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Author Bouchard, J. url  openurl
  Title Is social learning correlated with innovation in birds? An inter-and an interspecific test Type Manuscript
  Year 2002 Publication Department of Biology McGill University Montréal, Québec Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume Issue Pages  
  Keywords Birds -- Behavior Birds -- Food Columba livia -- Behavior Columba livia -- Food Social learning  
  Abstract This thesis focuses on the relationship between innovation and social learning in the foraging context, across and within bird species, using two different sources of data: anecdotal reports from the literature, and experimental tests in the laboratory and the field. In chapter 1, I review the trends in innovation and social learning in the avian literature, and contrast them with trends in mammals, especially primates. In chapter 2, I use anecdotal reports of feeding innovation and social learning in the literature to assess taxonomic trends and to study the relationship between the two traits at the interspecific level. In chapter 3, I investigate the relationship between innovation and social learning at the intraspecific level in captive feral pigeons (Columba livia). Innovation is estimated from the ability to solve an innovative foraging problem, and social learning is measured as the number of trials required to learn a foraging task from a proficient demonstrator. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis Master's thesis  
  Publisher Department of Biology McGili University Montréal, Québec Place of Publication Editor  
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  ISSN ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4785  
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Author Whistance, L.K.; Sinclair, L.A.; Arney, D.R.; Phillips, C.J.C. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Trainability of eliminative behaviour in dairy heifers using a secondary reinforcer Type Journal Article
  Year 2009 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume 117 Issue 3-4 Pages 128-136  
  Keywords Cattle; Eliminative behaviour; Learning; Clicker training; Clean bedding  
  Abstract Soiled bedding influences cleanliness and disease levels in dairy cows and there is no evidence of an inherent latrine behaviour in cattle. If cows were trained to use a concrete area of the housing system as a latrine, a cleaner bed could be maintained. Thirteen group-housed, 14-16-month-old Holstein-Friesian heifers, were clicker trained with heifer-rearing concentrate pellets as a reward. Training was carried out in four phases. (Phase 1) Association of feed reward with clicker, criterion: 34/40 correct responses. (Phase 2) Simple task (nose-butting a disc) to reinforce phase 1 association, criterion: 17/20 correct responses. (Phase 3) Association of eliminative behaviour with reward where criterion was four sessions with only one incorrect response: criteria for each heifer in phases 1-3 were set using binomial tests. (Phase 4) Shaping eliminative behaviour to occur on concrete. Possible responses were, eliminating on concrete (C) or straw (S), or moving from one substrate to another immediately before eliminating: C --> S, S --> C. Heifers were rewarded for the desired behaviours C and S --> C and ignored when S and C --> S occurred. If learning was achieved, C should increase as C --> S decreased and S --> C should increase as S decreased: tested with Spearman rank correlations. All heifers achieved criterion by day 4 of phase 1 (P = 0.001); day 1 of phase 2 (P = 0.001) and day 10 of phase 3 (P < 0.009). Responses changed throughout phase 3 beginning with (i) looking at the trainer whilst voiding then moving to trainer after the click, and later including (ii) moving to trainer immediately before- or (iii) during voiding. No relationship was found between S and S --> C (rs = -0.14; P = 0.63) or C and C --> S (rs = -0.33; P = 0.25). All group members eliminated more often on concrete (580) than on straw (141) but four heifers with consistently longer lying bouts also showed more C --> S before lying down (Mann-Whitney, P = 0.007). The present study is believed to be the first reported work to show that cattle can be trained to show an awareness of their own eliminative behaviour. This was not successfully shaped to latrine behaviour, however, and it is suggested that floor type may not have been a sufficiently salient cue. Voiding on straw occurred largely with response C --> S (0.73) and general behaviour suggested that this was strongly linked to lying patterns of individual heifers.  
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  ISSN 0168-1591 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4765  
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Author Björk, N. url  openurl
  Title Is it possible to measure the welfare of the ridden horse? Type Manuscript
  Year 2008 Publication Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume Issue Pages  
  Keywords horse, welfare, training, learning, measure, assess  
  Abstract Since the time of domestication, humans have trained horses for the purpose of serving man. Different training methods have been developed throughout the centuries; some were developed with consideration for the horse's welfare, while others disregarded welfare to a great extent. Most present day training is based upon making the horse perform a desired behaviour through dominance and subordination. Although cooperative training techniques have gained popularity, everyday training lacks the application of learning theory or neglects the horse's learning capacities and their species' specific behaviour. Thus, the horse's welfare may be jeopardised.

The aim with this review is to consider methods that allow an objective assessment of the welfare of horses undergoing training. The review gives a brief insight into the history of horse training and handling. It proceeds with an overview of the horse"s learning abilities which is argued to be of paramount importance for effective training. The review then describes a few selected training techniques that are used today, based on negative and positive reinforcement, and discusses parameters from which it could be possible to assess the welfare of the ridden horse. The work concludes with suggestion for future
 
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis Bachelor's thesis  
  Publisher Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
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  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4749  
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Author Healy, S.D.; Jones, C.M. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Animal learning and memory: an integration of cognition and ecology Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Zoology Abbreviated Journal Zoology  
  Volume 105 Issue 4 Pages 321-327  
  Keywords cognitive ecology; spatial learning and memory; adaptive specialisation  
  Abstract Summary A wonderfully lucid framework for the ways to understand animal behaviour is that represented by the four [`]whys' proposed by Tinbergen (1963). For much of the past three decades, however, these four avenues have been pursued more or less in parallel. Functional questions, for example, have been addressed by behavioural ecologists, mechanistic questions by psychologists and ethologists, ontogenetic questions by developmental biologists and neuroscientists and phylogenetic questions by evolutionary biologists. More recently, the value of integration between these differing views has become apparent. In this brief review, we concentrate especially on current attempts to integrate mechanistic and functional approaches. Most of our understanding of learning and memory in animals comes from the psychological literature, which tends to use only rats or pigeons, and more occasionally primates, as subjects. The underlying psychological assumption is of general processes that are similar across species and contexts rather than a range of specific abilities. However, this does not seem to be entirely true as several learned behaviours have been described that are specific to particular species or contexts. The first conspicuous exception to the generalist assumption was the demonstration of long delay taste aversion learning in rats (Garcia et al., 1955), in which it was shown that a stimulus need not be temporally contiguous with a response for the animal to make an association between food and illness. Subsequently, a number of other examples, such as imprinting and song learning in birds (e.g., Bolhuis and Honey, 1998; Catchpole and Slater, 1995; Horn, 1998), have been thoroughly researched. Even in these cases, however, it has been typical for only a few species to be studied (domestic chicks provide the [`]model' imprinting species and canaries and zebra finches the song learning [`]models'). As a result, a great deal is understood about the neural underpinnings and development of the behaviour, but substantially less is understood about interspecific variation and whether variation in behaviour is correlated with variation in neural processing (see review by Tramontin and Brenowitz, 2000 but see ten Cate and Vos, 1999).  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0944-2006 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4741  
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Author Tibbetts, E.A. doi  openurl
  Title Visual signals of individual identity in the wasp Polistes fuscatus Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci.  
  Volume 269 Issue 1423 Pages 1423-1428  
  Keywords hymenoptera; individual-recognition; learning-insect  
  Abstract Individual recognition is an essential component of interactions in many social systems, but insects are often thought incapable of the sophistication necessary to recognize individuals. If this were true, it would impose limits on the societies that insects could form. For example, queens and workers of the paper wasp Polistes fuscatus form a linear dominance hierarchy that determines how food, work and reproduction are divided within the colony. Such a stable hierarchy would be facilitated if individuals of different ranks have some degree of recognition. P. fuscatus wasps have, to our knowledge, previously undocumented variability in their yellow facial and abdominal markings that are intriguing candidates for signals of individual identity. Here, I describe these highly variable markings and experimentally test whether P. fuscatus queens and workers use these markings to identify individual nest-mates visually. I demonstrate that individuals whose yellow markings are experimentally altered with paint receive more aggression than control wasps who are painted in a way that does not alter their markings. Further, aggression declines towards wasps with experimentally altered markings as these novel markings become familiar to their nestmates. This evidence for individual recognition in P. fuscatus indicates that interactions between insects may be even more complex than previously anticipated.

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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ 929 Serial 4732  
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Author Byrne, R.W.; Bates, L.A. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Why are animals cognitive? Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Current Biology : CB Abbreviated Journal Curr Biol  
  Volume 16 Issue 12 Pages R445-8  
  Keywords Animals; Arachnida/physiology; *Association Learning; *Behavior, Animal; *Cognition; Cooperative Behavior; Falconiformes/physiology; Pan troglodytes/physiology; Parrots/physiology; Passeriformes/physiology  
  Abstract  
  Address Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, Fife KY16 9JP, Scotland  
  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 0960-9822 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16781995 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4708  
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Author Griffin, A.S. doi  openurl
  Title Socially acquired predator avoidance: Is it just classical conditioning? Type Journal Article
  Year 2008 Publication Brain Research Bulletin Abbreviated Journal Special Issue:Brain Mechanisms, Cognition and Behaviour in Birds  
  Volume 76 Issue 3 Pages 264-271  
  Keywords Learning; Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning; Social learning; Ecological specialization; General process theory; Ecology; Predation; Backward conditioning  
  Abstract Associative learning theories presume the existence of a general purpose learning process, the structure of which does not mirror the demands of any particular learning problem. In contrast, learning scientists working within an Evolutionary Biology tradition believe that learning processes have been shaped by ecological demands. One potential means of exploring how ecology may have modified properties of acquisition is to use associative learning theory as a framework within which to analyse a particular learning phenomenon. Recent work has used this approach to examine whether socially transmitted predator avoidance can be conceptualised as a classical conditioning process in which a novel predator stimulus acts as a conditioned stimulus (CS) and acquires control over an avoidance response after it has become associated with alarm signals of social companions, the unconditioned stimulus (US). I review here a series of studies examining the effect of CS/US presentation timing on the likelihood of acquisition. Results suggest that socially acquired predator avoidance may be less sensitive to forward relationships than traditional classical conditioning paradigms. I make the case that socially acquired predator avoidance is an exciting novel one-trial learning paradigm that could be studied along side fear conditioning. Comparisons between social and non-social learning of danger at both the behavioural and neural level may yield a better understanding of how ecology might shape properties and mechanisms of learning.  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0361-9230 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4697  
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Author Griffin, A.S. doi  openurl
  Title Social learning in Indian mynahs, Acridotheres tristis: the role of distress calls Type Journal Article
  Year 2008 Publication 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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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4696  
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Author Franks, N.R.; Richardson, T. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Teaching in tandem-running ants Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 439 Issue 7073 Pages 153  
  Keywords *Animal Communication; Animals; Ants/*physiology; Feedback/physiology; Learning/*physiology; *Teaching  
  Abstract The ant Temnothorax albipennis uses a technique known as tandem running to lead another ant from the nest to food--with signals between the two ants controlling both the speed and course of the run. Here we analyse the results of this communication and show that tandem running is an example of teaching, to our knowledge the first in a non-human animal, that involves bidirectional feedback between teacher and pupil. This behaviour indicates that it could be the value of information, rather than the constraint of brain size, that has influenced the evolution of teaching.  
  Address School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 IUG, UK. nigel.franks@bristol.ac.uk  
  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 1476-4687 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16407943 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4651  
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Author Patris, B.; Perrier, G.; Schaal, B.; Coureaud, G. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Early development of filial preferences in the rabbit: implications of nursing- and pheromone-induced odour learning? Type Journal Article
  Year 2008 Publication 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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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4646  
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