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Author Martin, T.I.; Zentall, T.R. doi  openurl
  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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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium (up)  
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  Notes PMID:15744507 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 225  
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Author Zentall, T.R. doi  openurl
  Title Configural/holistic processing or differential element versus compound similarity Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Animal cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 8 Issue 2 Pages 141-142  
  Keywords Animals; *Chickens; Conditioning, Classical; *Discrimination Learning; Female; *Pattern Recognition, Visual; Photic Stimulation; *Visual Perception  
  Abstract Before accepting a configural or holistic account of visual perception, one should be sure that an analytic (elemental) account does not provide an equal or better explanation of the results. I suggest that when one forms a compound of a color and a line orientation with one element previously trained as an S+ and the other as an S-, the resulting transfer found will depend on the relative salience of the two elements, and most important, the similarity of the compound to each of the training stimuli. Thus, if a line orientation is placed on a colored background (a separable compound), it will appear more like the colored field used in training, and color will control responding. However, if the line itself is colored (an integral compound), the compound will appear more like the line used in training, and line orientation will control responding. Not only does this account do a better job of explaining the data but it is simpler and it is testable.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0044, USA. zentall@uky.edu  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium (up)  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:15449103 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 229  
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Author Kitchen, D.M.; Cheney, D.L.; Seyfarth, R.M. doi  openurl
  Title Male chacma baboons (Papio hamadryas ursinus) discriminate loud call contests between rivals of different relative ranks Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Animal cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 8 Issue 1 Pages 1-6  
  Keywords Acoustic Stimulation; Animals; *Discrimination Learning; *Hierarchy, Social; Male; Papio hamadryas/*psychology; *Social Dominance; *Vocalization, Animal  
  Abstract Males in multi-male groups of chacma baboons (Papio hamadryas ursinus) in Botswana compete for positions in a linear dominance hierarchy. Previous research suggests that males treat different categories of rivals differently; competitive displays between males of similar rank are more frequent and intense than those between disparately ranked males. Here we test whether males also respond differently to male-male interactions in which they are not directly involved, using playbacks of the loud 'wahoo' calls exchanged between competing males in aggressive displays. We played paired sequences of vocal contests between two adjacently ranked and two disparately ranked males to ten subjects, half ranking below the signalers in the call sequences and half above. Subjects who ranked above the two signalers showed stronger responses than lower-ranking subjects. Higher-ranking subjects also responded more strongly to sequences involving disparately ranked, as opposed to adjacently ranked opponents, suggesting that they recognized those individuals' relative ranks. Strong responses to sequences between disparately ranked opponents might have occurred either because such contests typically involve resources of high fitness value (defense of meat, estrous females or infants vulnerable to infanticide) or because they indicate a sudden change in one contestant's condition. In contrast, subjects who ranked lower than the signalers responded equally strongly to both types of sequences. These subjects may have been able to distinguish between the two categories of opponents but did not respond differently to them because they had little to lose or gain by a rank reversal between males that already ranked higher than they did.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. dkitchen@psych.upenn.edu  
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  Notes PMID:15164259 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 687  
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Author Horner, V.; Whiten, A. doi  openurl
  Title Causal knowledge and imitation/emulation switching in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and children (Homo sapiens) Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Animal cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 8 Issue 3 Pages 164-181  
  Keywords Animals; Child Behavior; Child, Preschool; *Concept Formation; Female; Humans; *Imitative Behavior; *Learning; Male; Pan troglodytes; *Problem Solving; Psychomotor Performance; *Social Environment; Species Specificity  
  Abstract This study explored whether the tendency of chimpanzees and children to use emulation or imitation to solve a tool-using task was a response to the availability of causal information. Young wild-born chimpanzees from an African sanctuary and 3- to 4-year-old children observed a human demonstrator use a tool to retrieve a reward from a puzzle-box. The demonstration involved both causally relevant and irrelevant actions, and the box was presented in each of two conditions: opaque and clear. In the opaque condition, causal information about the effect of the tool inside the box was not available, and hence it was impossible to differentiate between the relevant and irrelevant parts of the demonstration. However, in the clear condition causal information was available, and subjects could potentially determine which actions were necessary. When chimpanzees were presented with the opaque box, they reproduced both the relevant and irrelevant actions, thus imitating the overall structure of the task. When the box was presented in the clear condition they instead ignored the irrelevant actions in favour of a more efficient, emulative technique. These results suggest that emulation is the favoured strategy of chimpanzees when sufficient causal information is available. However, if such information is not available, chimpanzees are prone to employ a more comprehensive copy of an observed action. In contrast to the chimpanzees, children employed imitation to solve the task in both conditions, at the expense of efficiency. We suggest that the difference in performance of chimpanzees and children may be due to a greater susceptibility of children to cultural conventions, perhaps combined with a differential focus on the results, actions and goals of the demonstrator.  
  Address Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9JU, UK. vkh1@st-andrews.ac.uk  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium (up)  
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  Notes PMID:15549502 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 732  
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Author Saucier, D.M.; Shultz, S.R.; Keller, A.J.; Cook, C.M.; Binsted, G. doi  openurl
  Title Sex differences in object location memory and spatial navigation in Long-Evans rats Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume Issue Pages  
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  Abstract In both humans and rodents, males typically excel on a number of tasks requiring spatial ability. However, human females exhibit advantages in memory for the spatial location of objects. This study investigated whether rats would exhibit similar sex differences on a task of object location memory (OLM) and on the watermaze (WM). We predicted that females should outperform males on the OLM task and that males should outperform females on the WM. To control for possible effects of housing environment, rats were housed in either complex environments or in standard shoebox housing. Eighty Long-Evans rats (40 males and 40 females) were housed in either complex (Complex rats) or standard shoebox housing (Control rats). Results indicated that males had superior performance on the WM, whereas females outperformed males on the OLM task, regardless of housing environment. As these sex differences cannot be easily attributed to differences in cognitive style related to linguistic processing of environmental features or to selection pressures related to the hunting gathering evolutionary prehistory of humans, these data suggest that sex differences in spatial ability may be related to traits selected for by polygynous mating strategies.  
  Address Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Dr., Lethbridge, AB, Canada, T1K 3M4, Deborah.Saucier@ULeth.ca  
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  Notes PMID:17562087 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2391  
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Author Madden, J.R. doi  openurl
  Title Do bowerbirds exhibit cultures? Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume Issue Pages  
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  Abstract Definitions of what features constitute cultural behaviour, and hence define cultures are numerous. Many seem designed to describe those aspects of human behaviour which set us apart from other animals. A broad definition prescribing that the behaviour is: learned; learned socially; normative and collective is considered to apply to several species of great ape. In this paper, I review observations and experiments covering a suite of different behavioural characteristics displayed in members of the bowerbird family (Ptilonorhynchidae) and ask whether they fulfil these criteria. These include vocalisations, bower design, decoration use, bower orientation and display movements. Such a range of behaviours refutes the suggestion that these species are “one-trick ponies”-a criticism that is often levelled at claims for culture in non-primate species. I suggest that, despite a paucity of data in comparison with primate studies, it could be argued that bowerbirds may be considered to fulfil the same criteria on which we base our use of the term culture when applied to our close relatives, the great apes. If bowerbirds do have cultures, then their unusual natural history makes them a highly tractable system in which questions of social learning and culture can be tackled.  
  Address Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK, jrm54@cam.ac.uk  
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  Notes PMID:17551758 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2393  
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Author Beran, M.J. doi  openurl
  Title Capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) succeed in a test of quantity conservation Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume Issue Pages  
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  Abstract Nonhuman animals demonstrate a number of impressive quantitative skills such as counting sets of items, comparing sets on the basis of the number of items or amount of material, and even responding to simple arithmetic manipulations. In this experiment, capuchin monkeys were presented with a computerized task designed to assess conservation of discrete quantity. Monkeys first were trained to select from two horizontal arrays of stimuli the one with the larger number of items. On some trials, after a correct selection there was no feedback but instead an additional manipulation of one of those arrays. In some cases, this manipulation involved moving items closer together or farther apart to change the physical arrangement of the array but not the quantity of items in the array. In other cases, additional items were added to the initially smaller array so that it became quantitatively larger. Monkeys then made a second selection from the two arrays of items. Previous research had shown that rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) succeeded with this task. However, there was no condition in that study in which items were added to the smaller array without increasing its quantity to a point where it became the new larger array. This new condition was added in the present experiment. Capuchin monkeys were sensitive to all of these manipulations, changing their selections when the manipulations changed which array contained the larger number of items but not when the manipulations changed the physical arrangement of items or increased the quantity in one array without also reversing which of the two arrays had more items. Therefore, capuchin monkeys responded on the basis of the quantity of items, and they were not distracted by non-quantitative manipulations of the arrays. The data indicate that capuchins are sensitive to simply arithmetic manipulations that involve addition of items to arrays and also that they can conserve quantity.  
  Address Language Research Center, Georgia State University, University Plaza, Atlanta, GA, 30303, USA, mjberan@yahoo.com  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium (up)  
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  Notes PMID:17549530 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2394  
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Author Helton, W.S. doi  openurl
  Title Expertise acquisition as sustained learning in humans and other animals: commonalities across species Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume Issue Pages  
  Keywords  
  Abstract Expertise acquisition may be a universal attribute of animals. In this study data on foraging efficiency, or expertise, was compared for four species: honeybees (Apis mellifera), oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), and humans (Homo sapiens). Polynomial regression models were constructed to investigate the relationship between age and foraging efficiency. There was a similar expertise-acquisition function between age and foraging efficiency across species, best described by a quadratic equation. The peak of performance was reached, in all cases, before the average age of death but well after reaching physical maturity and the percentage of lifespan devoted to the skill was more than 10% of the species-typical lifespan.  
  Address Department of Psychology, Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Dr, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA, deak_helton@yahoo.com  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium (up)  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:17534675 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2395  
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Author Buttelmann, D.; Call, J.; Tomasello, M. doi  openurl
  Title Behavioral cues that great apes use to forage for hidden food Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume Issue Pages  
  Keywords  
  Abstract We conducted three studies to examine whether the four great ape species (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans) are able to use behavioral experimenter-given cues in an object-choice task. In the subsequent experimental conditions subjects were presented with two eggs, one of which contained food and the other did not. In Study 1 the experimenter examined both eggs by smelling or shaking them, but only made a failed attempt to open (via biting) the egg containing food. In a control condition, the experimenter examined and attempted to open both eggs, but in reverse order to control for stimulus enhancement. The apes significantly preferred the egg that was first examined and then bitten, but had no preference in a baseline condition in which there were no cues. In Study 2, we investigated whether the apes could extend this ability to cues not observed in apes so far (i.e., attempting to pull apart the egg), as well as whether they made this discrimination based on the function of the action the experimenter performed. Subjects significantly preferred eggs presented with this novel cue, but did not prefer eggs presented with a novel but functionally irrelevant action. In Study 3, apes did not interpret human actions as cues to food-location when they already knew that the eggs were empty. Thus, great apes were able to use a variety of experimenter-given cues associated with foraging actions to locate hidden food and thereby were partially sensitive to the general purpose underlying these actions.  
  Address Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany, buttelmann@eva.mpg.de  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium (up)  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:17534674 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2396  
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Author Furlong, E.E.; Boose, K.J.; Boysen, S.T. doi  openurl
  Title Raking it in: the impact of enculturation on chimpanzee tool use Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume Issue Pages  
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  Abstract Recent evidence for different tool kits, proposed to be based upon culture-like transmission, have been observed across different chimpanzee communities across Western Africa. In light of these findings, the reported failures by seven captive juvenile chimpanzees tested with 27 tool use tasks (Povinelli 2000) seem enigmatic. Here we report successful performance by a group of nine captive, enculturated chimpanzees, and limited success by a group of six semi-enculturated chimpanzees, on two of the Povinelli tasks, the Flimsy Tool task, and the Hybrid Tool task. All chimpanzees were presented with a rake with a flimsy head and a second rake with a rigid head, either of which could be used to attempt to retrieve a food reward that was out of reach. The rigid rake was constructed such that it had the necessary functional features to permit successful retrieval, while the flimsy rake did not. Both chimpanzee groups in the present experiment selected the functional rigid tool correctly to use during the Flimsy Tool task. All animals were then presented with two “hybrid rakes” A and B, with one half of each rake head constructed from flimsy, non-functional fabric, and the other half of the head was made of wood. Food rewards were placed in front of the rigid side of Rake A and the flimsy side of Rake B. To be successful, the chimps needed to choose the rake that had the reward in front of the rigid side of the rake head. The fully enculturated animals were successful in selecting the functional rake, while the semi-enculturated subjects chose randomly between the two hybrid tools. Compared with findings from Povinelli, whose non-enculturated animals failed both tasks, our results demonstrate that chimpanzees reared under conditions of semi-enculturation could learn to discriminate correctly the necessary tool through trial-and-error during the Flimsy Tool task, but were unable to recognize the functional relationship necessary for retrieving the reward with the “hybrid” rake. In contrast, the enculturated chimpanzees were correct in their choices during both the Flimsy Tool and the Hybrid Tool tasks. These results provide the first empirical evidence for the differential effects of enculturation on subsequent tool use capacities in captive chimpanzees.  
  Address Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, 209 Psychology Building, 1835 Neil Ave., Columbus, OH, 43210-1222, USA, boysen.1@osu.edu  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium (up)  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:17516100 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2398  
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