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Author Jackson, R.R.; Pollard, S.D.; Li, D.; Fijn, N. doi  openurl
  Title Interpopulation variation in the risk-related decisions of Portia labiata, an araneophagic jumping spider (Araneae, Salticidae), during predatory sequences with spitting spiders Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 5 Issue 4 Pages 215-223  
  Keywords Animals; Female; Male; Mental Processes; *Predatory Behavior; Risk Factors; *Spiders  
  Abstract The extent to which decision-making processes are constrained in animals with small brains is poorly understood. Arthropods have brains much smaller and simpler than those of birds and mammals. This raises questions concerning limitations on how intricate the decision-making processes might be in arthropods. At Los Banos in the Philippines, Scytodes pallidus is a spitting spider that specialises in preying on jumping spiders, and Portia labiata is a jumping spider that preys on S. pallidus. Scytodid spit comes from the mouth, and egg-carrying females are less dangerous than eggless scytodids because the female uses her chelicerae to hold her eggs. Held eggs block her mouth, and she has to release them before she can spit. The Los Banos P. labiata sometimes adjusts its tactics depending on whether the scytodid encountered is carrying eggs or not. When pursuing eggless scytodids, the Los Banos P. labiata usually takes detour routes that enable it to close in from behind (away from the scytodid's line of fire). However, when pursuing egg-carrying scytodids, the Los Banos P. labiata sometimes takes faster direct routes to reach these safer prey. The Los Banos P. labiata apparently makes risk-related adjustments specific to whether scytodids are carrying eggs, but P. labiata from Sagada in the Philippines (allopatric to Scytodes) fails to make comparable risk-related adjustments.  
  Address Department of Zoology, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:12461599 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2591  
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Author Waite, T.A. doi  openurl
  Title Interruptions improve choice performance in gray jays: prolonged information processing versus minimization of costly errors Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 5 Issue 4 Pages 209-214  
  Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Choice Behavior; Female; Learning; Male; Models, Biological; Motivation; Reinforcement Schedule; Songbirds/*physiology; Time Factors  
  Abstract Under the assumption that selection favors minimization of costly errors, erroneous choice may be common when its fitness cost is low. According to an adaptive-choice model, this cost depends on the rate at which an animal encounters the choice: the higher this rate, the smaller the cost of choosing a less valuable option. Errors should thus be more common when interruptions to foraging are shorter. A previous experiment supported this prediction: gray jays, Perisoreus canadensis, were more error prone when subjected to shorter delays to access to food rewards. This pattern, though, is also predicted by an attentional-constraints model. Because the subjects were able to inspect the rewards during delays, their improved performance when subjected to longer delays could have been a byproduct of the experimentally prolonged opportunity for information processing. To evaluate this possibility, a follow-up experiment manipulated both delay to access and whether rewards could be inspected during delays. Depriving jays of the opportunity to inspect rewards (using opaque lids) induced only a small, nonsignificant increase in error rate. This effect was independent of length of delay and so the jays' improved performance when subjected to longer delays was not simply a byproduct of prolonged information processing. More definitively, even when the jays were prevented from inspecting rewards during delays, their performance improved when subjected to longer delays. The findings are thus consistent with the adaptive-choice model.  
  Address Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, Ohio State University, 1735 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210-1293, USA. waite.1@osu.edu  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:12461598 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2592  
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Author Caldwell, C.A.; Whiten, A. doi  openurl
  Title Evolutionary perspectives on imitation: is a comparative psychology of social learning possible? Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 5 Issue 4 Pages 193-208  
  Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Evolution; Humans; *Imitative Behavior; Learning; Models, Animal  
  Abstract Studies of imitation in animals have become numerous in recent times, but do they contribute to a comparative psychology of social learning? We review this burgeoning field to identify the problems and prospects for such a goal. Difficulties of two main kinds are identified. First, researchers have tackled questions about social learning from at least three very different theoretical perspectives, the “phylogenetic”, “animal model”, and “adaptational”. We examine the conflicts between them and consider the scope for integration. A second difficulty arises in the methodological approaches used in the discipline. In relation to one of these – survey reviews of published studies – we tabulate and compare the contrasting conclusions of nine articles that together review 36 studies. The basis for authors' disagreements, including the matters of perceptual opacity, novelty, sequential structure, and goal representation, are examined. In relation to the other key method, comparative experimentation, we identify 12 studies that have explicitly compared species' imitative ability on similar tasks. We examine the principal problems of comparing like with like in these studies and consider solutions, the most powerful of which we propose to be the use of a systematic range of task designs, rather than any single “gold standard” task.  
  Address School of Psychology, Washington Singer Laboratories, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QG, UK. C.A.Caldwell@exeter.ac.uk  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:12461597 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2593  
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Author West, R.E.; Young, R.J. doi  openurl
  Title Do domestic dogs show any evidence of being able to count? Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 5 Issue 3 Pages 183-186  
  Keywords Animal Feed; Animals; Behavior, Animal; *Cognition; *Dogs; Female; Male; *Mathematics; Reinforcement (Psychology); Visual Perception  
  Abstract Numerical competence has been demonstrated in a wide range of animal species. The level of numerical abilities shown ranges from simple relative numerousness judgements to true counting. In this study we used the preferential looking technique to test whether 11 pet dogs could count. The dogs were presented with three simple calculations: “1+1=2”; “1+1=1”; and “1+1=3”. These calculations were performed by presenting the dogs with treats that were placed behind a screen that allowed manipulation of the outcome of the calculation. When the dogs expected the outcome they spent the same amount of time looking at the result of the calculation as they did on the initial presentation. However, when the result was unexpected dogs spent significantly longer looking at the outcome of the calculation. The results suggest that the dogs were anticipating the outcome of the calculations they observed, thus suggesting that dogs may have a rudimentary ability to count.  
  Address De Montfort University-Lincoln, Caythorpe, Grantham, Lincolnshire, NG32 3EP, UK  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:12357291 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2594  
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Author Pepperberg, I.M. doi  openurl
  Title The value of the Piagetian framework for comparative cognitive studies Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 5 Issue 3 Pages 177-182  
  Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Cognition; Discrimination Learning; *Intelligence; *Models, Psychological; *Models, Theoretical  
  Abstract Although the Piagetian framework has been used by numerous researchers to compare cognitive abilities of diverse species, the system is often criticized as implemented. I examine the various criticisms, suggest ways in which the system can be improved, and argue for the need for descriptive systems such as the Piagetian framework to complement programs that look for cellular and molecular bases or mathematical models to explain behavior.  
  Address School of Architecture and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. impepper@media.mit.edu  
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  Notes PMID:12357290 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2595  
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Author Funk, M.S. doi  openurl
  Title Problem solving skills in young yellow-crowned parakeets (Cyanoramphus auriceps) Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 5 Issue 3 Pages 167-176  
  Keywords Animals; *Cognition; *Discrimination Learning; Female; Motor Skills; *Parakeets; Play and Playthings; *Problem Solving; Social Behavior  
  Abstract Despite the long divergent evolutionary history of birds and mammals, early avian and primate cognitive development have many convergent features. Some of these features were investigated with a series of tasks designed to assess human infant development. The tasks were presented to young parakeets to assess their means-end problem solving abilities. Examples of these early skills are: attaining and playing with objects, retrieving rewards through use of a stick or rake, or by pulling in rewards on supports or on the ends of strings. Twelve such tasks were presented to 11 young yellow-crowned parakeets ( Cyanoramphus auriceps) to investigate their natural abilities; there was no attempt to train them to do those tasks that they did not spontaneously perform. Six of the birds were parent-raised and five were hand-raised. The birds completed 9 of the 12 tasks, demonstrating all the Piagetian sensorimotor circular reactions, but they failed to hand-watch (“claw-watch”), to stack objects, or to fill a container. Their ordinality on the tasks differed from that of human infants in that locomotion to obtain objects occurred earlier in the avian sequence of development and the mid-level tasks were performed by the two groups of avian subjects in a mixed order perhaps indicating that these abilities may not emerge in any particular order for these birds as they supposedly do for human infants. The hand-raised group needed fewer sessions to complete these means-end tasks.  
  Address Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA. mdfunk@northwestern.edu  
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  Notes PMID:12357289 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2596  
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Author Drapier, M.; Chauvin, C.; Thierry, B. doi  openurl
  Title Tonkean macaques ( Macaca tonkeana) find food sources from cues conveyed by group-mates Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 5 Issue 3 Pages 159-165  
  Keywords *Animal Communication; Animals; *Cognition; *Feeding Behavior; Food; *Macaca; Male; Smell; *Social Behavior; Visual Perception  
  Abstract It is possible that non-specialised cues transmitted by conspecifics guide animals' food search provided they have the cognitive abilities needed to read these cues. Macaques often check the mouth of their group-mates by olfactory and/or visual inspection. We investigated whether Tonkean macaques ( Macaca tonkeana) can find the location of distant food on the basis of cues conveyed by group-mates. The subjects of the study were two 6-year-old males, who belonged to a social group of Tonkean macaques raised in semi-free-ranging conditions. In a first experiment, we tested whether the subject can choose between two sites after having sniffed a partner who has just eaten food corresponding to one of the sites. We found that both subjects were able to choose the matching site significantly above the chance level. This demonstrated that Tonkean macaques are capable of delayed olfactory matching. They could associate a food location with an odour conveyed by a partner. In a second experiment, the same subjects were allowed to see their partner through a Plexiglas window. Both subjects were still able to choose the matching site, demonstrating they could rely on visual cues alone. Passive recruitment of partners appears possible in macaques. They can improve their foraging performances by finding the location of environmental resources from olfactory or visual cues conveyed by group-mates.  
  Address Equipe d'Ethologie et Ecologie Comportementale des Primates, Centre d'Ecologie et Physiologie Energetiques, CNRS UPR 9010, 7 rue de l'Universite, 67000 Strasbourg, France  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:12357288 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2597  
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Author Jackson, R.R.; Pollard, S.D.; Cerveira, A.M. doi  openurl
  Title Opportunistic use of cognitive smokescreens by araneophagic jumping spiders Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 5 Issue 3 Pages 147-157  
  Keywords Animals; *Cognition; Movement; Optics; *Predatory Behavior; *Spiders; Touch; Visual Perception  
  Abstract Little is known about how a prey species' cognitive limitations might shape a predator's prey-capture strategy. A specific hypothesis is investigated: predators take advantage of times when the prey's attention is focussed on its own prey. Portia fimbriata, an araneophagic jumping spider (Salticidae) from Queensland, is shown in a series of 11 experiments to exploit opportunistically a situation in which a web-building spider on which it preys, Zosis genicularis (Uloboridae), is preoccupied with wrapping up its own prey. Experimental evidence supports three conclusions: (1). while relying on optical cues alone, P. fimbriata perceives when Z. genicularis is wrapping up prey; (2). when busy wrapping up prey, the responsiveness of Z. genicularis to cues from potential predators is diminished; and (3). P. fimbriata moves primarily during intervals when Z. genicularis is busy wrapping up prey. P. fimbriata's strategy is effective partly because the wrapping behaviour of Z. genicularis masks the web signals generated by the advancing P. fimbriata's footsteps and also because, while wrapping, Z. genicularis' attention is diverted away from predator-revealing cues.  
  Address Department of Zoology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand  
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  Notes PMID:12357287 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2598  
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Author Tebbich, S.; Bshary, R.; Grutter, A.S. doi  openurl
  Title Cleaner fish Labroides dimidiatus recognise familiar clients Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 5 Issue 3 Pages 139-145  
  Keywords Adaptation, Physiological; Animals; *Evolution; *Fishes; Motivation; *Recognition (Psychology); Social Behavior; Visual Perception  
  Abstract Individual recognition has been attributed a crucial role in the evolution of complex social systems such as helping behaviour and cooperation. A classical example for interspecific cooperation is the mutualism between the cleaner fish Labroides dimidiatus and its client reef fish species. For stable cooperation to evolve, it is generally assumed that partners interact repeatedly and remember each other's past behaviour. Repeated interactions may be achieved by site fidelity or individual recognition. However, as some cleaner fish have more than 2,300 interactions per day with various individuals per species and various species of clients, basic assumptions of cooperation theory might be violated in this mutualism. We tested the cleaner L. dimidiatus and its herbivorous client, the surgeon fish Ctenochaetus striatus, for their ability to distinguish between a familiar and an unfamiliar partner in a choice experiment. Under natural conditions, cleaners and clients have to build up their relationship, which is probably costly for both. We therefore predicted that both clients and cleaners should prefer the familiar partner in our choice experiment. We found that cleaners spent significantly more time near the familiar than the unfamiliar clients in the first 2 minutes of the experiment. This indicates the ability for individual recognition in cleaners. In contrast, the client C. striatus showed no significant preference. This could be due to a sampling artefact, possibly due to a lack of sufficient motivation. Alternatively, clients may not need to recognise their cleaners but instead remember the defined territories of L. dimidiatus to achieve repeated interactions with the same individual.  
  Address Max Planck Institute for Behaviour and Physiology, 82319 Seewiesen, Germany. tebbich@ss20.mpi-seewiesen.mpg.de  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:12357286 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2599  
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Author Hauber, M.E.; Pearson, H.E.; Reh, A.; Merges, A. doi  openurl
  Title Discrimination between host songs by brood parasitic brown-headed cowbirds ( Molothrus ater) Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 5 Issue 3 Pages 129-137  
  Keywords Animals; *Auditory Perception; *Discrimination Learning; Female; Male; Sexual Behavior; *Songbirds; *Vocalization, Animal  
  Abstract Songbirds can learn both to produce and to discriminate between different classes of acoustic stimuli. Varying levels of auditory discrimination may improve the fitness of individuals in certain ecological and social contexts and, thus, selection is expected to mold the cognitive abilities of different species according to the potential benefits of acoustic processing. Although fine-scale auditory discrimination of conspecific songs and calls has been frequently reported for brood parasitic brown-headed cowbirds ( Molothrus ater), it remains unclear why and how they perceive differently the songs of their many host species. Using habituation-dishabituation paradigms and measuring behavioral and physiological (heart-rate) responses, we found that captive female cowbirds consistently discriminated between songs of two host species, the song sparrow ( Melospiza melodia) and the red-winged blackbird ( Agelaius phoeniceus). Playback experiments with stimuli composed of con-specific followed by heterospecific vocalizations in the field also demonstrated discrimination between these heterospecific songs even though cowbirds were not attracted to playbacks of either host species' songs alone. Our results do not directly support a nest-searching function of heterospecific song discrimination by cowbirds and are most consistent with a function of the parasites' avoidance of attacks by their aggressive hosts. These data demonstrate discrimination between heterospecific vocalizations by brown-headed cowbirds and add a novel dimension to the already expansive auditory perceptual abilities of brood parasitic species and other songbirds.  
  Address Field Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell, University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. hauberm@socrates.berkeley.edu  
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  ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:12357285 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2600  
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