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Author Shettleworth, S.J.; Westwood, R.P.
Title Divided attention, memory, and spatial discrimination in food-storing and nonstoring birds, black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapilla) and dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis) Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process
Volume 28 Issue 3 Pages 227-241
Keywords Animals; Attention/*physiology; Behavior, Animal/physiology; Birds; *Discrimination (Psychology); *Food Habits; Memory/*physiology; Space Perception/*physiology; Spatial Behavior/*physiology
Abstract Food-storing birds, black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapilla), and nonstoring birds, dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis), matched color or location on a touch screen. Both species showed a divided attention effect for color but not for location (Experiment 1). Chickadees performed better on location than on color with retention intervals up to 40 s, but juncos did not (Experiment 2). Increasing sample-distractor distance improved performance similarly in both species. Multidimensional scaling revealed that both use a Euclidean metric of spatial similarity (Experiment 3). When choosing between the location and color of a remembered item, food storers choose location more than do nonstorers. These results explain this effect by differences in memory for location relative to color, not division of attention or spatial discrimination ability.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3, Canada. shettle@psych.utoronto.ca
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 (up)
Notes PMID:12136700 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 370
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Author Gibson, B.M.; Shettleworth, S.J.; McDonald, R.J.
Title Finding a goal on dry land and in the water: differential effects of disorientation on spatial learning Type Journal Article
Year 2001 Publication Behavioural brain research Abbreviated Journal Behav. Brain. Res.
Volume 123 Issue 1 Pages 103-111
Keywords Animals; Cues; Environment; Male; Maze Learning/*physiology; Orientation/*physiology; Rats; Rats, Long-Evans; Spatial Behavior/*physiology; Water
Abstract Two previous studies, Martin et al. (J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Process. 23 (1997) 183) and Dudchenko et al. (J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Process. 23 (1997) 194), report that, compared to non-disoriented controls, rats disoriented before testing were disrupted in their ability to learn the location of a goal on a dry radial-arm maze task, but that both groups learned at the same rate in the Morris water maze. However, the radial-arm maze task was much more difficult than the water maze. In the current set of experiments, we examined the performance of control and disoriented rats on more comparable dry land and water maze tasks. Compared to non-disoriented rats, rats that were disoriented before testing were significantly impaired in locating a goal in a circular dry arena, but not a water tank. The results constrain theoretical explanations for the differential effects of disorientation on different spatial tasks.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G3. gibson@psych.utoronto.ca
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 0166-4328 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference (up)
Notes PMID:11377733 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 372
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Author Hampton, R.R.; Shettleworth, S.J.
Title Hippocampus and memory in a food-storing and in a nonstoring bird species Type Journal Article
Year 1996 Publication Behavioral neuroscience Abbreviated Journal Behav Neurosci
Volume 110 Issue 5 Pages 946-964
Keywords Animals; Appetitive Behavior/*physiology; Attention/physiology; Birds/*physiology; Brain Mapping; Feeding Behavior/*physiology; Mental Recall/*physiology; Organ Size/physiology; Orientation/*physiology; Retention (Psychology)/physiology; Species Specificity
Abstract Food-storing birds maintain in memory a large and constantly changing catalog of the locations of stored food. The hippocampus of food-storing black-capped chickadees (Parus atricapillus) is proportionally larger than that of nonstoring dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis). Chickadees perform better than do juncos in an operant test of spatial non-matching-to-sample (SNMTS), and chickadees are more resistant to interference in this paradigm. Hippocampal lesions attenuate performance in SNMTS and increase interference. In tests of continuous spatial alternation (CSA), juncos perform better than chickadees. CSA performance also declines following hippocampal lesions. By itself, sensitivity of a given task to hippocampal damage does not predict the direction of memory differences between storing and nonstoring species.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. robert@ln.nimh.nih.gov
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 0735-7044 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference (up)
Notes PMID:8918998 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 375
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Author Hampton, R.R.; Shettleworth, S.J.
Title Hippocampal lesions impair memory for location but not color in passerine birds Type Journal Article
Year 1996 Publication Behavioral neuroscience Abbreviated Journal Behav Neurosci
Volume 110 Issue 4 Pages 831-835
Keywords Animals; Appetitive Behavior/physiology; Birds/*physiology; Brain Mapping; Color Perception/*physiology; Discrimination Learning/physiology; Hippocampus/*physiology; Long-Term Potentiation/physiology; Mental Recall/*physiology; Orientation/*physiology; Species Specificity
Abstract The effects of hippocampal complex lesions on memory for location and color were assessed in black-capped chickadees (Parus atricapillus) and dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis) in operant tests of matching to sample. Before surgery, most birds were more accurate on tests of memory for location than on tests of memory for color. Damage to the hippocampal complex caused a decline in memory for location, whereas memory for color was not affected in the same birds. This dissociation indicates that the avian hippocampus plays an important role in spatial cognition and suggests that this brain structure may play no role in working memory generally.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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 0735-7044 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference (up)
Notes PMID:8864273 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 376
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Author Sekuler, A.B.; Lee, J.A.; Shettleworth, S.J.
Title Pigeons do not complete partly occluded figures Type Journal Article
Year 1996 Publication Perception Abbreviated Journal Perception
Volume 25 Issue 9 Pages 1109-1120
Keywords Animals; *Columbidae; *Visual Perception
Abstract One of the most common obstacles to object perception is the fact that objects often occlude parts of themselves and parts of other objects. Perceptual completion has been studied extensively in humans, and researchers have shown that humans do complete partly occluded objects. In an effort to understand more about the mechanisms underlying completion, recent research has extended the study of perceptual completion to other mammalian species. Monkeys and mice also seem to complete two-dimensional representations of partly occluded objects. The present study addresses the question of whether this capacity generalizes to a nonmammalian species, the pigeon (Columba livia). The results point to a limit of the generalizability of perceptual completion: pigeons do not complete partly occluded figures.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, ON, Canada
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 0301-0066 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference (up)
Notes PMID:8983050 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 377
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Author Krebs, J.R.; Clayton, N.S.; Hampton, R.R.; Shettleworth, S.J.
Title Effects of photoperiod on food-storing and the hippocampus in birds Type Journal Article
Year 1995 Publication Neuroreport Abbreviated Journal Neuroreport
Volume 6 Issue 12 Pages 1701-1704
Keywords Animals; Birds; Eating/*physiology; Female; Hippocampus/*physiology; Light; Male; *Photoperiod; Seasons; Telencephalon/physiology; Time Factors
Abstract Birds that store food have a relatively large hippocampus compared to non-storing species. The hippocampus shows seasonal differences in neurogenesis and volume in black-capped chikadees (Parus atricapillus) taken from the wild at different times of year. We compared hippocampal volumes in black-capped chickadees captured at the same time but differing in food-storing behaviour because of manipulations of photoperiod in the laboratory. Differences in food-storing behaviour were not accompanied by differences in the volume of the hippocampus. Hippocampal volumes also did not differ between two groups of a non-food-storing control species, house sparrows (Passer domesticus), exposed to the same conditions as the chickadees.
Address Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, Oxford, 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 0959-4965 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference (up)
Notes PMID:8527745 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 378
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Author Hampton, R.R.; Sherry, D.F.; Shettleworth, S.J.; Khurgel, M.; Ivy, G.
Title Hippocampal volume and food-storing behavior are related in parids Type Journal Article
Year 1995 Publication Brain, behavior and evolution Abbreviated Journal Brain Behav Evol
Volume 45 Issue 1 Pages 54-61
Keywords Animals; Appetitive Behavior/*physiology; Birds/*anatomy & histology; Brain Mapping; Evolution; Food Preferences/physiology; Hippocampus/*anatomy & histology; Mental Recall/*physiology; Orientation/*physiology; Predatory Behavior/physiology; Social Environment; Species Specificity
Abstract The size of the hippocampus has been previously shown to reflect species differences and sex differences in reliance on spatial memory to locate ecologically important resources, such as food and mates. Black-capped chickadees (Parus atricapillus) cached more food than did either Mexican chickadees (P. sclateri) or bridled titmice (P. wollweberi) in two tests of food storing, one conducted in an aviary and another in smaller home cages. Black-capped chickadees were also found to have a larger hippocampus, relative to the size of the telencephalon, than the other two species. Differences in the frequency of food storing behavior among the three species have probably produced differences in the use of hippocampus-dependent memory and spatial information processing to recover stored food, resulting in graded selection for size of the hippocampus.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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 0006-8977 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference (up)
Notes PMID:7866771 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 379
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Author Shettleworth, S.J.
Title Varieties of learning and memory in animals Type Journal Article
Year 1993 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process
Volume 19 Issue 1 Pages 5-14
Keywords Animals; Association Learning; Birds; Conditioning, Classical; Evolution; Imprinting (Psychology); *Learning; *Memory; Social Environment; Species Specificity; Taste
Abstract It is often assumed that there is more than one kind of learning--or more than one memory system--each of which is specialized for a different function. Yet, the criteria by which the varieties of learning and memory should be distinguished are seldom clear. Learning and memory phenomena can differ from one another across species or situations (and thus be specialized) in a number of different ways. What is needed is a consistent theoretical approach to the whole range of learning phenomena, and one is explored here. Parallels and contrasts in the study of sensory systems illustrate one way to integrate the study of general mechanisms with an appreciation of species-specific adaptations.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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 (up)
Notes PMID:8418217 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 380
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Reid, P.J.; Shettleworth, S.J.
Title Detection of cryptic prey: search image or search rate? Type Journal Article
Year 1992 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process
Volume 18 Issue 3 Pages 273-286
Keywords Animals; Appetitive Behavior; *Attention; Color Perception; Columbidae; *Discrimination Learning; Food Preferences/psychology; *Imagination; *Mental Recall; *Predatory Behavior
Abstract Animals' improvement in capturing cryptic prey with experience has long been attributed to a perceptual mechanism, the specific search image. Detection could also be improved by adjusting rate of search. In a series of studies using both naturalistic and operant search tasks, pigeons searched for wheat, dyed to produce 1 conspicuous and 2 equally cryptic prey types. Contrary to the predictions of the search-rate hypothesis, pigeons given a choice between the 2 cryptic types took the type experienced most recently. However, experience with 1 cryptic type improved accuracy on the other cryptic type, a result inconsistent with a search image specific to 1 prey type. Search image may better be thought of as priming of attention to those features of the prey type that best distinguish the prey from the background.
Address University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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 (up)
Notes PMID:1619395 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 381
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Shettleworth, S.J.; Plowright, C.M.
Title How pigeons estimate rates of prey encounter Type Journal Article
Year 1992 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process
Volume 18 Issue 3 Pages 219-235
Keywords Analysis of Variance; Animals; *Appetitive Behavior; Columbidae; Conditioning, Operant; Food Preferences/*psychology; Motivation; *Predatory Behavior; *Probability Learning; *Reinforcement Schedule; Social Environment
Abstract Pigeons were trained on operant schedules simulating successive encounters with prey items. When items were encountered on variable-interval schedules, birds were more likely to accept a poor item (long delay to food) the longer they had just searched, as if they were averaging prey density over a short memory window (Experiment 1). Responding as if the immediate future would be like the immediate past was reversed when a short search predicted a long search next time (Experiment 2). Experience with different degrees of environmental predictability appeared to change the length of the memory window (Experiment 3). The results may reflect linear waiting (Higa, Wynne, & Staddon, 1991), but they differ in some respects. The findings have implications for possible mechanisms of adjusting behavior to current reinforcement conditions.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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 (up)
Notes PMID:1619391 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 382
Permanent link to this record