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Author Griffin, A.S.
Title Social learning in Indian mynahs, Acridotheres tristis: the role of distress calls Type Journal Article
Year 2008 Publication (up) Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 75 Issue 1 Pages 79-89
Keywords Acridotheres tristis; distress vocalizations; head saccades; Indian mynah; predator avoidance learning; social learning
Abstract Socially acquired predator avoidance is a phenomenon in which individuals acquire an avoidance response towards an initially neutral stimulus after they have experienced it together with the antipredator signals of social companions. Earlier research has established that alarm calls used for intraspecific communication are effective stimuli for triggering acquisition. However, animals produce a large range of other antipredator responses that might engage antipredator learning. Here, I examine the effects of conspecific distress calls, a signal that is produced by birds when restrained by a predator, and that appears to be directed towards predators, rather than conspecifics, on predator avoidance learning in Indian mynahs, Acridotheres tristis. Distress calls reflect high levels of alarm in the caller and should, therefore, mediate robust learning. Experiment 1 revealed that subjects performed higher rates of head movements in response to a previously unfamiliar avian mount after it had been presented simultaneously with playbacks of conspecific distress vocalizations. Experiment 2 revealed that increased rates of head saccades resembled the spontaneous response evoked by a novel stimulus more closely than it resembled the response evoked by a perched raptor, suggesting that distress calls inculcated a visual exploratory response, rather than an antipredator response. While it is usually thought that the level of acquisition in learners follows a simple relationship with the level of alarm shown by demonstrators, the present results suggest that this relationship may be more complex. Antipredator signals with different functions may have differential effects on learners.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4696
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Author Cowley, J.J.; Griesel, R.D.
Title The effect on growth and behaviour of rehabilitating first and second generation low protein rats Type Journal Article
Year 1966 Publication (up) Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 14 Issue 4 Pages 506-517
Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Diet Therapy; Dietary Proteins; Female; *Growth; Humans; Intelligence; Learning; Male; Mental Retardation/etiology; Protein Deficiency/*therapy; Rats
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Notes PMID:6008473 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4119
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Author Bonnie, K.E.; Earley, R.L.
Title Expanding the scope for social information use Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication (up) Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 74 Issue 2 Pages 171-18
Keywords behavioural cue; eavesdropping; public information; signalling; social information; social learning
Abstract Our understanding of how, why, and the circumstances under which animals use social information has been facilitated by three principal areas of research, social learning, public information use and social eavesdropping. With few exceptions, these related concepts have remained remarkably distinct within the literature, with little discussion or integration among them. Are these distinctions warranted? We tackle the issue by exploring similarities and differences between the concepts with respect to how animals gather and use social information, the type of information gathered, how information is packaged, and the relative payoffs to individuals involved. We contend that none of the currently dominant paradigms, social learning, public information use, or social eavesdropping, provide a unifying theme for studying social information use. Instead, we favour the central characteristic of the three concepts, social information use, as the overarching umbrella, and advocate a broader conceptual framework for understanding more comprehensively how animals behave with their social environments. Our intention is not to revolutionize the fields of social learning, public information use or social eavesdropping, but rather to stimulate discussion among researchers investigating the abilities of animals to extract information from the social environment.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4205
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Author Beecher, M.D.; Burt, J.M.; O'Loghlen, A.L.; Templeton, C.N.; Campbell, S.E.
Title Bird song learning in an eavesdropping context Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication (up) Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 73 Issue 6 Pages 929-935
Keywords eavesdropping; Melospiza melodia; passerine; social learning; song acoustics; song learning; song repertoire; song sparrow; vocal communication
Abstract Bird song learning is a major model system for the study of learning with many parallels to human language development. In this experiment we examined a critical but poorly understood aspect of song learning: its social context. We compared how much young song sparrows, Melospiza melodia, learned from two kinds of adult `song tutors': one with whom the subject interacted vocally, and one whom the subject only overheard singing with another young bird. We found that although subjects learned from both song models, they learned more than twice as many songs from the overheard tutor. These results provide the first evidence that young birds choose their songs by eavesdropping on interactions, and in some cases may learn more by eavesdropping than by direct interaction.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4207
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Author Range, F.; Huber, L.
Title Attention in common marmosets: implications for social-learning experiments Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication (up) Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 73 Issue 6 Pages 1033-1041
Keywords attention; Callithrix jacchus; common marmoset; imitation; social learning
Abstract The question whether a certain species is or is not able to imitate has received much recent attention. However, the ability to copy a demonstrated action might depend not only on the imitative ability of the observer but also on its attention, a factor widely neglected in discussions and experiments. Since attention differs between species as well as between individuals, it is likely to influence the amount and type of information different species and/or observers may extract from a given demonstration. We studied attention in common marmosets, Callithrix jacchus. In a series of experimental sessions, individual marmosets watched different conspecific models that were searching, manipulating an object and feeding. The observers could see the demonstration through two observation holes, which allowed us to measure exactly how often and for how long they watched the model. Marmosets were more attentive towards conspecifics engaged in a problem-solving task than an exploring model. Individual variation in attention was large, ranging from less than 10% to over 49%. Attention also depended on the identity of the model with an increase in attention if it was of the opposite sex. Overall, attention of marmosets was short with a median duration of 6 s while the model manipulated an object. This study measured the real interest of the observer towards a model, which could be an important variable in social-learning experiments.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4208
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Author Shier, D.M.; Owings, D.H.
Title Effects of social learning on predator training and postrelease survival in juvenile black-tailed prairie dogs, Cynomys ludovicianus Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication (up) Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 73 Issue 4 Pages 567-577
Keywords antipredator behaviour; black-tailed prairie dog; Cynomys ludovicianus; postrelease survival; predator avoidance; social learning
Abstract We examined how social context and experience affected development of antipredator behaviour and subsequent postrelease survival in the black-tailed prairie dog. Captive-reared juveniles were initially exposed to four stimulus animals: a ferret, a rattlesnake, a hawk and a cottontail control (pretraining tests). Subjects were then trained with or without an adult female demonstrator. Training involved exposure to each stimulus animal two to three times over 5 weeks. After training, each juvenile was retested with each stimulus animal (post-training tests). During pretraining tests, juveniles responded differentially to the stimulus animals. They were least active with the snake, fled the most in tests with the hawk, and were less vigilant with the ferret than with the snake. Following training, juveniles trained with experienced adults were more wary with all three predators than juveniles trained without an experienced adult present. We then compared the antipredator behaviour of captive-reared juveniles trained with experienced adult females with that of wild-reared juveniles of the same age. For all behavioural measures except shelter use, wild-experienced animals differentiated more strongly among predator types than did captive-trained juveniles. One year after reintroduction, survivorship of juveniles trained with experienced adults was higher than that of juveniles trained without experienced adults, but did not differ from that of wild-reared juveniles. These findings provide the first evidence that social transmission of antipredator behaviour during training can enhance long-term survival following release and that as long as a social training regime is used, predator avoidance training can emulate experience acquired in the wild.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4212
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Author Patris, B.; Perrier, G.; Schaal, B.; Coureaud, G.
Title Early development of filial preferences in the rabbit: implications of nursing- and pheromone-induced odour learning? Type Journal Article
Year 2008 Publication (up) Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 76 Issue 2 Pages 305-314
Keywords learning; mammary pheromone; mother-young relationship; Oryctolagus cuniculus; rabbit; recognition
Abstract Newborn rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus, discriminate between different categories of adult conspecifics on the basis of their abdominal odour cues. Whether these cues can support the development of filial preferences has not been adequately tested. Using a two-choice paradigm, we assessed the ability of 3-8-day-old pups to orient selectively to the mother versus an unfamiliar female, either spontaneously or after odour conditioning. In experiment 1, nonconditioned pups roamed indifferently over the mother and an unfamiliar female. In experiment 2, pups conditioned to a neutral odorant while nursing or with the mammary pheromone became attracted by the odorant. In experiment 3, pups that had learned the odorant while nursing oriented for longer to any female carrying it, but the unscented mother and a scented unfamiliar female were equally attractive. Finally, in experiment 4, pups that had learned the odorant paired with the mammary pheromone showed a preference for their scented mother, but not systematically for a scented unfamiliar female; furthermore, they were equally attracted by the unscented mother and a scented unfamiliar female. In sum, pups did not spontaneously evince an olfactory preference for the mother when opposed to an unfamiliar female, although they seemed able to detect individual maternal odours. In fact, they appeared to react to both species-specific cues and individual cues that they had learned, and their responses depended on their degree of familiarity with the cues and on the context. The mammary pheromone by itself might act as both a releasing and a reinforcing signal in these early socially oriented behaviours.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4646
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Author Broom, D.M.; Sena, H.; Moynihan, K.L.
Title Pigs learn what a mirror image represents and use it to obtain information Type Journal Article
Year 2009 Publication (up) Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 78 Issue 5 Pages 1037-1041
Keywords awareness; cognition; learning; mirror; pig; Sus scrofa
Abstract Mirror usage has been taken to indicate some degree of awareness in animals. Can pigs, Sus scrofa, obtain information from a mirror? When put in a pen with a mirror in it, young pigs made movements while apparently looking at their image. After 5 h spent with a mirror, the pigs were shown a familiar food bowl, visible in the mirror but hidden behind a solid barrier. Seven out of eight pigs found the food bowl in a mean of 23 s by going away from the mirror and around the barrier. Naïve pigs shown the same looked behind the mirror. The pigs were not locating the food bowl by odour, did not have a preference for the area where the food bowl was and did not go to that area when the food bowl was visible elsewhere. To use information from a mirror and find a food bowl, each pig must have observed features of its surroundings, remembered these and its own actions, deduced relationships among observed and remembered features and acted accordingly. This ability indicates assessment awareness in pigs. The results may have some effects on the design of housing conditions for pigs and may lead to better pig welfare.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5053
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Author Schwab, C.; Bugnyar, T.; Schloegl, C.; Kotrschal, K.
Title Enhanced social learning between siblings in common ravens, Corvus corax Type Journal Article
Year 2008 Publication (up) Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 75 Issue 2 Pages 501-508
Keywords affiliation; cognition; common raven; Corvus corax; siblings; social learning; social relations
Abstract It has been suggested that social dynamics affect social learning but empirical support for this idea is scarce. Here we show that affiliate relationships among kin indeed enhance the performance of common ravens, Corvus corax, in a social learning task. Via daily behavioural protocols we first monitored social dynamics in our group of captive young ravens. Siblings spent significantly more time in close proximity to each other than did nonsiblings. We subsequently tested birds on a stimulus enhancement task in model-observer dyads composed of both siblings and nonsiblings. During demonstration the observer could watch the model manipulating one particular object (target object) in an adjacent room. After removing the model, the observer was confronted with five different objects including the former target object. Observers from sibling dyads handled the target object for significantly longer periods of time as compared with the other four available objects, whereas observers from nonsibling dyads did not show a preference for the target object. Also, siblings matched the model's decision to cache or not to cache objects significantly more often than did nonsiblings. Hence, siblings were likely to attend to both, the behaviour of the model (caching or noncaching) and object-specific details. Our results support the hypothesis that affiliate relations between individuals affect the transmission of information and may lead to directed social learning even when spatial proximity has been experimentally controlled for.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5300
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Author Zentall, T.R.
Title Imitation: definitions, evidence, and mechanisms Type Journal Article
Year 2006 Publication (up) Animal cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 9 Issue 4 Pages 335-353
Keywords Adaptation, Psychological; Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Imitative Behavior; *Learning; Motivation; *Social Environment; Transfer (Psychology)
Abstract Imitation can be defined as the copying of behavior. To a biologist, interest in imitation is focused on its adaptive value for the survival of the organism, but to a psychologist, the mechanisms responsible for imitation are the most interesting. For psychologists, the most important cases of imitation are those that involve demonstrated behavior that the imitator cannot see when it performs the behavior (e.g., scratching one's head). Such examples of imitation are sometimes referred to as opaque imitation because they are difficult to account for without positing cognitive mechanisms, such as perspective taking, that most animals have not been acknowledged to have. The present review first identifies various forms of social influence and social learning that do not qualify as opaque imitation, including species-typical mechanisms (e.g., mimicry and contagion), motivational mechanisms (e.g., social facilitation, incentive motivation, transfer of fear), attentional mechanisms (e.g., local enhancement, stimulus enhancement), imprinting, following, observational conditioning, and learning how the environment works (affordance learning). It then presents evidence for different forms of opaque imitation in animals, and identifies characteristics of human imitation that have been proposed to distinguish it from animal imitation. Finally, it examines the role played in opaque imitation by demonstrator reinforcement and observer motivation. Although accounts of imitation have been proposed that vary in their level of analysis from neural to cognitive, at present no theory of imitation appears to be adequate to account for the varied results that have been found.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0044, USA. Zentall@uky.edu
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ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:17024510 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 217
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