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Author Uller, C.; Jaeger, R.; Guidry, G.; Martin, C.
Title Salamanders ( Plethodon cinereus) go for more: rudiments of number in an amphibian Type Journal Article
Year (down) 2003 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages 105-112
Keywords Animals; *Cognition; Discrimination Learning; Female; Male; Mathematics; *Urodela
Abstract Techniques traditionally used in developmental research with infants have been widely used with nonhuman primates in the investigation of comparative cognitive abilities. Recently, researchers have shown that human infants and monkeys select the larger of two numerosities in a spontaneous forced-choice discrimination task. Here we adopt the same method to assess in a series of experiments spontaneous choice of the larger of two numerosities in a species of amphibian, red-backed salamanders ( Plethodon cinereus). The findings indicate that salamanders “go for more,” just like human babies and monkeys. This rudimentary capacity is a type of numerical discrimination that is spontaneously present in this amphibian.
Address Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA 70504-3772, USA. uller@louisiana.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:12709845 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2575
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Author van der Willigen, R.F.; Frost, B.J.; Wagner, H.
Title How owls structure visual information Type Journal Article
Year (down) 2003 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 6 Issue 1 Pages 39-55
Keywords Animals; *Cognition; Depth Perception; Discrimination Learning; Female; Male; *Strigiformes; *Visual Perception
Abstract Recent studies on perceptual organization in humans claim that the ability to represent a visual scene as a set of coherent surfaces is of central importance for visual cognition. We examined whether this surface representation hypothesis generalizes to a non-mammalian species, the barn owl ( Tyto alba). Discrimination transfer combined with random-dot stimuli provided the appropriate means for a series of two behavioural experiments with the specific aims of (1) obtaining psychophysical measurements of figure-ground segmentation in the owl, and (2) determining the nature of the information involved. In experiment 1, two owls were trained to indicate the presence or absence of a central planar surface (figure) among a larger region of random dots (ground) based on differences in texture. Without additional training, the owls could make the same discrimination when figure and ground had reversed luminance, or were camouflaged by the use of uniformly textured random-dot stereograms. In the latter case, the figure stands out in depth from the ground when positional differences of the figure in two retinal images are combined (binocular disparity). In experiment 2, two new owls were trained to distinguish three-dimensional objects from holes using random-dot kinematograms. These birds could make the same discrimination when information on surface segmentation was unexpectedly switched from relative motion to half-occlusion. In the latter case, stereograms were used that provide the impression of stratified surfaces to humans by giving unpairable image features to the eyes. The ability to use image features such as texture, binocular disparity, relative motion, and half-occlusion interchangeably to determine figure-ground relationships suggests that in owls, as in humans, the structuring of the visual scene critically depends on how indirect image information (depth order, occlusion contours) is allocated between different surfaces.
Address Institut fur Biologie II, RWTH Aachen, Kopernikusstrasse 16, 52074, Aachen, Germany. willigen@bio2.rwth-aachen.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:12658534 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2582
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Author Zentall, T.R.; Galizio, M.; Critchfied, T.S.
Title Categorization, concept learning, and behavior analysis: an introduction Type Journal Article
Year (down) 2002 Publication Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior Abbreviated Journal J Exp Anal Behav
Volume 78 Issue 3 Pages 237-248
Keywords Animals; Association Learning; *Concept Formation; *Discrimination Learning; Humans; Language
Abstract Categorization and concept learning encompass some of the most important aspects of behavior, but historically they have not been central topics in the experimental analysis of behavior. To introduce this special issue of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB), we define key terms; distinguish between the study of concepts and the study of concept learning; describe three types of concept learning characterized by the stimulus classes they yield; and briefly identify several other themes (e.g., quantitative modeling and ties to language) that appear in the literature. As the special issue demonstrates, a surprising amount and diversity of work is being conducted that either represents a behavior-analytic perspective or can inform or constructively challenge this perspective.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506, USA. zentall@pop.uky.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 0022-5002 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:12507002 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 236
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Author Kaiser, D.H.; Zentall, T.R.; Neiman, E.
Title Timing in pigeons: effects of the similarity between intertrial interval and gap in a timing signal Type Journal Article
Year (down) 2002 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process
Volume 28 Issue 4 Pages 416-422
Keywords Animals; *Attention; Columbidae; *Conditioning, Operant; Discrimination Learning; Mental Recall; Probability Learning; *Reinforcement (Psychology); *Reinforcement Schedule; Retention (Psychology); Time Factors; *Time Perception/physiology
Abstract Previous research suggests that when a fixed interval is interrupted (known as the gap procedure), pigeons tend to reset memory and start timing from 0 after the gap. However, because the ambient conditions of the gap typically have been the same as during the intertrial interval (ITI), ambiguity may have resulted. In the present experiment, the authors found that when ambient conditions during the gap were similar to the ITI, pigeons tended to reset memory, but when ambient conditions during the gap were different from the ITI, pigeons tended to stop timing, retain the duration of the stimulus in memory, and add to that time when the stimulus reappeared. Thus, when the gap was unambiguous, pigeons timed accurately.
Address Department of Psychology, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858, USA. kaiserd@mail.ecu.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 0097-7403 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:12395499 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 238
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Author Akins, C.K.; Klein, E.D.; Zentall, T.R.
Title Imitative learning in Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) using the bidirectional control procedure Type Journal Article
Year (down) 2002 Publication Animal learning & behavior Abbreviated Journal Anim Learn Behav
Volume 30 Issue 3 Pages 275-281
Keywords Animals; Attention; Behavior, Animal; Coturnix; *Discrimination Learning; *Imitative Behavior; Male; Smell
Abstract In the bidirectional control procedure, observers are exposed to a conspecific demonstrator responding to a manipulandum in one of two directions (e.g., left vs. right). This procedure controls for socially mediated effects (the mere presence of a conspecific) and stimulus enhancement (attention drawn to a manipulandum by its movement), and it has the added advantage of being symmetrical (the two different responses are similar in topography). Imitative learning is demonstrated when the observers make the response in the direction that they observed it being made. Recently, however, it has been suggested that when such evidence is found with a predominantly olfactory animal, such as the rat, it may result artifactually from odor cues left on one side of the manipulandum by the demonstrator. In the present experiment, we found that Japanese quail, for which odor cues are not likely to play a role, also showed significant correspondence between the direction in which the demonstrator and the observer push a screen to gain access to reward. Furthermore, control quail that observed the screen move, when the movement of the screen was not produced by the demonstrator, did not show similar correspondence between the direction of screen movement observed and that performed by the observer. Thus, with the appropriate control, the bidirectional procedure appears to be useful for studying imitation in avian species.
Address University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0044, 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 0090-4996 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:12391793 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 239
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Author Dorrance, B.R.; Zentall, T.R.
Title Imitation of conditional discriminations in pigeons (Columba livia) Type Journal Article
Year (down) 2002 Publication Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983) Abbreviated Journal J Comp Psychol
Volume 116 Issue 3 Pages 277-285
Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal/physiology; Columbidae; Conditioning (Psychology)/*physiology; Discrimination Learning/*physiology; Habituation, Psychophysiologic; *Imitative Behavior; Light; Reinforcement (Psychology)
Abstract In the present experiments, the 2-action method was used to determine whether pigeons could learn to imitate a conditional discrimination. Demonstrator pigeons (Columba livia) stepped on a treadle in the presence of 1 light and pecked at the treadle in the presence of another light. Demonstration did not seem to affect acquisition of the conditional discrimination (Experiment 1) but did facilitate its reversal of the conditional discrimination (Experiments 2 and 3). The results suggest that pigeons are not only able to learn a specific behavior by observing another pigeon, but they can also learn under which circumstances to perform that behavior. The results have implications for proposed mechanisms of imitation in animals.
Address Department of Psychology, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois 61201, USA. psdorrance@augustana.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 0735-7036 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:12234078 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 240
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Author Clement, T.S.; Zentall, T.R.
Title Second-order contrast based on the expectation of effort and reinforcement Type Journal Article
Year (down) 2002 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process
Volume 28 Issue 1 Pages 64-74
Keywords Animals; Columbidae; Discrimination Learning; Random Allocation; *Reinforcement (Psychology)
Abstract Pigeons prefer signals for reinforcement that require greater effort (or time) to obtain over those that require less effort to obtain (T. S. Clement, J. Feltus, D. H. Kaiser, & T. R. Zentall, 2000). Preference was attributed to contrast (or to the relatively greater improvement in conditions) produced by the appearance of the signal when it was preceded by greater effort. In Experiment 1, the authors of the present study demonstrated that the expectation of greater effort was sufficient to produce such a preference (a second-order contrast effect). In Experiments 2 and 3, low versus high probability of reinforcement was substituted for high versus low effort, respectively, with similar results. In Experiment 3, the authors found that the stimulus preference could be attributed to positive contrast (when the discriminative stimuli represented an improvement in the probability of reinforcement) and perhaps also negative contrast (when the discriminative stimuli represented reduction in the probability of reinforcement).
Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0044, 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 0097-7403 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:11868235 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 241
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Author Zentall, T.R.; Clement, T.S.
Title Memory mechanisms in pigeons: evidence of base-rate neglect Type Journal Article
Year (down) 2002 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process
Volume 28 Issue 1 Pages 111-115
Keywords Animals; Columbidae; Discrimination Learning; Memory/*physiology; Random Allocation; Reaction Time; Reinforcement (Psychology); Retention (Psychology)
Abstract In delayed matching to sample, once acquired, pigeons presumably choose comparisons according to their memory for (the strength of) the sample. When memory for the sample is sufficiently weak, comparison choice should depend on the history of reinforcement associated with each of the comparison stimuli. In the present research, pigeons acquired two matching tasks in which Sample S1 was associated with one comparison from each task, C1 and C3, whereas Sample S2 was associated with Comparison C2, and Sample S3 was associated with Comparison C4. As the retention interval increased, the pigeons showed a bias to choose the comparison (C1 or C3) associated with the more frequently occurring sample (S1). Thus, pigeons were sensitive also to the (irrelevant) likelihood that each of the samples was presented. The results suggest that pigeons may allow their reference memory for the overall sample frequency to influence comparison choice, independent of the comparison stimuli present.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0044, USA. zentall@pop.uky.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 0097-7403 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:11868229 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 242
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Author Ray, E.D.; Heyes, C.M.
Title Do rats in a two-action test encode movement egocentrically or allocentrically? Type Journal Article
Year (down) 2002 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 5 Issue 4 Pages 245-252
Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Discrimination Learning; *Imitative Behavior; Male; Random Allocation; Rats/physiology/*psychology; Smell
Abstract Two-action tests of imitation compare groups that observe topographically different responses to a common manipulandum. The general aim of the two experiments reported here was to find a demonstrator-consistent responding effect in a procedure that could be elaborated to investigate aspects of what was learned about the demonstrated lever response. Experiment 1 was a pilot study with rats of a variant of the two-action method of investigating social learning about observed responses. Groups of observer rats ( Rattus norvegicus) saw a demonstrator push a lever up or down for a food reward. When these observers were subsequently given access to the lever and rewarded for responses in both directions, their directional preferences were compared with two 'screen control' groups that were unable to see their demonstrators' behaviour. Demonstrator-consistent responding was found to be restricted to observers that were able to see demonstrator performance, suggesting that scent cues alone were insufficient to cue a preference for the demonstrators' response direction and thereby that the rats learned by observation about body movements (imitation) or lever movement (emulation). Experiment 2 assessed responding on two levers, one that had been manipulated by the demonstrator, and a second, transposed lever positioned some distance away. Demonstrator-consistent responding was abolished when actions were observed and performed in different parts of the apparatus, suggesting that observed movement was encoded allocentrically with respect to the apparatus rather than egocentrically with respect to the actor's body. With particular reference to the influence of scent cues, the results are discussed in relation to the strengths and weaknesses of this and other varieties of the two-action procedure as tests of imitation in animals and human infants.
Address Department of Psychology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK. e.ray@ucl.ac.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:12461602 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2588
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Author Pepperberg, I.M.
Title The value of the Piagetian framework for comparative cognitive studies Type Journal Article
Year (down) 2002 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 5 Issue 3 Pages 177-182
Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Cognition; Discrimination Learning; *Intelligence; *Models, Psychological; *Models, Theoretical
Abstract Although the Piagetian framework has been used by numerous researchers to compare cognitive abilities of diverse species, the system is often criticized as implemented. I examine the various criticisms, suggest ways in which the system can be improved, and argue for the need for descriptive systems such as the Piagetian framework to complement programs that look for cellular and molecular bases or mathematical models to explain behavior.
Address School of Architecture and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. impepper@media.mit.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:12357290 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2595
Permanent link to this record