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Author (up) Reboreda, J.C.; Clayton, N.S.; Kacelnik, A.
Title Species and sex differences in hippocampus size in parasitic and non-parasitic cowbirds Type Journal Article
Year 1996 Publication Neuroreport Abbreviated Journal Neuroreport
Volume 7 Issue 2 Pages 505-508
Keywords Animals; Birds/*physiology; Female; Hippocampus/*anatomy & histology; Male; Nesting Behavior/*physiology; Sex Characteristics; Species Specificity; Telencephalon/anatomy & histology
Abstract To test the hypothesis that selection for spatial abilities which require birds to locate and to return accurately to host nests has produced an enlarged hippocampus in brood parasites, three species of cowbird were compared. In shiny cowbirds, females search for host nests without the assistance of the male; in screaming cowbirds, males and females inspect hosts' nests together; in bay-winged cowbirds, neither sex searches because this species is not a brood parasite. As predicted, the two parasitic species had a relatively larger hippocampus than the non-parasitic species. There were no sex differences in relative hippocampus size in screaming or bay-winged cowbirds, but female shiny cowbirds had a larger hippocampus than the male.
Address Instituto de Biologia y Medicina Experimental-CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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ISSN 0959-4965 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:8730816 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4798
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Author (up) Reboreda, J.C.; Kacelnik, A.
Title On cooperation, tit-for-tat and mirros Type Journal Article
Year 1990 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 40 Issue 6 Pages 1188-1189
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 2117
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Author (up) Roberts, J.; Hunter, M.L.; Kacelnik, A.
Title The ground effect and acoustic communication Type Journal Article
Year 1981 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 633-634
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 2123
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Author (up) Roberts, J.; Kacelnik, A.; Hunter, M.L.
Title A model of sound interference in relation to acoustic communication Type Journal Article
Year 1979 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 27 Issue Part 4 Pages 1271-1273
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 2124
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Author (up) Schuck-Paim, C.; Kacelnik, A.
Title Rationality in risk-sensitive foraging choices by starlings Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 64 Issue 6 Pages 869-879
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Abstract Normative models of choice usually predict preferences between alternatives by computing their value according to some criterion, then identifying the alternative with greatest value. An important consequence of this procedure is captured in the economic concept of rationality, defined through a number of principles that are necessary for the existence of an ordinal scale of value upon which organisms base their choices. Violations of these principles, such as some recently reported breaches of transitivity and regularity in birds and honeybees, have strong implications for the understanding of decision mechanisms in humans and nonhumans alike. We investigated rationality in risky choice using European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris. Birds had to choose between two or three food sources, each associated with a different variance in delay to reward. In three experiments, starlings were strongly risk prone, showing regular and consistent preferences in binary and trinary choices. Preferences also satisfied weak and strong stochastic transitivity. Our results extend the generality of previous research in risk-sensitive foraging to situations where more than two alternatives are present and suggest that violations of rationality in risk-sensitive choices may be expressed only under restricted sets of conditions. Copyright 2002 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 2106
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Author (up) Todd, I.A.; Kacelnik, A.
Title Psychological mechanisms and the Marginal Value Theorem: dynamics of scalar memory for travel time Type Journal Article
Year 1993 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 46 Issue 4 Pages 765-775
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Abstract Abstract. The relation between memory for travel time and foraging decisions was studied experimentally. The temporal properties of two environments with patchily distributed food were simulated in the laboratory using pigeons, Columba livia, as subjects. The two environments differed in mean travel time, while the coefficient of variation of travel time and the decelerated function relating cumulative food gain to time in the patch were held constant within and between environments. Each environment contained a uniform mixture of five travel times experienced in a random order. Two of the five travel times were common in both environments. Effects of travel time were studied by comparing prey collected per patch visit (PPV) after various travel times within each environment, and by comparing patch exploitation after equal travel times between environments. Within the environment with long mean travel time (LMT) PPV was positively correlated with the last and the penultimate travel times but not with travel times before that. The increase in PPV per second of last travel time was six times greater than the increase per second of penultimate travel time, implying very steep memory discounting. In the environment with short mean travel time (SMT), there was no correlation between PPV and previous travel times. However, comparisons between environments of visits following travel times common to both environments (thus removing the effect of the last travel time) showed that substantially more prey were taken after equal travel times in the LMT than in the SMT environment. This difference cannot be accounted for by the within-environment effect of penultimate travel time, implying that there is a different, less steeply devalued, effect of the mixture of travel times. A model of information processing based on combining Scalar Expectancy Theory with the predictions of rate maximization under the Marginal Value Theorem is presented. The model can approximate the results obtained in this and previous experiments and provides a framework for further analysis of memory mechanisms of foraging behaviour.
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Call Number Serial 2111
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Author (up) Weir, A.A.S.; Chappell, J.; Kacelnik, A.
Title Shaping of hooks in New Caledonian crows Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Science (New York, N.Y.) Abbreviated Journal Science
Volume 297 Issue 5583 Pages 981
Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Cognition; Female; Male; Songbirds/*physiology
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Address Department of Zoology, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
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ISSN 1095-9203 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:12169726 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2842
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Author (up) Weir, A.A.S.; Kacelnik, A.
Title A New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides) creatively re-designs tools by bending or unbending aluminium strips Type Journal Article
Year 2006 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 9 Issue 4 Pages 317-334
Keywords Animals; *Comprehension; *Crows; Female; Learning; *Motor Skills; *Problem Solving; *Tool Use Behavior
Abstract Previous observations of a New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides) spontaneously bending wire and using it as a hook [Weir et al. (2002) Science 297:981] have prompted questions about the extent to which these animals 'understand' the physical causality involved in how hooks work and how to make them. To approach this issue we examine how the same subject (“Betty”) performed in three experiments with novel material, which needed to be either bent or unbent in order to function to retrieve food. These tasks exclude the possibility of success by repetition of patterns of movement similar to those employed before. Betty quickly developed novel techniques to bend the material, and appropriately modified it on four of five trials when unbending was required. She did not mechanically apply a previously learned set of movements to the new situations, and instead sought new solutions to each problem. However, the details of her behaviour preclude concluding definitely that she understood and planned her actions: in some cases she probed with the unmodified tools before modifying them, or attempted to use the unmodified (unsuitable) end of the tool after modification. Gauging New Caledonian crows' level of understanding is not yet possible, but the observed behaviour is consistent with a partial understanding of physical tasks at a level that exceeds that previously attained by any other non-human subject, including apes.
Address Department of Zoology, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK. alex.weir@magdalen.oxon.org
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ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:17024509 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2436
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