function of olfactory signalling in social species is less well understood than in asocial species. Consequently, we examined olfactory communication in the ringtailed lemur, a socially complex primate that retains a functional vomeronasal organ, has well-developed scent glands and shows a suite of scent-marking behaviour. To assess the information content of different types of scent gland secretions, we decoupled olfactory cues from the visual and behavioural modalities with which scent marking is normally associated. We presented male and female subjects (signal receivers) with a series of choice tests between odours derived from conspecific donors (signal senders) varying by sex, age, social status and reproductive condition. We additionally examined the influence of the receivers' reproductive state and familiarity with the signaller. The reproductive condition, social status and familiarity of senders and receivers affected signal transmission; specifically, male receivers attended most to the odours of conspecifics in breeding condition and to the odours of familiar, dominant animals. By contrast, females varied their responses according to both their own reproductive state and that of the sender. Based on male and female patterns of countermarking, we suggest that scent marking serves a function in intergroup spacing and intrasexual competition for both sexes, as might be expected in a female-dominant species. By contrast, minimal female interest in male odours counters a female mate choice function for scent marking in this species. Nevertheless, scent marks are critical to male-male competition and, therefore, may be subject to sexual selection. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4648 |
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Krause, J.; Croft, D.; James, R. |
| Title |
Social network theory in the behavioural sciences: potential applications |
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Journal Article |
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2007 |
Publication |
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology |
Abbreviated Journal |
Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. |
| Volume |
62 |
Issue |
1 |
Pages |
15-27 |
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Social networks – Social organisation – Mate choice – Disease transmission – Information transfer – Cooperation |
| Abstract |
Abstract Social network theory has made major contributions to our understanding of human social organisation but has found relatively little application in the field of animal behaviour. In this review, we identify several broad research areas where the networks approach could greatly enhance our understanding of social patterns and processes in animals. The network theory provides a quantitative framework that can be used to characterise social structure both at the level of the individual and the population. These novel quantitative variables may provide a new tool in addressing key questions in behavioural ecology particularly in relation to the evolution of social organisation and the impact of social structure on evolutionary processes. For example, network measures could be used to compare social networks of different species or populations making full use of the comparative approach. However, the networks approach can in principle go beyond identifying structural patterns and also can help with the understanding of processes within animal populations such as disease transmission and information transfer. Finally, understanding the pattern of interactions in the network (i.e. who is connected to whom) can also shed some light on the evolution of behavioural strategies. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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5171 |
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White, A.M.; Swaisgood, R.R.; Czekala, N. |
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Ranging patterns in white rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum simum: implications for mating strategies |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2007 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour |
Abbreviated Journal |
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. |
| Volume |
74 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
349-356 |
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Ceratotherium simum simum; foraging; habitat choice; home range use; mate choice; mating systems; ranging pattern; resource distribution; white rhinoceros |
| Abstract |
How animals use space has important consequences for feeding ecology, social organization, mating strategies and conservation management. In white rhinoceros, female home ranges are much larger than male territories, suggesting that movement patterns are influenced by factors other than resource distribution. In this study we placed radiotransmitters on 15 female white rhinoceros, recording 1758 locations and collecting behavioural data during 1671 observation sessions, making this the largest data set of its kind in this species. We investigated how habitat variables and male territories influenced female movement and reproductive behaviour. Female home ranges were approximately 20 km2 and core areas were 5 km2, with male territories roughly the same size as female core areas. Female range size did not vary with season, but the pattern of space use did vary. Females used grassland habitat preferentially, utilizing these areas significantly more than expected based on availability. Findings relevant to the mating strategy include: (1) the amount of grassland in a male's territory predicted female use of the territory; (2) the time that a female spent in a male's territory was a significant predictor of reproductive activity with the male, indicating that females probably mate with the most familiar male; and (3) the temporal pattern of female space use suggests that females did not increase mate sampling behaviour nor did they become more choosy about which males they visited when reproductively active. These findings suggest that males may maximize reproductive success by defending areas containing more grassland habitat. |
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0003-3472 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6146 |
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Prato-Previde, E.; Marshall-Pescini, S.; Valsecchi, P. |
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Is your choice my choice` The owners effect on pet dogs? ( Canis lupus familiaris ) performance in a food choice task |
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Journal Article |
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2008 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
| Volume |
11 |
Issue |
1 |
Pages |
167-174 |
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Dog – Dog-owner relationship – Food choice task – Quantity discrimination |
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Abstract This study investigates the influence of owners on their dogs performance in a food choice task using either different or equal quantities of food. Fifty-four pet dogs were tested in three different conditions. In Condition 1 we evaluated their ability to choose between a large and small amount of food (quantity discrimination task). In Condition 2 dogs were again presented with a choice between the large and small food quantity, but only after having witnessed their owner favouring the small quantity. In Condition 3 dogs were given a choice between two equally small quantities of food having witnessed their owner favouring either one or the other. A strong effect of the owner on the dogs`` performance was observed. In Condition 1 dogs as a group chose significantly more often the large food quantity, thus showing their ability to solve the quantity discrimination task. After observing their owner expressing a preference for the small food quantity they chose the large quantity of food significantly less than in the independent choice situation. The tendency to conform to the owner`s choice was higher when the dogs had to choose between equally small quantities of food (Condition 3) rather than between a large and a small one (Condition 2). These results provide evidence that dogs can be influenced by their owners even when their indications are clearly in contrast with direct perceptual information, thus leading dogs to ultimately make counterproductive choices. |
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Admin @ knut @ |
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4216 |
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