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Author Warren-Smith, A.K.; Greetham, L.; McGreevy, P.D.
Title Behavioral and physiological responses of horses (Equus caballus) to head lowering Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research Abbreviated Journal
Volume (up) 2 Issue 3 Pages 59-67
Keywords behavior; head lowering; heart rate; horse; training
Abstract Horse trainers often report that lowering the height of a horse's head so the poll is below the height of the withers can induce a calming effect during training. Four groups of horses were used in a 2-part study to investigate the behavioral and physiological effects of head lowering in horses. In Part 1, Group A had no experimental stimuli applied and horses in Group B were trained to lower their heads when presented with a specific stimulus by the handler. The stimulus for head lowering was the application of downward pressure on the headcollar via the lead rope until the horse lowered its head such that its lips were approximately at mid-cannon (third metacarpal) height, whereupon the pressure was released. The stimulus was applied again if the horse raised its head during the 300-second test period. In Part 2, Groups C and D were aroused until their heart rates exceeded 100 beats per minute (bpm). Group C had no further experimental stimuli applied whereas Group D lowered their heads as a response to the above stimulus for a period of 300 seconds. Repeated measures analysis showed that there was no difference between the heart rate of Groups A and B or Groups C and D but that the heart rate of Groups A and B were lower than Groups C and D during the 300-second post-arousal (P < 0.001). The horses in Groups A and B were more likely to contact the handler (P < 0.001), exhibit licking and chewing (P < 0.001), rest a hindleg (P < 0.001), and sniff the ground (P < 0.001) than those in Groups C and D. The number of stimuli required to maintain the head in a lowered position was greatest during the first 30 seconds (P = 0.012 and P < 0.001, Parts 1 and 2, respectively). The current study has shown that head lowering in horses does not influence cardiac responses, even after the horses had been aroused to have their heart rates above 100 bpm. Therefore, it is not a method that will aid in calming an aroused horse in training. Contrary to popular belief, there was no association with licking-and-chewing and head lowering, nor with these behaviors and response acquisition.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4201
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Author McGreevy, P.D.; McLean, A.N.
Title Roles of learning theory and ethology in equitation Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research Abbreviated Journal
Volume (up) 2 Issue 4 Pages 108-118
Keywords ethological training; equine ethnology; equitation; horse behavior; learning theory
Abstract By definition, ethology is primarily the scientific study of animal behavior, especially as it occurs in a natural environment; applied ethology being the study of animal behavior in the human domain. The terms equine ethology and ethological training are becoming commonplace in the equestrian domain, yet they seem to be used with a conspicuous lack of clarity and with no mention of learning theory. Most of what we do to train horses runs counter to their innate preferences. This article summarizes the ethological challenges encountered by working horses and considers the merits and limitations of ethological solutions. It also questions the use of terms such as “alpha” and “leader” and examines aspects of learning theory, equine cognition, and ethology as applied to horse training and clinical behavior modification. We propose 7 training principles that optimally account for the horse's ethological and learning abilities and maintain maximal responsivity in the trained horse. These principles can be summarized as: (1) use learning theory appropriately; (2) train easy-to-discriminate signals; (3) train and subsequently elicit responses singularly; (4) train only one response per signal; (5) train all responses to be initiated and subsequently completed within a consistent structure; (6) train persistence of current operantly conditioned responses; and (7) avoid and disassociate flight responses. Adherence to these principles and incorporating them into all horse training methodologies should accelerate training success, reduce behavioral wastage of horses, and improve safety for both humans and horses.
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4511
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Author Evans, C.S.; Evans, L.
Title Representational signalling in birds Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Biology Letters Abbreviated Journal
Volume (up) 3 Issue 1 Pages 8-11
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Abstract Some animals give specific calls when they discover food or detect a particular type of predator. Companions respond with food-searching behaviour or by adopting appropriate escape responses. These signals thus seem to denote objects in the environment, but this specific mechanism has only been demonstrated for monkey alarm calls. We manipulated whether fowl (Gallus gallus) had recently found a small quantity of preferred food and then tested for a specific interaction between this event and their subsequent response to playback of food calls. In one treatment, food calls thus potentially provided information about the immediate environment, while in the other the putative message was redundant with individual experience. Food calls evoked substrate searching, but only if the hens had not recently discovered food. An identical manipulation had no effect on responses to an acoustically matched control call. These results show that chicken food calls are representational signals: they stimulate retrieval of information about a class of external events. This is the first such demonstration for any non-primate species. Representational signalling is hence more taxonomically widespread than has previously been thought, suggesting that it may be the product of common social factors, rather than an attribute of a particular phylogenetic lineage.
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Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 3523
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Author Dreier, S.; van Zweden, J.S.; D'Ettorre, P.
Title Long-term memory of individual identity in ant queens Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Biology Letters Abbreviated Journal Biol Lett
Volume (up) 3 Issue 5 Pages 459-462
Keywords Aggression; Animals; Ants/*physiology; Conditioning, Operant; Evolution; Female; *Memory; *Recognition (Psychology); Social Dominance
Abstract Remembering individual identities is part of our own everyday social life. Surprisingly, this ability has recently been shown in two social insects. While paper wasps recognize each other individually through their facial markings, the ant, Pachycondyla villosa, uses chemical cues. In both species, individual recognition is adaptive since it facilitates the maintenance of stable dominance hierarchies among individuals, and thus reduces the cost of conflict within these small societies. Here, we investigated individual recognition in Pachycondyla ants by quantifying the level of aggression between pairs of familiar or unfamiliar queens over time. We show that unrelated founding queens of P. villosa and Pachycondyla inversa store information on the individual identity of other queens and can retrieve it from memory after 24h of separation. Thus, we have documented for the first time that long-term memory of individual identity is present and functional in ants. This novel finding represents an advance in our understanding of the mechanism determining the evolution of cooperation among unrelated individuals.
Address Institute of Biology, Department of Population Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. sdreier@bi.ku.dk
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ISSN 1744-9561 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:17594958 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4649
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Author Dunbar, R.I.M.
Title Male and female brain evolution is subject to contrasting selection pressures in primates Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication BMC Biology Abbreviated Journal BMC Biol
Volume (up) 5 Issue Pages 21
Keywords Animals; *Brain/physiology; *Evolution; Female; Humans; Male; *Selection (Genetics); *Sex Characteristics
Abstract The claim that differences in brain size across primate species has mainly been driven by the demands of sociality (the “social brain” hypothesis) is now widely accepted. Some of the evidence to support this comes from the fact that species that live in large social groups have larger brains, and in particular larger neocortices. Lindenfors and colleagues (BMC Biology 5:20) add significantly to our appreciation of this process by showing that there are striking differences between the two sexes in the social mechanisms and brain units involved. Female sociality (which is more affiliative) is related most closely to neocortex volume, but male sociality (which is more competitive and combative) is more closely related to subcortical units (notably those associated with emotional responses). Thus different brain units have responded to different selection pressures.
Address British Academy Centenary Research Project, School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK. rimd@liv.ac.uk
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ISSN 1741-7007 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:17493267 Approved no
Call Number Serial 2100
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Author Warneken, F.; Hare, B.; Melis, A.P.; Hanus, D.; Tomasello, M.
Title Spontaneous Altruism by Chimpanzees and Young Children Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication PLoS Biol Abbreviated Journal PLoS Biol
Volume (up) 5 Issue 7 Pages e184 EP -
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Abstract <p>Experimental evidence reveals that chimpanzees will help other unrelated humans and conspecifics without a reward, showing that they share crucial aspects of altruism with humans.</p>
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Publisher Public Library of Science Place of Publication Editor
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Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5609
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Author Allen, D.; Tanner, K.
Title Putting the horse back in front of the cart: using visions and decisions about high-quality learning experiences to drive course design Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication CBE Life Sciences Education Abbreviated Journal CBE Life Sci Educ
Volume (up) 6 Issue 2 Pages 85-89
Keywords Curriculum/*standards; *Decision Making; *Learning; Models, Educational; Schools; Teaching/*methods/*standards
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Address Department of Biological Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA. deallen@udel.edu
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ISSN 1931-7913 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:17548870 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3999
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Author Agrillo, C.; Dadda, M.; Bisazza, A.
Title Quantity discrimination in female mosquitofish Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Animal cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume (up) 10 Issue 1 Pages 63-70
Keywords Animals; Cognition; *Cyprinodontiformes; *Discrimination Learning; Female; Male; Mathematics; *Pattern Recognition, Visual
Abstract The ability in animals to count and represent different numbers of objects has received a great deal of attention in the past few decades. Cumulative evidence from comparative studies on number discriminations report obvious analogies among human babies, non-human primates and birds and are consistent with the hypothesis of two distinct and widespread mechanisms, one for counting small numbers (<4) precisely, and one for quantifying large numbers approximately. We investigated the ability to discriminate among different numerosities, in a distantly related species, the mosquitofish, by using the spontaneous choice of a gravid female to join large groups of females as protection from a sexually harassing male. In one experiment, we found that females were able to discriminate between two shoals with a 1:2 numerosity ratio (2 vs. 4, 4 vs. 8 and 8 vs. 16 fish) but failed to discriminate a 2:3 ratio (8 vs. 12 fish). In the second experiment, we studied the ability to discriminate between shoals that differed by one element; females were able to select the larger shoal when the paired numbers were 2 vs. 3 or 3 vs. 4 but not 4 vs. 5 or 5 vs. 6. Our study indicates that numerical abilities in fish are comparable with those of other non-verbal creatures studied; results are in agreement with the hypothesis of the existence of two distinct systems for quantity discrimination in vertebrates.
Address Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, via Venezia 8, 35131, Padova, Italy. christian.agrillo@unipd.it
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ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:16868736 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 339
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Author Gibbs, S.E.B.; Lea, S.E.G.; Jacobs, L.F.
Title Flexible use of spatial cues in the southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume (up) 10 Issue 2 Pages 203-209
Keywords Animals; Male; Orientation; *Sciuridae; *Space Perception; *Spatial Behavior
Abstract Insects, birds, and mammals have been shown capable of encoding spatial information in memory using multiple strategies or frames of reference simultaneously. These strategies include orientation to a goal-specific cue or beacon, to the position of the goal in an array of local landmarks, or to its position in the array of distant landmarks, also known as the global frame of reference. From previous experiments, it appears that birds and mammals that scatter hoard rely primarily on a global frame of reference, but this generalization depends on evidence from only a few species. Here we examined spatial memory in a previously unstudied scatter hoarder, the southern flying squirrel. We dissociated the relative weighting of three potential spatial strategies (beacon, global, or relative array strategy) with three probe tests: transposition of beacon and the rotation or the expansion of the array. The squirrels' choices were consistent with a spatial averaging strategy, where they chose the location dictated by at least two of the three strategies, rather than using a single preferred frame of reference. This adaptive and flexible heuristic has not been previously described in animal orientation studies, yet it may be a common solution to the universal problem of encoding and recalling spatial locations in an ephemeral physical landscape.
Address Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1650, USA
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ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:17265151 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2422
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Author Zucca, P.; Milos, N.; Vallortigara, G.
Title Piagetian object permanence and its development in Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume (up) 10 Issue 2 Pages 243-258
Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Birds/*physiology; *Cognition; *Cues
Abstract Object permanence in Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) was investigated using a complete version of the Uzgiris and Hunt scale 1. Nine hand-raised jays were studied, divided into two groups according to their different developmental stages (experiment 1, older jays: 2-3 months old, n = 4; experiment 2, younger jays: 15 days old, n = 5). In the first experiment, we investigated whether older jays could achieve piagetian stage 6 of object permanence. Tasks were administered in a fixed sequence (1-15) according to the protocols used in other avian species. The aim of the second experiment was to check whether testing very young jays before their development of “neophobia” could influence the achievement times of piagetian stages. Furthermore, in this experiment tasks were administered randomly to investigate whether the jays' achievement of stage 6 follows a fixed sequence related to the development of specific cognitive abilities. All jays tested in experiments 1 and 2 fully achieved piagetian stage 6 and no “A not B” errors were observed. Performance on visible displacement tasks was better than performance on invisible ones. The results of experiment 2 show that “neophobia” affected the response of jays in terms of achievement times; the older jays in experiment 1 took longer to pass all the tasks when compared with the younger, less neophobic, jays in experiment 2. With regard to the achieving order, jays followed a fixed sequence of acquisition in experiment 2, even if tasks were administered randomly, with the exception of one subject. The results of these experiments support the idea that piagetian stages of cognitive development exist in avian species and that they progress through relatively fixed sequences.
Address Department of Psychology, Laboratory of Animal Cognition and Comparative Neuroscience, Via S. Anastasio 12, 34100, Trieste, Italy. zucca@units.it
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Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
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ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
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Notes PMID:17242935 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2423
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