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Boysen, S. T., & Himes, G. T. (1999). Current Issues And Emerging Theories In Animal Cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 50(1), 683–705.
Abstract: Comparative cognition is an emerging interdisciplinary field with contributions from comparative psychology, cognitive/experimental and developmental psychology, animal learning, and ethology, and is poised to move toward greater understanding of animal and human information-processing, reasoning, memory, and the phylogenetic emergence of mind. This chapter highlights some current issues and discusses four areas within comparative cognition that are yielding new approaches and hypotheses for studying basic conceptual capacities in nonhuman species. These include studies of imitation, tool use, mirror self-recognition, and the potential for attribution of mental states by nonhuman animals. Though a very old question in psychology, the study of imitation continues to provide new avenues for examining the complex relationships among and between the levels of imitative behaviors exhibited by many species. Similarly, recent work in animal tool use, mirror self-recognition (with all its contentious issues), and recent attempts to empirically study the potential for attributional capacities in nonhumans, all continue to provide fresh insights and novel paradigms for addressing the defining characteristics of these complex phenomena.
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López, J. C., Broglio, C., Rodríguez, F., Thinus-Blanc, C., & Salas, C. (1999). Multiple spatial learning strategies in goldfish (Carassius auratus). Anim. Cogn., 2(2), 109–120.
Abstract: There is a considerable amount of evidence that mammals and birds can use different spatial learning strategies based on multiple learning and memory systems. Unfortunately, only a few studies have investigated spatial learning and memory mechanisms in other vertebrates. This study aimed to identify the strategies used by goldfish to solve two different spatial tasks in a series of three experiments. In experiment 1, two groups of goldfish (Carassius auratus) were trained either in a spatial constancy task (SC), in which visual cues signalled the goal indirectly, or in a directly cued task (DC) in which similar cues signalled the goal directly. Transfer tests were conducted to study the effects of discrete cue deletion on the performance in both tasks. In these transfer tests the performance of the animals trained in the DC task dropped to chance level when the cue that signalled the goal directly was removed. In contrast, the removal of any single cue did not disrupt SC performance. In experiment 2, fish trained in the SC or the DC task were trained with the goal reversed. Goldfish in the SC group needed fewer sessions to master the reversal task than DC animals. Finally, experiment 3 investigated the effects of a substantial modification of the geometrical features of the apparatus on the performance of animals trained in the SC or in the DC condition. The performance of DC goldfish was not affected, whereas the same change disrupted performance in the SC animals despite the presence of the visual cues. These results suggest that there are separate spatial learning and memory systems in fish. Whereas the DC animals used a typical guidance strategy, relying only on the cue that signalled the goal directly, SC fish relied on a strategy with the properties of an actual spatial mapping system. Thus, the comparative approach points to the generality of these learning strategies among vertebrates.
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Potì, P., Langer, J., Savage-Rumbaugh, S., & Brakke, K. E. (1999). Spontaneous logicomathematical constructions by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes, P. paniscus). Anim. Cogn., 2(3), 147–156.
Abstract: Two experiments investigated the spontaneous construction of precursory logicomathematical operations by human-enculturated and language-reared chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes, Pan paniscus) when they were interacting freely with objects. In experiment 1, three chimpanzees ranging in age from 6 to 18 years were presented with sets of six objects. Chimpanzees constructed equivalence, order and reversibility relations within single sets of objects as well as between two or three contemporaneous sets of objects. The chimpanzees' logicomathematical operations were more advanced, including infrequent and minimal operations on three sets, than those of some previously investigated younger nonenculturated common chimpanzees. In experiment 2, six chimpanzees ranging in age from 6 to 21 years were presented with sets of 12 objects. Chimpanzees constructed more advanced operations on single sets, but not on contemporaneous sets. The results suggest partial convergence and partial divergence between development of logicomathematical cognition in chimpanzees and humans.
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Fountain, S. B., Rowan, J. D., & Benson, D. M. J. (1999). Rule learning in rats: serial tracking in interleaved patterns. Anim. Cogn., 2(1), 41–54.
Abstract: Humans have the ability to chunk together information from nonadjacent serial positions in sequential patterns. For example, human subjects can extrapolate the pattern, A-M-B-N-C-O-D-P-E-..., to find the missing element, Q, by sorting pattern elements into two component interleaved subpatterns: A-B-C-D-E and M-N-O-P-... Two experiments investigated the ability of rats to reorganize pattern elements from nonadjacent serial positions into chunks not presented by the experimenter. Rats learned either a structured or unstructured sequence interleaved with elements of a repeating sequence (experiment 1) or an alternation sequence (experiment 2). In both experiments, rats learned the interleaved subpatterns at different rates. Acquisition rate was correlated with the structural properties of component subpatterns and the nature of the rules required to describe the interleaved subpatterns. The results indicate that rats are sensitive to the organization of nonadjacent elements in serial patterns and that they can detect and sort structural relationships in interleaved patterns.
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Cook, R. G., & Tauro, T. L. (1999). Object-goal positioning influences spatial representation in rats. Anim. Cogn., 2(1), 55–62.
Abstract: Three tests investigated how the geometric relation between object/landmarks and goals influenced spatial choice behavior in rats. Two groups searched for hidden food in an object-filled circular arena containing 24 small poles. For the “Proximal” group, four distinct objects in a square configuration were placed close to four baited poles. For the “Distal” group, the identical configuration of objects was rotated 45° relative to the poles containing the hidden food. The Proximal group learned to locate the baited poles more quickly than the Distal group. Tests with removed and rearranged landmarks indicated that the two groups learned to use the objects differently. The results suggested that close proximity of objects to goals encouraged their use as beacons, while greater distance of objects from goals resulted in the global encoding of the geometric properties of the arena and the use of the objects as landmarks.
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Mercado, E. I. I. I., Uyeyama, R. U., Pack, A. A., & Herman, L. M. (1999). Memory for action events in the bottlenosed dolphin. Anim. Cogn., 2(1), 17–25.
Abstract: We investigated whether a bottlenosed dolphin’s ability to recall and repeat actions on command would immediately generalize to actions performed with specified objects. The dolphin was tested on her ability to repeat 18 novel behaviors performed with potentially interchangeable objects specified using an artificial gestural language. Such “action events” were correctly repeated at above chance levels, indicating that the dolphin had access to memories of those events. Performance levels were, however, lower than in previous tests. The dolphin appeared to have difficulty recalling which object an action was performed with. Previous research has demonstrated that animals can recall features of their environment and features of their actions independently of one another. The results of this study demonstrate (1) that the dolphin’s concept of repeating extends beyond simply accessing memories of movement patterns, and (2) that dolphins’ memories of past events incorporate representations of both self-performed acts and objects, locations, or gestural instructions.
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Galef Jr., B. G., & Whiskin, E. E. (1999). Use of public information when foraging: effects of time available to sample foods. Anim. Cogn., 2(2), 103–107.
Abstract: It has been proposed that use of socially acquired information by animals should increase as the time available for individual resource sampling decreases. We gave Norway rat “observers” either 2 or 5 h day-1 to sample four foods. Three of these foods were relatively palatable, but protein-poor; the fourth was relatively unpalatable, but protein-rich. We found that observer rats that for 2 h day-1 both sampled foods and interacted with demonstrators eating only the protein-rich food ate more of the protein-rich food than did observers that sampled for 2 h day-1 but had no opportunity to interact with demonstrators. On the other hand, observer rats that could sample foods for 5 h day-1 ate equal amounts of protein-rich food whether they interacted with a demonstrator fed protein-rich food or not. Subsequent analyses showed that the time available to observers to sample foods, rather than the opportunity to interact with demonstrators determined whether such interaction influenced observers' food choices. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that animals increase their use of public information in response to temporal constraints on opportunities for resource sampling.
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Diekamp, B., Prior, H., & Güntürkün, O. (1999). Functional lateralization, interhemispheric transfer and position bias in serial reversal learning in pigeons (Columba livia). Anim. Cogn., 2(4), 187–196.
Abstract: In the present study we investigated lateralization of color reversal learning in pigeons. After monocular acquisition of a simple color discrimination with either the left or right eye, birds were tested in a serial reversal procedure. While there was only a slight and non-significant difference in choice accuracy during original color discrimination, a stable superiority of birds using the right eye emerged in serial reversals. Both groups showed a characteristic 'learning-to-learn' effect, but right-eyed subjects improved faster and reached a lower asymptotic error rate. Subsequent testing for interocular transfer demonstrated a difference between pre- and post-shift choice accuracy in pigeons switching from right to left eye but not vice versa. This can be accounted for by differences in maximum performance using either the left or right eye along with an equally efficient but incomplete interocular transfer in both directions. Detailed analysis of the birds' response patterns during serial reversals revealed a preference for the right of two response keys in both groups. This bias was most pronounced at the beginning of a session. It decreased within sessions, but became more pronounced in late reversals, thus indicating a successful strategy for mastering the serial reversal task. Interocular transfer of response patterns revealed an unexpected asymmetry. Birds switching from right to left eye continued to prefer the right side, whereas pigeons shifting from left to right eye were now biased towards the left side. The results suggest that lateralized performance during reversal learning in pigeons rests on a complex interplay of learning about individual stimuli, stimulus dimensions, and lateralized response strategies.
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Á. Miklósi. (1999). The Evolution of Cognition. Anim. Cogn., 2(3), 179–180.
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Wauters, A. M., Richard-Yris, M. - A., Richard, J. P., & Foraste M. (1999). Internal and external factors modulate food-calling in domestic hens. Anim. Cogn., 2(1), 1–10.
Abstract: Two series of experiments investigated factors affecting utterance of food calls in the domestic hen, Gallus domesticus. The first series of experiments tested the effect of food preference and the hen’s internal state on the utterance of food calls. Different food types were presented first singly and then in a choice test to 20 hens, first when hens were laying, and then when they were maternal. The second series of experiments tested the effect of hunger level on the utterance of food calls in laying hens, and maternal hens with or without chicks. These two series of experiments showed that laying hens and maternal hens showed a similar marked preference for certain types of food, but laying hens very rarely emitted food calls, in contrast to maternal hens. This shows the effect of the bird’s psychophysiological state on her tendency to emit food calls. The more a maternal hen preferred a food type, the more food calls she emitted. This was observed from the beginning of a test in single-food tests as well as in choice tests. Hunger level positively affected food-call production under certain feeding conditions in maternal hens, but not in laying hens. When maternal hens were tested in the absence of their chicks, utterance of food calls was more sustained than in the presence of chicks.
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