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Author Shettleworth, S.J. openurl 
  Title Varieties of learning and memory in animals Type Journal Article
  Year 1993 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 19 Issue 1 Pages 5-14  
  Keywords Animals; Association Learning; Birds; Conditioning, Classical; Evolution; Imprinting (Psychology); *Learning; *Memory; Social Environment; Species Specificity; Taste  
  Abstract It is often assumed that there is more than one kind of learning--or more than one memory system--each of which is specialized for a different function. Yet, the criteria by which the varieties of learning and memory should be distinguished are seldom clear. Learning and memory phenomena can differ from one another across species or situations (and thus be specialized) in a number of different ways. What is needed is a consistent theoretical approach to the whole range of learning phenomena, and one is explored here. Parallels and contrasts in the study of sensory systems illustrate one way to integrate the study of general mechanisms with an appreciation of species-specific adaptations.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of 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 0097-7403 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:8418217 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial (up) 380  
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Author Reid, P.J.; Shettleworth, S.J. openurl 
  Title Detection of cryptic prey: search image or search rate? Type Journal Article
  Year 1992 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 18 Issue 3 Pages 273-286  
  Keywords Animals; Appetitive Behavior; *Attention; Color Perception; Columbidae; *Discrimination Learning; Food Preferences/psychology; *Imagination; *Mental Recall; *Predatory Behavior  
  Abstract Animals' improvement in capturing cryptic prey with experience has long been attributed to a perceptual mechanism, the specific search image. Detection could also be improved by adjusting rate of search. In a series of studies using both naturalistic and operant search tasks, pigeons searched for wheat, dyed to produce 1 conspicuous and 2 equally cryptic prey types. Contrary to the predictions of the search-rate hypothesis, pigeons given a choice between the 2 cryptic types took the type experienced most recently. However, experience with 1 cryptic type improved accuracy on the other cryptic type, a result inconsistent with a search image specific to 1 prey type. Search image may better be thought of as priming of attention to those features of the prey type that best distinguish the prey from the background.  
  Address University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0097-7403 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:1619395 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial (up) 381  
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Author Shettleworth, S.J.; Plowright, C.M. openurl 
  Title How pigeons estimate rates of prey encounter Type Journal Article
  Year 1992 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 18 Issue 3 Pages 219-235  
  Keywords Analysis of Variance; Animals; *Appetitive Behavior; Columbidae; Conditioning, Operant; Food Preferences/*psychology; Motivation; *Predatory Behavior; *Probability Learning; *Reinforcement Schedule; Social Environment  
  Abstract Pigeons were trained on operant schedules simulating successive encounters with prey items. When items were encountered on variable-interval schedules, birds were more likely to accept a poor item (long delay to food) the longer they had just searched, as if they were averaging prey density over a short memory window (Experiment 1). Responding as if the immediate future would be like the immediate past was reversed when a short search predicted a long search next time (Experiment 2). Experience with different degrees of environmental predictability appeared to change the length of the memory window (Experiment 3). The results may reflect linear waiting (Higa, Wynne, & Staddon, 1991), but they differ in some respects. The findings have implications for possible mechanisms of adjusting behavior to current reinforcement conditions.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of 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 0097-7403 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:1619391 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial (up) 382  
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Author Shettleworth, S.J.; Krebs, J.R. openurl 
  Title How marsh tits find their hoards: the roles of site preference and spatial memory Type Journal Article
  Year 1982 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 8 Issue 4 Pages 354-375  
  Keywords Animals; *Appetitive Behavior; Birds; Cues; Discrimination Learning; *Memory; *Mental Recall; *Orientation; *Space Perception  
  Abstract Marsh tits (Parus palustris) store single food items in scattered locations and recover them hours or days later. Some properties of the spatial memory involved were analyzed in two laboratory experiments. In the first, marsh tits were offered 97 sites for storing 12 seeds. They recovered a median of 65% of them 2-3 hr later, making only two errors per seed while doing so. Over trials, they used some sites more often than others, but during recovery they were more likely to visit a site of any preference value if they had stored a seed there that day than if they had not. Recovery performance was much worse if the experimenters moved the seeds between storage and recovery. A fixed search strategy that had some of the same average properties as the tits' search behavior also did worse than the real birds. In Experiment 2, any tendency to visit the same sites on successive daily tests in the aviary was placed in opposition to memory for storage sites by allowing the tits to store more seeds 2 hr after storing a first batch. They tended to avoid individual storage sites holding seeds from the first batch. When the tits searched for all the seeds 2 hr later, they tended to recover more seeds from the second batch than from the first, i.e., there was a recency effect.  
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  ISSN 0097-7403 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:7175447 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial (up) 385  
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Author Shettleworth, S.J.; Juergensen, M.R. openurl 
  Title Reinforcement and the organization of behavior in golden hamsters: brain stimulation reinforcement for seven action patterns Type Journal Article
  Year 1980 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 6 Issue 4 Pages 352-375  
  Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal/*physiology; Cricetinae; Electric Stimulation; Female; Hypothalamus/*physiology; Male; Medial Forebrain Bundle/physiology; Mesocricetus; *Reinforcement (Psychology)  
  Abstract Golden hamsters were reinforced with intracranial electrical stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus (ICS) for spending time engaging in one of seven topographically defined action patterns (APs). The stimulation used as reinforcer elicited hoarding and/or feeding and supported high rates of bar pressing. In Experiment 1, hamsters were reinforced successively for digging, open rearing, and face washing. Digging increased most in time spent, and face washing increased least. Experiments 2-5 examined these effects further and also showed that “scrabbling,” like digging, was performed a large proportion of the time, almost without interruption, for contingent ICS but that scratching the body with a hindleg and scent-marking showed relatively little effect of contingent ICS, the latter even in an environment that facilitated marking. In Experiment 6, naive hamsters received ICS not contingent on behavior every 30 sec (fixed-time 30-sec schedule). Terminal behaviors that developed on this schedule were APs that were easy to reinforce in the other experiments, but a facultative behavior, face washing, was one not so readily reinforced. Experiment 7 confirmed a novel prediction from Experiment 6--that wall rearing, a terminal AP, would be performed at a high level for contingent ICS. All together, the results point to both motivational factors and associative factors being involved in the considerable differences in performance among different reinforced activities.  
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  Notes PMID:6968817 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial (up) 386  
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Author Shettleworth, S.J. openurl 
  Title Reinforcement and the organization of behavior in golden hamsters: Pavlovian conditioning with food and shock unconditioned stimuli Type Journal Article
  Year 1978 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 152-169  
  Keywords Acoustic Stimulation; Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Conditioning, Classical; Conditioning, Operant; Cricetinae; *Electroshock; Female; *Food; Male; Punishment; *Reinforcement (Psychology); Reinforcement Schedule  
  Abstract The effects of Pavlovian conditioned stimuli (CSs) for food or shock on a variety of behaviors of golden hamsters were observed in three experiments. The aim was to see whether previously reported differences among the behaviors produced by food reinforcement and punishment procedures could be accounted for by differential effects of Pavlovian conditioning on the behaviors. There was some correspondence between the behaviors observed to the CSs and the previously reported effects of instrumental training. However, the Pavlovian conditioned responses (CRs) alone would not have predicted the effects of instrumental training. Moreover, CRs depended to some extent on the context in which training and testing occurred. These findings, together with others in the literature, suggest that the results of Pavlovian conditioning procedures may not unambiguously predict what system of behaviors will be most readily modified by instrumental training with a given reinforcer.  
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  Notes PMID:670890 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial (up) 387  
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Author Mendl, M. url  openurl
  Title Performing under pressure: stress and cognitive function Type Journal Article
  Year 1999 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume 65 Issue 3 Pages 221-244  
  Keywords Stress; Cognition; Attention; Learning; Memory; Welfare  
  Abstract The way in which cognitive functioning is affected by stressors is an important area of research for applied ethologists because stress caused by captive conditions may disrupt cognitive processes and lead to welfare and husbandry problems. Such problems may be minimised through an understanding of the links between stress and cognition. The effects of stress on cognitive function have been studied in disciplines ranging from human perceptual psychology to animal neuroscience. The aim of this paper is to provide an introduction to this research, focusing on the effects of stressors on attention, memory formation and memory recall. Findings from such a diverse literature with little apparent inter-disciplinary communication are inevitably complex and often contradictory. Nevertheless, some generalities do emerge. The idea that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between an individual's state of stress or arousal and its ability to perform a cognitive task effectively, the so-called Yerkes-Dodson law, is commonly encountered. The law has limited explanatory value because it is unlikely that different stressors act on cognitive function via the same intervening, non-specific state. Furthermore, the law only provides a very general description of the relationship between stress and cognitive function. Empirical research on attention and memory processes reveals more specific findings. Stressors appear to cause shifts, lapses and narrowing of attention, and can also influence decision speed. These processes may be viewed as serving an adaptive role helping the animal to search for and scrutinise a source of danger. There is conflicting evidence as to whether hormones involved in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal stress response play a part in these processes. These hormones and those involved in the sympathetic-adrenomedullary stress response do appear to play an important role in memory formation. Low or moderate concentrations of circulating glucocorticoids and catecholamines can enhance memory formation, while excessively high or prolonged elevations of these hormones can lead to memory disruption. The effects of stressors on memory recall are less clear. There is evidence for disruptive effects, and for facilitatory effects indicating state-dependent memory recall; events experienced under conditions of high arousal may be best recalled under similar conditions. Applied ethologists have the opportunity to extend work in this area, which often involves studies of single stressors/stress hormones acting in isolation and limited measures of cognitive function, by focusing on real-life husbandry stressors encountered by captive animals. This will yield fundamental information which also has direct relevance to animal welfare and management issues.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial (up) 393  
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Author Earley, R.L.; Druen, M.; Alan Dugatkin, L. doi  openurl
  Title Watching fights does not alter a bystander's response towards naive conspecifics in male green swordtail fish, Xiphophorus helleri Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume 69 Issue 5 Pages 1139-1145  
  Keywords  
  Abstract Bystanders are capable of extracting cues from signalling interactions between others and appear to use information gained via eavesdropping when confronted with the watched individuals. A question that has gained little attention is whether observing fights affects bystander behaviour outside the context of interacting with the watched individuals. Our aim was to determine whether watching fights elicits general changes in bystander aggression levels in Xiphophorus helleri. We manipulated the bystanders' ability to witness encounters using clear, one-way-mirror and opaque partitions. After watching (or not watching) an initial contest, the bystanders were pitted against naive conspecifics instead of the animals they had seen fight. Observing fights did not alter the bystanders' propensity to initiate aggression, escalate, or win against naive individuals, indicating that bystanders do not experience general changes in aggressive behaviour after watching a fight. Earlier work in this species, however, has shown that bystanders respond in predictable ways to individuals they have witnessed winning or losing a fight. Taken together, these data support the notion that bystanders consistently modify their behaviour towards previously watched winners or losers in response to information gained via eavesdropping. We discuss our results in light of some recent work on the behavioural and endocrinological responses triggered by watching fights and suggest that comparative approaches to understanding networking phenomena may be productive.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial (up) 394  
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Author Cooper, J.J.; Ashton, C.; Bishop, S.; West, R.; Mills, D.S.; Young, R.J. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Clever hounds: social cognition in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) Type Journal Article
  Year 2003 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume 81 Issue 3 Pages 229-244  
  Keywords Domestic dog; Canine; Social cognition; Counting; Theory of mind; Perspective taking  
  Abstract This paper reviews the reasons why domestic dogs make good models to investigate cognitive processes related to social living and describes experimental approaches that can be adopted to investigate such processes in dogs. Domestic dogs are suitable models for investigating social cognition skills for three broad reasons. First, dogs originated from wolves, social animals that engage in a number of co-operative behaviours, such as hunting and that may have evolved cognitive abilities that help them predict and interpret the actions of other animals. Second, during domestication dogs are likely to have been selected for mental adaptations for their roles in human society such as herding or companionship. Third, domestic dogs live in a human world and “enculturation” may facilitate the development of relevant mental skills in dogs. Studies of social cognition in animals commonly use experimental paradigms originally developed for pre-verbal human infants. Preferential gaze, for example, can be used as a measure of attention or “surprise” in studies using expectancy violation. This approach has been used to demonstrate simple numerical competence in dogs. Dogs also readily use both conspecific and human social signals (e.g. looking or pointing) as information sources to locate hidden rewards such as food or favourite toys. Such abilities make dogs particularly good models for investigating perspective-taking tasks, where animals are required to discriminate between apparently knowledgeable and apparently ignorant informants.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial (up) 395  
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Author Shettleworth, S.J. url  openurl
  Title Animal cognition and animal behaviour Type Journal Article
  Year 2001 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume 61 Issue 2 Pages 277-286  
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  Abstract Cognitive processes such as perception, learning, memory and decision making play an important role in mate choice, foraging and many other behaviours. In this review, I summarize a few key ideas about animal cognition developed in a recent book (Shettleworth 1998, Cognition, Evolution and Behaviour) and briefly review some areas in which interdisciplinary research on animal cognition is currently proving especially productive. Cognition, broadly defined, includes all ways in which animals take in information through the senses, process, retain and decide to act on it. Studying animal cognition does not entail any particular position on whether or to what degree animals are conscious. Neither does it entail rejecting behaviourism in that one of the greatest challenges in studing animal cognition is to formulate clear behavioural criteria for inferring specific mental processes. Tests of whether or not apparently goal-directed behaviour is controlled by a representation of its goal, episodic-like memory in birds, and deceptive behaviour in monkeys provide examples. Functional modelling has been integrated with analyses of cognitive mechanisms in a number of areas, including studies of communication, models of how predator learning and attention affect the evolution of conspicuous and cryptic prey, tests of the relationship betweeen ecological demands on spatial cognition and brain evolution, and in research on social learning. Rather than a `new field' of cognitive ecology, such interdisciplinary research on animal cognition exemplifies a revival of interest in proximate mechanisms of behaviour.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial (up) 397  
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