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Author Milgram, N.W.; Head, E.; Muggenburg, B.; Holowachuk, D.; Murphey, H.; Estrada, J.; Ikeda-Douglas, C.J.; Zicker, S.C.; Cotman, C.W. openurl 
  Title Landmark discrimination learning in the dog: effects of age, an antioxidant fortified food, and cognitive strategy Type Journal Article
  Year (up) 2002 Publication Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Abbreviated Journal Neurosci Biobehav Rev  
  Volume 26 Issue 6 Pages 679-695  
  Keywords Age Factors; Aging/*physiology; Analysis of Variance; Animals; Antioxidants/*pharmacology; Blood Chemical Analysis/methods; Cognition/*physiology; *Diet; Discrimination Learning/*drug effects/*physiology; Distance Perception/drug effects/physiology; Dogs/physiology; Female; Male; Psychomotor Performance/physiology; Retention (Psychology)/drug effects/physiology; Spatial Behavior/*drug effects/*physiology; Task Performance and Analysis; Time Factors; Vitamin E/blood  
  Abstract The landmark discrimination learning test can be used to assess the ability to utilize allocentric spatial information to locate targets. The present experiments examined the role of various factors on performance of a landmark discrimination learning task in beagle dogs. Experiments 1 and 2 looked at the effects of age and food composition. Experiments 3 and 4 were aimed at characterizing the cognitive strategies used in performance on this task and in long-term retention. Cognitively equivalent groups of old and young dogs were placed into either a test group maintained on food enriched with a broad-spectrum of antioxidants and mitochondrial cofactors, or a control group maintained on a complete and balanced food formulated for adult dogs. Following a wash-in period, the dogs were tested on a series of problems, in which reward was obtained when the animal responded selectively to the object closest to a thin wooden block, which served as a landmark. In Experiment 1, dogs were first trained to respond to a landmark placed directly on top of coaster, landmark 0 (L0). In the next phase of testing, the landmark was moved at successively greater distances (1, 4 or 10 cm) away from the reward object. Learning varied as a function of age group, food group, and task. The young dogs learned all of the tasks more quickly than the old dogs. The aged dogs on the enriched food learned L0 significantly more rapidly than aged dogs on control food. A higher proportion of dogs on the enriched food learned the task, when the distance was increased to 1cm. Experiment 2 showed that accuracy decreased with increased distance between the reward object and landmark, and this effect was greater in old animals. Experiment 3 showed stability of performance, despite using a novel landmark, and new locations, indicating that dogs learned the landmark concept. Experiment 4 found age impaired long-term retention of the landmark task. These results indicate that allocentric spatial learning is impaired in an age-dependent manner in dogs, and that age also affects performance when the distance between the landmark and target is increased. In addition, these results both support a role of oxidative damage in the development of age-associated cognitive dysfunction and indicate that short-term administration of a food enriched with supplemental antioxidants and mitochondrial cofactors can partially reverse the deleterious effects of aging on cognition.  
  Address Life Science Division, University of Toronto at Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, Ont., Canada M1C 1A4. milgram@psych.utoronto.ca  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0149-7634 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:12479842 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2806  
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Author George, I.; Cousillas, H.; Richard, J.-P.; Hausberger, M. url  doi
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  Title Song perception in the European starling: hemispheric specialisation and individual variations Type Journal Article
  Year (up) 2002 Publication Comptes Rendus Biologies Abbreviated Journal Compt. Rend. Biol.  
  Volume 325 Issue 3 Pages 197-204  
  Keywords lateralisation; perception; birdsong; starling; electrophysiology; individual variations; latéralisation; perception; chant; étourneaux; électrophysiologie; variations individuelles  
  Abstract Hemispheric specialisation for speech in humans has been well documented. The lateralisation for song production observed in songbirds is reminiscent of this hemispheric dominance. In order to investigate whether song perception is also lateralised, we made multiunit recordings of the neuronal activity in the field L of starlings during the presentation of species-specific and artificial non-specific sounds. We observed a systematic stronger activation in one hemisphere than in the other one during the playback of species-specific sounds, with inter-subject variability in the predominant hemisphere for song perception. Such an asymmetry was not observed for artificial non-specific sounds. Thus, our results suggest that, at least at the individual level, the two hemispheres of the starlings' brain perceive and process conspecific signals differently.  
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  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4636  
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Author Plotnik, J.; Nelson, P.A.; de Waal, F.B.M. openurl 
  Title Visual field information in the face perception of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) Type Journal Article
  Year (up) 2003 Publication Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Abbreviated Journal Ann N Y Acad Sci  
  Volume 1000 Issue Pages 94-98  
  Keywords Animals; *Facial Expression; Pan troglodytes; Recognition (Psychology); Visual Fields/*physiology; Visual Perception/*physiology  
  Abstract Evidence for a visual field advantage (VFA) in the face perception of chimpanzees was investigated using a modification of a free-vision task. Four of six chimpanzee subjects previously trained on a computer joystick match-to-sample paradigm were able to distinguish between images of neutral face chimeras consisting of two left sides (LL) or right sides (RR) of the face. While an individual's ability to make this distinction would be unlikely to determine their suitability for the VFA tests, it was important to establish that distinctive information was available in test images. Data were then recorded on their choice of the LL vs. RR chimera as a match to the true, neutral image; a bias for one of these options would indicate an hemispatial visual field advantage. Results suggest that chimpanzees, unlike humans, do not exhibit a left visual field advantage. These results have important implications for studies on laterality and asymmetry in facial signals and their perception in primates.  
  Address Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA. jmp63@cornell.edu  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0077-8923 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:14766624 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 175  
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Author de Waal, F.B.M. openurl 
  Title Darwin's legacy and the study of primate visual communication Type Journal Article
  Year (up) 2003 Publication Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Abbreviated Journal Ann N Y Acad Sci  
  Volume 1000 Issue Pages 7-31  
  Keywords Affect; Aggression/psychology; Animals; Culture; *Evolution; *Facial Expression; Gestures; Grooming; Humans; Laughter; *Nonverbal Communication; Primates/*physiology; Smiling; *Visual Perception  
  Abstract After Charles Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, published in 1872, we had to wait 60 years before the theme of animal expressions was picked up by another astute observer. In 1935, Nadezhda Ladygina-Kohts published a detailed comparison of the expressive behavior of a juvenile chimpanzee and of her own child. After Kohts, we had to wait until the 1960s for modern ethological analyses of primate facial and gestural communication. Again, the focus was on the chimpanzee, but ethograms on other primates appeared as well. Our understanding of the range of expressions in other primates is at present far more advanced than that in Darwin's time. A strong social component has been added: instead of focusing on the expressions per se, they are now often classified according to the social situations in which they typically occur. Initially, quantitative analyses were sequential (i.e., concerned with temporal associations between behavior patterns), and they avoided the language of emotions. I will discuss some of this early work, including my own on the communicative repertoire of the bonobo, a close relative of the chimpanzee (and ourselves). I will provide concrete examples to make the point that there is a much richer matrix of contexts possible than the common behavioral categories of aggression, sex, fear, play, and so on. Primate signaling is a form of negotiation, and previous classifications have ignored the specifics of what animals try to achieve with their exchanges. There is also increasing evidence for signal conventionalization in primates, especially the apes, in both captivity and the field. This process results in group-specific or “cultural” communication patterns.  
  Address Yerkes Primate Center, and Psychology Department, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA. dewaal@emory.edu  
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  ISSN 0077-8923 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:14766618 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 177  
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Author Clement, T.S.; Zentall, T.R. openurl 
  Title Choice based on exclusion in pigeons Type Journal Article
  Year (up) 2003 Publication Psychonomic bulletin & review Abbreviated Journal Psychon Bull Rev  
  Volume 10 Issue 4 Pages 959-964  
  Keywords Animals; Appetitive Behavior; *Association Learning; *Choice Behavior; *Color Perception; Columbidae; *Discrimination Learning; Memory, Short-Term; *Problem Solving; Psychomotor Performance; Reaction Time; Transfer (Psychology)  
  Abstract When humans acquire a conditional discrimination and are given a novel-sample-comparison choice, they often reject a comparison known to be associated with a different sample and choose the alternative comparison by default (or by exclusion). In Experiment 1, we found that if, following matching training, we replaced both of the samples, acquisition took five times longer than if we replaced only one of the samples. Apparently, the opportunity to reject one of the comparisons facilitated the association of the other sample with the remaining comparison. In Experiment 2, we first trained pigeons to treat two samples differently (to associate Sample A with Comparison 1 and Sample B with Comparison 2) and then trained them to associate one of those samples with a new comparison (e.g., Sample A with Comparison 3) and to associate a novel sample (Sample C) with a different, new comparison (Comparison 4). When Sample B then replaced Sample C, the pigeons showed a significant tendency to choose Comparison 4 over Comparison 3. Thus, when given the opportunity, pigeons will choose by exclusion.  
  Address University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA  
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  ISSN 1069-9384 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:15000545 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 233  
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Author Sole, L.M.; Shettleworth, S.J.; Bennett, P.J. openurl 
  Title Uncertainty in pigeons Type Journal Article
  Year (up) 2003 Publication Psychonomic bulletin & review Abbreviated Journal Psychon Bull Rev  
  Volume 10 Issue 3 Pages 738-745  
  Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal; Columbidae; *Decision Making; Reinforcement (Psychology); Reward; Transfer (Psychology); Visual Perception  
  Abstract Pigeons classified a display of illuminated pixels on a touchscreen as sparse or dense. Correct responses were reinforced with six food pellets; incorrect responses were unreinforced. On some trials an uncertain response option was available. Pecking it was always reinforced with an intermediate number of pellets. Like monkeys and people in related experiments, the birds chose the uncertain response most often when the stimulus presented was difficult to classify correctly, but in other respects their behavior was not functionally similar to human behavior based on conscious uncertainty or to the behavior of monkeys in comparable experiments. Our data were well described by a signal detection model that assumed that the birds were maximizing perceived reward in a consistent way across all the experimental conditions.  
  Address University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada  
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  ISSN 1069-9384 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:14620372 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 366  
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Author Shettleworth, S.J. doi  openurl
  Title Memory and hippocampal specialization in food-storing birds: challenges for research on comparative cognition Type Journal Article
  Year (up) 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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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0006-8977 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:12937349 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 367  
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Author Gibson, B.M.; Shettleworth, S.J. openurl 
  Title Competition among spatial cues in a naturalistic food-carrying task Type Journal Article
  Year (up) 2003 Publication Learning & behavior : a Psychonomic Society publication Abbreviated Journal Learn Behav  
  Volume 31 Issue 2 Pages 143-159  
  Keywords Adaptation, Psychological; Animals; Appetitive Behavior; *Association Learning; *Attention; Choice Behavior; *Cues; *Discrimination Learning; Male; Rats; Rats, Long-Evans; Space Perception; *Spatial Behavior  
  Abstract Rats collected nuts from a container in a large arena in four experiments testing how learning about a beacon or cue at a goal interacts with learning about other spatial cues (place learning). Place learning was quick, with little evidence of competition from the beacon (Experiments 1 and 2). Rats trained to approach a beacon regardless of its location were subsequently impaired when the well-learned beacon was removed and other spatial cues identified the location of the goal (Experiment 3). The competition between beacon and place cues reflected learned irrelevance for place cues (Experiment 4). The findings differ from those of some studies of associative interactions between cue and place learning in other paradigms.  
  Address University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1543-4494 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:12882373 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 368  
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Author Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L. doi  openurl
  Title Signalers and receivers in animal communication Type Journal Article
  Year (up) 2003 Publication Annual review of psychology Abbreviated Journal Annu Rev Psychol  
  Volume 54 Issue Pages 145-173  
  Keywords Affect; *Animal Communication; Animals; Arousal; Auditory Perception; Motivation; *Social Behavior; Social Environment; Species Specificity; *Vocalization, Animal  
  Abstract In animal communication natural selection favors callers who vocalize to affect the behavior of listeners and listeners who acquire information from vocalizations, using this information to represent their environment. The acquisition of information in the wild is similar to the learning that occurs in laboratory conditioning experiments. It also has some parallels with language. The dichotomous view that animal signals must be either referential or emotional is false, because they can easily be both: The mechanisms that cause a signaler to vocalize do not limit a listener's ability to extract information from the call. The inability of most animals to recognize the mental states of others distinguishes animal communication most clearly from human language. Whereas signalers may vocalize to change a listener's behavior, they do not call to inform others. Listeners acquire information from signalers who do not, in the human sense, intend to provide it.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. seyfarth@psych.upenn.edu  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0066-4308 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:12359915 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 690  
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Author Wilson, D.A.; Stevenson, R.J. url  openurl
  Title The fundamental role of memory in olfactory perception Type Journal Article
  Year (up) 2003 Publication Trends in Neurosciences Abbreviated Journal Trends. Neurosci.  
  Volume 26 Issue 5 Pages 243-247  
  Keywords olfactory perception mammals  
  Abstract Current emphasis on odorant physiochemical features as the basis for perception largely ignores the synthetic and experience-dependent nature of olfaction. Olfaction is synthetic, as mammals have only limited ability to identify elements within even simple odor mixtures. Furthermore, olfaction is experience-bound, as exposure alone can significantly affect the extent to which stimuli can be discriminated. We propose that early analytical processing of odors is inaccessible at the behavioral level and that all odors are initially encoded as `objects' in the piriform cortex. Moreover, we suggest that odor perception is wholly dependent on the integrity of this memory system and that its loss severely impairs normal perception.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 795  
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