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Author McLean, A.N.
Title Cognitive abilities -- the result of selective pressures on food acquisition? Type Journal Article
Year 2001 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Volume 71 Issue 3 Pages 241-258
Keywords Adaptive intelligence; Animal cognition; Darwinian selection; Insightful learning
Abstract Locating and capturing food are suggested as significant selection pressures for the evolution of various cognitive abilities in mammals and birds. The hypothesis is proposed that aspects of food procuring behaviour should be strongly indicative of particular cognitive abilities. Experimental data concerning higher mental abilities in mammals and birds are reviewed. These data deal with self-recognition studies, rule-learning experiments, number concept, deceptive abilities, tool-use and observational learning. A Darwinian approach reveals: (1) the adaptiveness of particular abilities for particular niches, (2) that in complex foraging environments, increases in foraging efficiencies in animals should result from the evolution of particular cognitive abilities, (3) that phenomena such as convergent mental evolution should be expected to have taken place across taxonomic groups for species exploiting similar niches, (4) that divergence in mental ability should also have taken place where related species have exploited dissimilar niches. Experimental data of higher mental abilities in animals concur with a Darwinian explanation for the distribution of these cognitive abilities and no anomalies have been found. There are, as a consequence, significant implications for the welfare of animals subject to training when training methodology gives little or no consideration to the various mental abilities of species.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2907
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Author Crockford, C.; Wittig, R.M.; Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L.
Title Baboons eavesdrop to deduce mating opportunities Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 73 Issue 5 Pages 885-890
Keywords baboon; cognition; eavesdropping; extrapair copulation; mate guarding; Papio hamadryas ursinus; primate; social intelligence; third-party relationships; transient relationships
Abstract Many animals appear to monitor changes in other individuals' dominance ranks and social relationships and to track changes in them. However, it is not known whether they also track changes in very transient relationships. Rapid recognition of a temporary separation between a dominant male and a sexually receptive female, for example, should be adaptive in species where subordinate males use opportunistic strategies to achieve mating success. Dominant male baboons (Papio hamadryas ursinus) form sexual consortships with oestrous females that are characterized by mate guarding and close proximity. To assess whether subordinate males track temporary changes in the status of other males' consortships, we conducted playback experiments using a two-speaker paradigm. In the test condition, subjects heard the consort male's grunts played from one speaker and his consort female's copulation call played from a speaker approximately 40 m away. This sequence suggested that the male and female had temporarily separated and that the female was mating with another male. In a control trial, subjects heard another dominant male's grunts played from one speaker and the female's copulation call played from the other. In a second control trial, conducted within 24 h after the consortship had ended, subjects again heard the consort male's grunt and the female's copulation call played from separate speakers. As predicted, subjects responded strongly only in the test condition. Eavesdropping upon the temporal and spatial juxtaposition of other individuals' vocalizations may be one strategy by which male baboons achieve sneaky matings.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 816
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Author Rozempolska-Ruciń ska, Iwona; Trojan, Maciej; Kosik, Elż bieta; Próchniak, Tomasz; Górecka-Bruzda, Aleksandra
Title How “natural” training methods can affect equine mental state? A critical approach -- a review Type Journal Article
Year 2013 Publication Animal Science Papers & Reports Abbreviated Journal
Volume 31 Issue 3 Pages 185
Keywords HORSES -- Training; HORSEMANSHIP; HUMAN-animal relationships; LEARNING in animals; ANIMAL psychology; ANIMAL intelligence; ANIMAL welfare
Abstract Among equestrians the “natural” training methods of horses are gaining widespread popularity due to their spectacular efficiency. Underlying philosophy of trainers – founders of different “natural horsemanship training” (NHT) schools, along with other not well documented statements includes argumentation of solely welfare- and human-friendly effects of NHT in the horse. The aim of this review was to screen scientific papers related to NHT to answer the question whether „natural“ training methods may actually exert only positive effects upon equine mental state and human-horse relationship. It appears that NHT trainers may reduce stress and emotional tension and improve learning processes as they appropriately apply learning stimuli. Basing on revised literature it can be concluded that training is successful provided that [i] the strength of the aversive stimulus meets sensitivity of an individual horse, [ii] the aversive stimulus is terminated at a right moment to avoid the impression of punishment, and [iii] the animal is given enough time to assess its situation and make an independent decision in the form of adequate behavioural reaction. Neglecting any of these conditions may lead to substantial emotional problems, hyperactivity, or excessive fear in the horse-human relationship, regardless of the training method. However, we admit that the most successful NHT trainers reduce aversive stimulation to the minimum and that horses learn quicker with fear or stress reactions, apparently decreasing along with training process. Anyway, NHT should be acknowledged for absolutely positive role in pointing out the importance of proper stimulation in the schooling and welfare of horses.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5726
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Author Lachapelle, S.; Healey, J.
Title On Hans, Zou and the others: wonder animals and the question of animal intelligence in early twentieth-century France Type Journal Article
Year 2010 Publication Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences Abbreviated Journal
Volume 41 Issue 1 Pages 12-20
Keywords Animal experimentation; Animal intelligence; Clever Hans; Comparative psychology; Psychical research; Wonder animals
Abstract During the second half of the nineteenth century, the advent of widespread pet ownership was accompanied by claims of heightened animal abilities. Psychical researchers investigated many of these claims, including animal telepathy and ghostly apparitions. By the beginning of the twentieth century, news of horses and dogs with the ability to read and calculate fascinated the French public and scientists alike. Amidst questions about the justification of animal cruelty in laboratory experiments, wonder animals came to represent some extraordinary possibilities associated with their kind. Psychologists speculated on the feats of wonder animals. They considered the possibility that these animals shared consciousness and intelligence with humans, and that--if confirmed--their alleged amazing abilities could lead to a new understanding of cognition for all animals. This article focuses on the few years during which claims of wonder animals occupied a significant place in French psychology and psychical research. It argues that as explanations involving deception or unconscious cues gained increased acceptance, the interest in wonder animals soon led to a backlash in comparative psychology that had repercussions for all animals, particularly those used in experimentation, in that it contributed to the decline of research addressing cognitive abilities in non-human species.
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ISSN 1369-8486 ISBN Medium
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5079
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Author Bates, L.A.; Byrne, R.W.
Title Creative or created: Using anecdotes to investigate animal cognition Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Methods Abbreviated Journal Methods
Volume 42 Issue 1 Pages 12-21
Keywords Anecdote; Creativity; Intelligence; Deception; Innovation; African elephant
Abstract In non-human animals, creative behaviour occurs spontaneously only at low frequencies, so is typically missed by standardised observational methods. Experimental approaches have tended to rely overly on paradigms from child development or adult human cognition, which may be inappropriate for species that inhabit very different perceptual worlds and possess quite different motor capacities than humans. The analysis of anecdotes offers a solution to this impasse, provided certain conditions are met. To be reliable, anecdotes must be recorded immediately after observation, and only the records of scientists experienced with the species and the individuals concerned should be used. Even then, interpretation of a single record is always ambiguous, and analysis is feasible only when collation of multiple records shows that a behaviour pattern occurs repeatedly under similar circumstances. This approach has been used successfully to study a number of creative capacities of animals: the distribution, nature and neural correlates of deception across the primate order; the occurrence of teaching in animals; and the neural correlates of several aptitudes--in birds, foraging innovation, and in primates, innovation, social learning and tool-use. Drawing on these approaches, we describe the use of this method to investigate a new problem, the cognition of the African elephant, a species whose sheer size and evolutionary distance from humans renders the conventional methods of comparative psychology of little use. The aim is both to chart the creative cognitive capacities of this species, and to devise appropriate experimental methods to confirm and extend previous findings.
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ISSN 1046-2023 ISBN Medium
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Notes also special issue: Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Creativity: A Toolkit Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6185
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Author Pepperberg, I.M.
Title In search of king Solomon's ring: cognitive and communicative studies of Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Brain, behavior and evolution Abbreviated Journal Brain Behav Evol
Volume 59 Issue 1-2 Pages 54-67
Keywords *Animal Communication; Animals; Attention/physiology; Cognition/*physiology; Cues; Form Perception/physiology; Humans; Intelligence; Learning/physiology; Male; Models, Psychological; Parrots/*physiology; Psychomotor Performance/physiology; Reward; Social Behavior
Abstract During the past 24 years, I have used a modeling technique (M/R procedure) to train Grey parrots to use an allospecific code (English speech) referentially; I then use the code to test their cognitive abilities. The oldest bird, Alex, labels more than 50 different objects, 7 colors, 5 shapes, quantities to 6, 3 categories (color, shape, material) and uses 'no', 'come here', wanna go X' and 'want Y' (X and Y are appropriate location or item labels). He combines labels to identify, request, comment upon or refuse more than 100 items and to alter his environment. He processes queries to judge category, relative size, quantity, presence or absence of similarity/difference in attributes, and show label comprehension. He semantically separates labeling from requesting. He thus exhibits capacities once presumed limited to humans or nonhuman primates. Studies on this and other Greys show that parrots given training that lacks some aspect of input present in M/R protocols (reference, functionality, social interaction) fail to acquire referential English speech. Examining how input affects the extent to which parrots acquire an allospecific code may elucidate mechanisms of other forms of exceptional learning: learning unlikely in the normal course of development but that can occur under certain conditions.
Address The MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, Mass. 02139, USA. impepper@media.mit.edu
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Language (up) English Summary Language Original Title
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Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0006-8977 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:12097860 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 579
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Author Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L.
Title What are big brains for? Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Abbreviated Journal Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
Volume 99 Issue 7 Pages 4141-4142
Keywords Animals; Brain/*anatomy & histology; *Intelligence; Learning; Primates/*anatomy & histology/*psychology; Social Behavior
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Address Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. seyfarth@psych.upenn.edu
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ISSN 0027-8424 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:11929989 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 692
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Author Whiten, A.
Title Social complexity and social intelligence Type Conference Article
Year 2000 Publication Novartis Foundation Symposium Abbreviated Journal Novartis Found Symp
Volume 233 Issue Pages 185-96; discussion 196-201
Keywords Animals; Brain/anatomy & histology/*physiology; Humans; *Intelligence/physiology; Learning; Models, Psychological; Primates; *Social Behavior; Social Problems
Abstract When we talk of the 'nature of intelligence', or any other attribute, we may be referring to its essential structure, or to its place in nature, particularly the function it has evolved to serve. Here I examine both, from the perspective of the evolution of intelligence in primates. Over the last 20 years, the Social (or 'Machiavellian') Intelligence Hypothesis has gained empirical support. Its core claim is that the intelligence of primates is primarily an adaptation to the special complexities of primate social life. In addition to this hypothesis about the function of intellect, a secondary claim is that the very structure of intelligence has been moulded to be 'social' in character, an idea that presents a challenge to orthodox views of intelligence as a general-purpose capacity. I shall outline the principal components of social intelligence and the environment of social complexity it engages with. This raises the question of whether domain specificity is an appropriate characterization of social intelligence and its subcomponents, like theory of mind. As a counter-argument to such specificity I consider the hypothesis that great apes exhibit a cluster of advanced cognitive abilities that rest on a shared capacity for second-order mental representation.
Address School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9JU, UK
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Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1528-2511 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:11276903 Approved no
Call Number Serial 2084
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Author Huber, L.; Gajdon, G.K.
Title Technical intelligence in animals: the kea model Type Journal Article
Year 2006 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 9 Issue 4 Pages 295-305
Keywords Animals; *Comprehension; *Intelligence; Models, Psychological; Observation; *Parrots; *Problem Solving; Psychological Theory; Social Environment; *Tool Use Behavior
Abstract The ability to act on information flexibly is one of the cornerstones of intelligent behavior. As particularly informative example, tool-oriented behavior has been investigated to determine to which extent nonhuman animals understand means-end relations, object affordances, and have specific motor skills. Even planning with foresight, goal-directed problem solving and immediate causal inference have been a focus of research. However, these cognitive abilities may not be restricted to tool-using animals but may be found also in animals that show high levels of curiosity, object exploration and manipulation, and extractive foraging behavior. The kea, a New Zealand parrot, is a particularly good example. We here review findings from laboratory experiments and field observations of keas revealing surprising cognitive capacities in the physical domain. In an experiment with captive keas, the success rate of individuals that were allowed to observe a trained conspecific was significantly higher than that of naive control subjects due to their acquisition of some functional understanding of the task through observation. In a further experiment using the string-pulling task, a well-probed test for means-end comprehension, we found the keas finding an immediate solution that could not be improved upon in nine further trials. We interpreted their performance as insightful in the sense of being sensitive of the relevant functional properties of the task and thereby producing a new adaptive response without trial-and-error learning. Together, these findings contribute to the ongoing debate on the distribution of higher cognitive skills in the animal kingdom by showing high levels of sensorimotor intelligence in animals that do not use tools. In conclusion, we suggest that the 'Technical intelligence hypothesis' (Byrne, Machiavellian intelligence II: extensions and evaluations, pp 289-211, 1997), which has been proposed to explain the origin of the ape/monkey grade-shift in intelligence by a selection pressure upon an increased efficiency in foraging behavior, should be extended, that is, applied to some birds as well.
Address Department for Behavior, Neurobiology and Cognition, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090, Vienna, Austria. ludwig.huber@univie.ac.at
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Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:16909237 Approved no
Call Number Serial 2085
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Author Barrett, L.; Henzi, P.
Title The social nature of primate cognition Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Proceedings. Biological Sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci
Volume 272 Issue 1575 Pages 1865-1875
Keywords Animals; Brain/anatomy & histology/*physiology; Cognition/*physiology; *Evolution; Intelligence/*physiology; Primates/*physiology; *Social Behavior
Abstract The hypothesis that the enlarged brain size of the primates was selected for by social, rather than purely ecological, factors has been strongly influential in studies of primate cognition and behaviour over the past two decades. However, the Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis, also known as the social brain hypothesis, tends to emphasize certain traits and behaviours, like exploitation and deception, at the expense of others, such as tolerance and behavioural coordination, and therefore presents only one view of how social life may shape cognition. This review outlines work from other relevant disciplines, including evolutionary economics, cognitive science and neurophysiology, to illustrate how these can be used to build a more general theoretical framework, incorporating notions of embodied and distributed cognition, in which to situate questions concerning the evolution of primate social cognition.
Address School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK. louiseb@liv.ac.uk
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Language (up) English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0962-8452 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:16191591 Approved no
Call Number Serial 2086
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