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Author Sole, L.M.; Shettleworth, S.J.; Bennett, P.J.
Title Uncertainty in pigeons Type Journal Article
Year 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
Corporate Author Thesis
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1069-9384 ISBN (up) Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:14620372 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 366
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Author Gibson, B.M.; Shettleworth, S.J.
Title Competition among spatial cues in a naturalistic food-carrying task Type Journal Article
Year 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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Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1543-4494 ISBN (up) Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:12882373 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 368
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Author Jones, J.E.; Antoniadis, E.; Shettleworth, S.J.; Kamil, A.C.
Title A comparative study of geometric rule learning by nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana), pigeons (Columba livia), and jackdaws (Corvus monedula) Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983) Abbreviated Journal J Comp Psychol
Volume 116 Issue 4 Pages 350-356
Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal/physiology; Birds; Feeding Behavior/physiology; Learning/*physiology; *Mathematics; Random Allocation; Spatial Behavior/*physiology
Abstract Three avian species, a seed-caching corvid (Clark's nutcrackers; Nucifraga columbiana), a non-seed-caching corvid (jackdaws; Corvus monedula), and a non-seed-caching columbid (pigeons; Columba livia), were tested for ability to learn to find a goal halfway between 2 landmarks when distance between the landmarks varied during training. All 3 species learned, but jackdaws took much longer than either pigeons or nutcrackers. The nutcrackers searched more accurately than either pigeons or jackdaws. Both nutcrackers and pigeons showed good transfer to novel landmark arrays in which interlandmark distances were novel, but inconclusive results were obtained from jackdaws. Species differences in this spatial task appear quantitative rather than qualitative and are associated with differences in natural history rather than phylogeny.
Address School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 68588-0118, 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 0735-7036 ISBN (up) Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:12539930 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 369
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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
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0097-7403 ISBN (up) Medium
Area Expedition Conference
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 (up) Medium
Area Expedition Conference
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 (up) Medium
Area Expedition Conference
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 (up) Medium
Area Expedition Conference
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
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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 (up) Medium
Area Expedition Conference
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 (up) Medium
Area Expedition Conference
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 (up) Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:7866771 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 379
Permanent link to this record