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Author Digweed, Shannon M.; Fedigan, Linda M.; Rendall, Drew
Title Variable specificity in the anti-predator vocalizations and behaviour of the white-faced capuchin, Cebus capucinus Type (up) Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Behaviour Abbreviated Journal Behaviour
Volume 142 Issue 8 Pages 997-1021
Keywords
Abstract (Accepted: 23 June 2005)

Summary

Much research in animal communication is aimed at understanding the functional design

features of animal vocal signals. Our detailed analyses of the vocalizations and behavioural

responses elicited in white-faced capuchins by predators and other disturbances point to two

call variants that differ modestly in their acoustic structure and that are accompanied by

functionally distinct behavioural responses. The first variant is given exclusively to avian

predators and is almost invariably accompanied by the monkeys immediate descent from

the treetops where it is most vulnerable; therefore, we label this call variant the aerial

predator alarm?. The second variant, that differs only slightly but noticeably from the first,

is given to a wide range of snakes and mammals, including a range of species that represent

no predatory threat to the monkeys. This second call is also associated with more variable

responses from calling monkeys, from delayed retreat from the source of disturbance, to

active approach, inspection, and sometimes mobbing of the animal involved. We therefore

label this variant more generally as an “alerting call”. Although some other primate species

show a more diverse system of anti-predator calls, and the capuchins themselves may yet

be found to produce a greater variety of calls, a system of two call variants with varying

degrees of predator specificity and behavioural response is not uncommon among primates

and appears functionally appropriate for capuchins. The basic structure of the alerting call

allows conspecific listeners to localize the caller and the source of disturbance readily, thereby

allowing listeners to approach and assist in mobbing in cases where the disturbance warrants

it, or to avoid the area in cases where the disturbance is identified as a predatory threat.

Conversely, the aerial predator alarm is inherently less localizable and therefore conveys the
Address
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 547
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Author Zhou, W.-X.; Sornette, D.; Hill, R.A.; Dunbar, R.I.M.
Title Discrete hierarchical organization of social group sizes Type (up) Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci
Volume 272 Issue 1561 Pages 439-444
Keywords Anthropology, Cultural; *Group Structure; Humans; *Models, Biological; *Social Behavior; *Social Environment
Abstract The 'social brain hypothesis' for the evolution of large brains in primates has led to evidence for the coevolution of neocortical size and social group sizes, suggesting that there is a cognitive constraint on group size that depends, in some way, on the volume of neural material available for processing and synthesizing information on social relationships. More recently, work on both human and non-human primates has suggested that social groups are often hierarchically structured. We combine data on human grouping patterns in a comprehensive and systematic study. Using fractal analysis, we identify, with high statistical confidence, a discrete hierarchy of group sizes with a preferred scaling ratio close to three: rather than a single or a continuous spectrum of group sizes, humans spontaneously form groups of preferred sizes organized in a geometrical series approximating 3-5, 9-15, 30-45, etc. Such discrete scale invariance could be related to that identified in signatures of herding behaviour in financial markets and might reflect a hierarchical processing of social nearness by human brains.
Address State Key Laboratory of Chemical Reaction Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
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Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0962-8452 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:15734699 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 549
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Author Moehlman, P.D.
Title Endangered wild equids Type (up) Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Scientific American Abbreviated Journal Sci Am
Volume 292 Issue 3 Pages 74-81
Keywords Africa; Americas; Animals; *Animals, Wild/physiology; Asia; *Conservation of Energy Resources; Environment; *Equidae/physiology; Food Chain; Humans; Male; Reproduction
Abstract
Address IUCN-The World Conservation Union/Species Survival Commission Equid Specialist Group
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 0036-8733 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:15859216 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 551
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Author Reluga, T.C.; Viscido, S.
Title Simulated evolution of selfish herd behavior Type (up) Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Journal of Theoretical Biology Abbreviated Journal J. Theor. Biol.
Volume 234 Issue 2 Pages 213-225
Keywords Selfish herd; Behavior; Evolution; Predation risk
Abstract Single species aggregations are a commonly observed phenomenon. One potential explanation for these aggregations is provided by the selfish herd hypothesis, which states that aggregations result from individual efforts to reduce personnel predation risk at the expense of group-mates. Not all movement rules based on the selfish herd hypothesis are consistent with observed animal behavior. Previous work has shown that herd-like aggregations are not generated by movement rules limited to local interactions between nearest neighbors. Instead, rules generating realistic herds appear to require delocalized interactions. To date, it has been an open question whether or not the necessary delocalization can emerge from local interactions under natural selection. To address this question, we study an individual-based model with a single quantitative genetic trait that controls the influence of neighbors as a function of distance. The results indicate that predation-based selection can increase the influence of distant neighbors relative to near neighbors. Our results lend support for the idea that selfish herd behavior can arise from localized movement rules under natural selection.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 553
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Author Suzuki, Y.; Toquenaga, Y.
Title Effects of information and group structure on evolution of altruism: analysis of two-score model by covariance and contextual analyses Type (up) Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Journal of theoretical biology Abbreviated Journal J. Theor. Biol.
Volume 232 Issue 2 Pages 191-201
Keywords *Altruism; Analysis of Variance; *Communication; Cooperative Behavior; *Evolution; Game Theory; *Group Structure; Humans; Models, Genetic; Models, Psychological; Selection (Genetics); Trust
Abstract An altruistic individual has to gamble on cooperation to a stranger because it does not know whether the stranger is trustworthy before direct interaction. Nowak and Sigmund (Nature 393 (1998a) 573; J. Theor. Biol. 194 (1998b) 561) presented a new theoretical framework of indirect reciprocal altruism by image scoring game where all individuals are informed about a partner's behavior from its image score without direct interaction. Interestingly, in a simplified version of the image scoring game, the evolutionarily stability condition for altruism became a similar form of Hamilton's rule, i.e. inequality that the probability of getting correct information is more than the ratio of cost to benefit. Since the Hamilton's rule was derived by evolutionarily stable analysis, the evolutionary meaning of the probability of getting correct information has not been clearly examined in terms of kin and group selection. In this study, we applied covariance analysis to the two-score model for deriving the Hamilton's rule. We confirmed that the probability of getting correct information was proportional to the bias of altruistic interactions caused by using information about a partner's image score. The Hamilton's rule was dependent on the number of game bouts even though the information reduced the risk of cooperation to selfish one at the first encounter. In addition, we incorporated group structure to the two-score model to examine whether the probability of getting correct information affect selection for altruism by group selection. We calculated a Hamilton's rule of group selection by contextual analysis. Group selection is very effective when either the probability of getting correct information or that of future interaction, or both are low. The two Hamilton's rules derived by covariance and contextual analyses demonstrated the effects of information and group structure on the evolution of altruism. We inferred that information about a partner's behavior and group structure can produce flexible pathways for the evolution of altruism.
Address Integrative Environmental Sciences, Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1, Ten-Nou-Dai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8572, Japan. yukari@pe.ies.life.tsukuba.ac.jp
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0022-5193 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:15530489 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 556
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Author Griffin, A.S.; Galef, J., Bennett G.
Title Social learning about predators: does timing matter? Type (up) Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.
Volume 69 Issue 3 Pages 669-678
Keywords
Abstract In Pavlovian conditioning, animals acquire a response to a previously neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus, CS), such as a light, if that stimulus predicts a biologically important event (unconditioned stimulus, US), such as delivery of food. Learning typically occurs when the CS precedes the US (forward conditioning), and not when the CS follows the US (backward conditioning). In social learning about predators, the predator stimulus is considered to be the CS to which observers acquire avoidance responses after the stimulus has been presented in contiguity with an alarmed demonstrator, the US. We tested the prediction that social learning of response to a predator would occur even if the social alarm cues (the US) appeared before the predatory stimulus (the CS). Carib grackles, Quiscalus lugubris, responded to a familiar predator presented at close range by suppressing alarm calls. Presentation of an unfamiliar avian model (black-and-yellow pigeon) also decreased calling, and this inhibition of calling was enhanced following a training session in which the model stimulus was presented in association with grackle alarm calls. Acquired inhibition of calling was independent of the order of presentation of the model and an alarm chorus. These are the first results to indicate that social acquisition of predator avoidance is not dependent upon a particular temporal relationship between predators and social alarm cues. Evolution may have modified some properties of Pavlovian conditioning to accommodate social learning about potentially dangerous stimuli.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 572
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Author Hare, B.; Plyusnina, I.; Ignacio, N.; Schepina, O.; Stepika, A.; Wrangham, R.; Trut, L.
Title Social cognitive evolution in captive foxes is a correlated by-product of experimental domestication Type (up) Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Current biology : CB Abbreviated Journal Curr Biol
Volume 15 Issue 3 Pages 226-230
Keywords Animals; *Animals, Domestic; Cognition/*physiology; *Cues; *Evolution; Foxes/*physiology; *Selection (Genetics); Social Behavior; Species Specificity
Abstract Dogs have an unusual ability for reading human communicative gestures (e.g., pointing) in comparison to either nonhuman primates (including chimpanzees) or wolves . Although this unusual communicative ability seems to have evolved during domestication , it is unclear whether this evolution occurred as a result of direct selection for this ability, as previously hypothesized , or as a correlated by-product of selection against fear and aggression toward humans--as is the case with a number of morphological and physiological changes associated with domestication . We show here that fox kits from an experimental population selectively bred over 45 years to approach humans fearlessly and nonaggressively (i.e., experimentally domesticated) are not only as skillful as dog puppies in using human gestures but are also more skilled than fox kits from a second, control population not bred for tame behavior (critically, neither population of foxes was ever bred or tested for their ability to use human gestures) . These results suggest that sociocognitive evolution has occurred in the experimental foxes, and possibly domestic dogs, as a correlated by-product of selection on systems mediating fear and aggression, and it is likely the observed social cognitive evolution did not require direct selection for improved social cognitive ability.
Address Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. hare@eva.mpg.de
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Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0960-9822 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:15694305 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 594
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Author Miklosi, A.; Pongracz, P.; Lakatos, G.; Topal, J.; Csanyi, V.
Title A Comparative Study of the Use of Visual Communicative Signals in Interactions Between Dogs (Canis familiaris) and Humans and Cats (Felis catus) and Humans Type (up) Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Journal of Comparative Psychology Abbreviated Journal J. Comp. Psychol.
Volume 119 Issue 2 Pages 179-186
Keywords
Abstract Dogs' (Canis familiaris) and cats' (Felis catus) interspecific communicative behavior toward humans was investigated. In Experiment 1, the ability of dogs and cats to use human pointing gestures in an object-choice task was compared using 4 types of pointing cues differing in distance between the signaled object and the end of the fingertip and in visibility duration of the given signal. Using these gestures, both dogs and cats were able to find the hidden food; there was no significant difference in their performance. In Experiment 2, the hidden food was made inaccessible to the subjects to determine whether they could indicate the place of the hidden food to a naive owner. Cats lacked some components of attention-getting behavior compared with dogs. The results suggest that individual familiarization with pointing gestures ensures high-level performance in the presence of such gestures; however, species-specific differences could cause differences in signaling toward the human.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 599
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Author Quesada, J; Kintsch, W.; Gomez, E.
Title Complex problem-solving: a field in search of a definition? Type (up) Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science Abbreviated Journal Theor Issues Ergon Sci
Volume 6 Issue 1 Pages 5-33
Keywords Problem solving; Dynamic decision making; Micro-worlds; Expertise
Abstract Complex problem-solving (CPS) is as an area of cognitive science that has received a good amount of attention, but theories in the field have not progressed accordingly. The reasons could be the lack of good definitions and classifications of the tasks (taxonomies). Although complexity is a term used pervasively in psychology and is operationalized in different ways, there are no psychological theories of complexity. The definition of problem-solving has been changed in the past to reflect the varied interests of the researchers and has lost its initial concreteness. These two facts together make it difficult to define CPS or make clear if CPS should reuse the theory and methods of classical problem-solving or on the contrary should build a theoretical structure starting from scratch. A taxonomy is offered of tasks using both formal features and psychological features that are theory-independent that could help compare the CPS tasks used in the literature. The adequateness is also reviewed of the most extended definitions of CPS and conclude that they are in serious need of review, since they cover tasks that are not considered problem-solving by their own authors or are not complex, but ignore others that should clearly be included.
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Publisher Taylor and Francis Ltd Place of Publication Editor
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Notes Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 604
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Author Kitchen, D.M.; Cheney, D.L.; Seyfarth, R.M.
Title Male chacma baboons (Papio hamadryas ursinus) discriminate loud call contests between rivals of different relative ranks Type (up) 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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ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:15164259 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 687
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