Records |
Author |
Real, L.A. |
Title |
Animal choice behavior and the evolution of cognitive architecture |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
1991 |
Publication |
Science (New York, N.Y.) |
Abbreviated Journal |
Science |
Volume |
253 |
Issue |
5023 |
Pages |
980-986 |
Keywords |
Animals; Bees/genetics/*physiology; Biomechanics; *Choice Behavior; *Cognition; *Evolution; Mathematics; Models, Genetic; Probability |
Abstract |
Animals process sensory information according to specific computational rules and, subsequently, form representations of their environments that form the basis for decisions and choices. The specific computational rules used by organisms will often be evolutionarily adaptive by generating higher probabilities of survival, reproduction, and resource acquisition. Experiments with enclosed colonies of bumblebees constrained to foraging on artificial flowers suggest that the bumblebee's cognitive architecture is designed to efficiently exploit floral resources from spatially structured environments given limits on memory and the neuronal processing of information. A non-linear relationship between the biomechanics of nectar extraction and rates of net energetic gain by individual bees may account for sensitivities to both the arithmetic mean and variance in reward distributions in flowers. Heuristic rules that lead to efficient resource exploitation may also lead to subjective misperception of likelihoods. Subjective probability formation may then be viewed as a problem in pattern recognition subject to specific sampling schemes and memory constraints. |
Address |
Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599-3280 |
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English |
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0036-8075 |
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Notes |
PMID:1887231 |
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no |
Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2846 |
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Author |
Hill, S.E.; Ryan, M.J. |
Title |
The role of model female quality in the mate choice copying behaviour of sailfin mollies |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Biology letters |
Abbreviated Journal |
Biol Lett |
Volume |
2 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
203-205 |
Keywords |
Animals; *Choice Behavior; Female; Male; *Mating Preference, Animal; Poecilia/*physiology |
Abstract |
Female mate choice copying is a socially mediated mate choice behaviour, in which a male's attractiveness to females increases if he was previously chosen by another female as a mate. Although copying has been demonstrated in numerous species, little is known about the specific benefits it confers to copying females. Here we demonstrate that the mate choice behaviour of female sailfin mollies (Poecilia latipinna) is influenced by the phenotypic quality of model females with whom males are observed consorting. Test females choosing between two males of similar body length were found to significantly increase time spent with previously non-preferred males after having observed them with a relatively high-quality female. Conversely, females were found to significantly decrease time spent with previously preferred males after having observed them with a relatively low-quality female. Female mate choice copying might be maintained by selection based on the heuristic value it provides females choosing between males whose quality differences are not easily distinguishable. |
Address |
University of Texas at Austin, Department of Psychology, 1 University Station A8000, Austin, TX 78712, USA. sehill@mail.utexas.edu |
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English |
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ISSN |
1744-9561 |
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Notes |
PMID:17148362 |
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no |
Call Number |
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Serial |
1820 |
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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. |
Address |
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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ISSN |
1435-9448 |
ISBN |
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Notes |
PMID:16941158 |
Approved |
no |
Call Number |
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. |
Address |
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 |
Herrmann, E.; Melis, A.P.; Tomasello, M. |
Title |
Apes' use of iconic cues in the object-choice task |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Animal cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
Volume |
9 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
118-130 |
Keywords |
Animal Communication; Animals; *Appetitive Behavior; *Choice Behavior; *Cues; Female; Gorilla gorilla; Male; *Nonverbal Communication; Pan paniscus; Pan troglodytes; Pongo pygmaeus; *Problem Solving; Space Perception; Species Specificity; Statistics, Nonparametric |
Abstract |
In previous studies great apes have shown little ability to locate hidden food using a physical marker placed by a human directly on the target location. In this study, we hypothesized that the perceptual similarity between an iconic cue and the hidden reward (baited container) would help apes to infer the location of the food. In the first two experiments, we found that if an iconic cue is given in addition to a spatial/indexical cue – e.g., picture or replica of a banana placed on the target location – apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, gorillas) as a group performed above chance. However, we also found in two further experiments that when iconic cues were given on their own without spatial/indexical information (iconic cue held up by human with no diagnostic spatial/indexical information), the apes were back to chance performance. Our overall conclusion is that although iconic information helps apes in the process of searching hidden food, the poor performance found in the last two experiments is due to apes' lack of understanding of the informative (cooperative) communicative intention of the experimenter. |
Address |
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. eherrman@eva.mpg.de |
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ISSN |
1435-9448 |
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Notes |
PMID:16395566 |
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no |
Call Number |
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Serial |
14 |
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Author |
Martin, T.I.; Zentall, T.R. |
Title |
Post-choice information processing by pigeons |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2005 |
Publication |
Animal cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
Volume |
8 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
273-278 |
Keywords |
Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Choice Behavior; *Columbidae; Discrimination Learning |
Abstract |
In a conditional discrimination (matching-to-sample), a sample is followed by two comparison stimuli, one of which is correct, depending on the sample. Evidence from previous research suggests that if the stimulus display is maintained following an incorrect response (the so-called penalty-time procedure), acquisition by pigeons is facilitated. The present research tested the hypothesis that the penalty-time procedure allows the pigeons to review and learn from the maintained stimulus display following an incorrect choice. It did so by including a penalty-time group for which, following an incorrect choice, the sample changed to match the incorrect comparison, thus providing the pigeons with post-choice 'misinformation.' This misinformation group acquired the matching task significantly slower than the standard penalty-time group (that had no change in the sample following an error). Furthermore, acquisition of matching by a control group that received no penalty time fell midway between the other two groups, suggesting that the pigeons did not merely take more care in making choices because of the aversiveness of penalty-time. Thus, it appears that in the acquisition of matching-to-sample, when the stimulus display is maintained following an incorrect choice, the pigeons can review or acquire information from the display. This is the first time that such an effect has been reported for a nonhuman species. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA |
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English |
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1435-9448 |
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Conference |
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Notes |
PMID:15744507 |
Approved |
no |
Call Number |
refbase @ user @ |
Serial |
225 |
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Author |
Uehara, T.; Yokomizo, H.; Iwasa, Y. |
Title |
Mate-choice copying as Bayesian decision making |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2005 |
Publication |
The American naturalist |
Abbreviated Journal |
Am Nat |
Volume |
165 |
Issue |
3 |
Pages |
403-410 |
Keywords |
Animals; *Bayes Theorem; *Choice Behavior; Female; Male; *Models, Biological; *Sexual Behavior, Animal |
Abstract |
Mate-choice copying by females has been reported in fishes (e.g., guppies) and lekking birds. Presumably, females assess males' quality using both information from direct observation of males and information acquired by observing other females' choices. Here, we study mathematically the conditions under which mate-choice copying is advantageous on the basis of Bayesian decision theory. A female may observe the mate choice of another female, called the model female, who has performed an optimal choice based on her own judgment. The conditions required for the focal female to choose the same mate as that chosen by the model female should depend on the male's appearance to her, the reliability of her own judgment of male quality, and the reliability of the model females. When three or more females are involved, the optimal mate choice critically depends on whether multiple model females make decisions independently or they themselves copy the choices of others. If two equally reliable females choose different males, the choice of the second female, made knowing the choice of the first, should have a stronger effect on the choice of the third (focal) female. This “last-choice precedence” should be tested experimentally. |
Address |
Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan. uehara@bio-math.biology.kyushu-u.ac.jp |
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English |
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Edition |
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ISSN |
1537-5323 |
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Notes |
PMID:15729669 |
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no |
Call Number |
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Serial |
1821 |
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Author |
Santos, L.R.; Rosati, A.; Sproul, C.; Spaulding, B.; Hauser, M.D. |
Title |
Means-means-end tool choice in cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus): finding the limits on primates' knowledge of tools |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2005 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
Volume |
8 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
236-246 |
Keywords |
Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Choice Behavior; Female; Male; *Problem Solving; Saguinus/*psychology |
Abstract |
Most studies of animal tool use require subjects to use one object to gain access to a food reward. In many real world situations, however, animals perform more than one action in sequence to achieve their goals. Of theoretical interest is whether animals have the cognitive capacity to recognize the relationship between consecutive action sequences in which there may be one overall goal and several subgoals. Here we ask if cotton-top tamarins, a species that in captivity uses tools to solve means-end problems, can go one step further and use a sequence of tools (means) to obtain food (end). We first trained subjects to use a pulling tool to obtain a food reward. After this initial training, subjects were presented with problems in which one tool had to be used in combination with a second in order to obtain food. Subjects showed great difficulty when two tools were required to obtain the food reward. Although subjects attended to the connection between the tool and food reward, they ignored the physical connection between the two tools. After training on a two-tool problem, we presented subjects with a series of transfer tests to explore if they would generalize to new types of connections between the tools. Subjects readily transferred to new connections. Our results therefore provide the first evidence to date that tamarins can learn to solve problems involving two tools, but that they do so only with sufficient training. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. laurie.santos@yale.edu |
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1435-9448 |
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Notes |
PMID:15668762 |
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no |
Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
2495 |
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Author |
Neuringer, A. |
Title |
Reinforced variability in animals and people: implications for adaptive action |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2004 |
Publication |
The American Psychologist |
Abbreviated Journal |
Am Psychol |
Volume |
59 |
Issue |
9 |
Pages |
891-906 |
Keywords |
Animals; Behavior, Animal; *Choice Behavior; Conditioning, Operant; Creativeness; Discrimination (Psychology); Humans; Memory; Problem Solving; *Reinforcement (Psychology) |
Abstract |
Although reinforcement often leads to repetitive, even stereotyped responding, that is not a necessary outcome. When it depends on variations, reinforcement results in responding that is diverse, novel, indeed unpredictable, with distributions sometimes approaching those of a random process. This article reviews evidence for the powerful and precise control by reinforcement over behavioral variability, evidence obtained from human and animal-model studies, and implications of such control. For example, reinforcement of variability facilitates learning of complex new responses, aids problem solving, and may contribute to creativity. Depression and autism are characterized by abnormally repetitive behaviors, but individuals afflicted with such psychopathologies can learn to vary their behaviors when reinforced for so doing. And reinforced variability may help to solve a basic puzzle concerning the nature of voluntary action. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, OR 97202, USA. allen.neuringer@reed.edu |
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0003-066X |
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PMID:15584823 |
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no |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
4106 |
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Author |
Friedrich, A.M.; Zentall, T.R. |
Title |
Pigeons shift their preference toward locations of food that take more effort to obtain |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2004 |
Publication |
Behavioural processes |
Abbreviated Journal |
Behav. Process. |
Volume |
67 |
Issue |
3 |
Pages |
405-415 |
Keywords |
Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Choice Behavior; Columbidae; *Exertion; *Feeding Behavior; Reward |
Abstract |
Although animals typically prefer to exert less effort rather than more effort to obtain food, the present research shows that requiring greater effort to obtain food at a particular location appears to increase the value of that location. In Experiment 1, pigeons' initial preference for one feeder was significantly reduced by requiring 1 peck to obtain food from that feeder and requiring 30 pecks to obtain food from the other feeder. In Experiment 2, a similar decrease in preference was not found when pigeons received reinforcement from both feeders independently of the amount of effort required. These results are consistent with the within-trial contrast effect proposed by in which the relative hedonic value of a reward depends on the state of the animal immediately prior to the reward. The greater the improvement from that prior state the greater the value of the reinforcer. |
Address |
Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0044, USA |
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0376-6357 |
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PMID:15518990 |
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no |
Call Number |
refbase @ user @ |
Serial |
227 |
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