Vervaecke, H., Vries, H. D., & Elsacker, L. V. (1999). An Experimental Evaluation Of The Consistency Of Competitive Ability And Agonistic Dominance In Different Social Contexts In Captive Bonobos. Behaviour, 136(4), 423–442.
Abstract: Bonobos have been described as a relatively egalitarian and female dominant species. The exact nature and quality of their dominance relationships and the existence of female dominance are current topics of dispute. We investigated the consistency across social contexts, the stability in time, and the degree of expression of the competitive feeding ability and agonistic dominance in a captive group of bonobos. First, we examined whether the competitive feeding ranks and agonistic ranks differed in different dyadic contexts, triadic contexts and the whole group context. For some pairs of animals the dominance relationships with respect to competitive feeding altered with different group compositions. The agonistic dominance relationships changed accordingly. The competitive feeding ranks and agonistic ranks in the experiments correlated strongly with each other. The alpha position was occupied by a female, but not all females outranked all males. We suggest that females can profit from each others presence to gain inter-sexual dominance. Second, although the agonistic rank order in the whole group remained the same over at least five years, some dyadic competitive feeding ranks changed over time, resulting in a stronger female intersexual dominance. Third, the degree of expression of the behaviors used to quantify dyadic competitive and agonistic dominance was not high, in line with the popular 'egalitarian' epithet. Notwithstanding its low consistency across contexts, the dominance hierarchy in the whole group has a strong predictive value for other social relationships such as grooming. Given this strong effect of rank on other behaviours and given the strong dependency of rank on social context, the choice of the right party members may be a crucial factor in the fission-fusion processes of free-ranging bonobos.
|
Templeton, J. J., Kamil, A. C., & Balda, R. P. (1999). Sociality and social learning in two species of corvids: The pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) and the Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana). J. Comp. Psychol., 113(4), 450–455.
Abstract: The hypothesis that social learning is an adaptive specialization for social living predicts that social species should learn better socially than they do individually, but that nonsocial species should not exhibit a similar enhancement of performance under social learning conditions. The authors compared individual and social learning abilities in 2 corvid species: the highly social pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) and the less social Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana). The birds were tested on 2 different tasks under individual and social learning conditions. Half learned a motor task individually and a discrimination task socially; the other half learned the motor task socially and the discrimination task individually. Pinyon jays learned faster socially than they did individually, but nutcrackers performed equally well under both learning conditions. Results support the hypothesis that social learning is an adaptive specialization for social living in pinyon jays. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)
|
Bonabeau, E., Theraulaz, G., & Deneubourg, J. - L. (1999). Dominance orders in animal societies: the selforganization. Bull Math Biol, 61(4). Retrieved May 16, 2024, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/bulm.1999.0108
Abstract: In previous papers (Theraulaz et al. 1995, Bonabeau et al. 1996) we suggested, following Hogeweg and Hesper (1983, 1985), that the formation of dominance orders in animal societies could result from a selforganizing process involving a double reinforcement mechanism: winners reinforce their probability of winning and losers reinforce their probability of losing. This assumption, and subsequent models, were based on empirical data on primitively eusocial wasps (Polistes dominulus). By...
|
Laland, K. N., & Reader, S. M. (1999). Foraging innovation in the guppy. Anim. Behav., 57(2), 331–340.
Abstract: When novel behaviour patterns spread through animal populations, typically one animal will initiate the diffusion. It is not known whether such 'innovators' are particularly creative individuals, individuals exposed to the appropriate environmental contingencies, or individuals in a particular motivational state. We describe three experiments that investigated the factors influencing foraging innovation in the guppy Poecilia reticulata. We exposed small laboratory populations of fish to novel foraging tasks, which involved exploration and problem solving to locate a novel food source. Experiments 1 and 2 found that (1) females were more likely to innovate than males, (2) food-deprived fish were more likely to innovate than nonfood-deprived subjects, and (3) smaller fish were more likely to innovate than larger fish. We suggest that the sex difference may reflect parental investment asymmetries in males and females. Experiment 3 found that past innovators were more likely to innovate than past noninnovators. Collectively, the results suggest that differences in foraging innovation in guppies are best accounted for by differences in motivational state, but, in addition, guppies may vary in their predisposition to innovate. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
|
Giraldeau, L. A., & Beauchamp, G. (1999). Food exploitation: searching for the optimal joining policy. Trends In Ecology And Evolution, 14(3), 102–106.
Abstract: Commonly invoked foraging advantages of group membership include increased mean food intake rates and/or reduced variance in foraging success. These foraging advantages rely on the occurrence of 'joining': feeding from food discovered or captured by others. Joining occurs in most social species but the assumptions underlying its analysis have been clarified only recently, giving rise to two classes of model: information-sharing and producer-scrounger models. Recent experimental evidence suggests that joining in ground-feeding birds might be best analysed as a producer-scrounger game, with some intriguing consequences for the spatial distribution of foragers and patch exploitation.
|
Drea, C. M., & Wallen, K. (1999). Low-status monkeys “play dumb” when learning in mixed social groups. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 96(22), 12965–12969.
Abstract: Many primates, including humans, live in complex hierarchical societies where social context and status affect daily life. Nevertheless, primate learning studies typically test single animals in limited laboratory settings where the important effects of social interactions and relationships cannot be studied. To investigate the impact of sociality on associative learning, we compared the individual performances of group-tested rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) across various social contexts. We used a traditional discrimination paradigm that measures an animal's ability to form associations between cues and the obtaining of food in choice situations; but we adapted the task for group testing. After training a 55-member colony to separate on command into two subgroups, composed of either high- or low-status families, we exposed animals to two color discrimination problems, one with all monkeys present (combined condition), the other in their “dominant” and “subordinate” cohorts (split condition). Next, we manipulated learning history by testing animals on the same problems, but with the social contexts reversed. Monkeys from dominant families excelled in all conditions, but subordinates performed well in the split condition only, regardless of learning history. Subordinate animals had learned the associations, but expressed their knowledge only when segregated from higher-ranking animals. Because aggressive behavior was rare, performance deficits probably reflected voluntary inhibition. This experimental evidence of rank-related, social modulation of performance calls for greater consideration of social factors when assessing learning and may also have relevance for the evaluation of human scholastic achievement.
|
Campbell, F. M., Heyes, C. M., & Goldsmith, A. R. (1999). Stimulus learning and response learning by observation in the European starling, in a two-object/two-action test. Anim. Behav., 58(1), 151–158.
Abstract: Juvenile European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris , were allowed to observe a conspecific demonstrator using its beak to remove one of two distinctively coloured objects (i.e. a red or a black plug) from a hole in the lid of a plastic box. Both plugs could be removed by either pulling up on a loop of string inserted through the centre of the plug, or pushing down on the plug. When subsequently allowed access to the plugs, and rewarded with food for all removal responses, regardless of the object to which they were made and their direction, observer birds removed the same plug in the same direction as their demonstrator. These results suggest that the two-object/two-action paradigm is a valuable procedure for testing for the simultaneous effects of learning about a stimulus and a response, an object and an action, through conspecific observation.
|
McDonnell, S. M., Freeman, D. A., Cymbaluk, N. F., Schott, H. C. 2nd, Hinchcliff, K., & Kyle, B. (1999). Behavior of stabled horses provided continuous or intermittent access to drinking water. Am J Vet Res, 60(11), 1451–1456.
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To compare quantitative measures and clinical assessments of behavior as an indication of psychologic well-being of stabled horses provided drinking water continuously or via 1 of 3 intermittent delivery systems. ANIMALS: 22 Quarter Horse (QH) or QH-crossbred mares and 17 Belgian or Belgian-crossbred mares (study 1) and 24 QH or QH-crossbred mares and 18 Belgian or Belgian-crossbred mares (study 2). PROCEDURE: Stabled horses were provided water continuously or via 1 of 3 intermittent water delivery systems in 2 study periods during a 2-year period. Continuous 24-hour videotaped samples were used to compare quantitative measures and clinical assessments of behavior among groups provided water by the various water delivery systems. RESULTS: All horses had clinically normal behavior. Significant differences in well being were not detected among groups provided water by the various delivery systems. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Various continuous and intermittent water delivery systems can provide adequately for the psychologic well-being of stabled horses.
|
|
Pell, S. M., & McGreevy, P. D. (1999). Prevalence of stereotypic and other problem behaviours in thoroughbred horses. Aust Vet J, 77(10), 678–679.
|
Miyashita, Y., Nakajima, S., & Imada, H. (1999). Panel-touch behavior of horses established by an autoshaping procedure. Psychol Rep, 85(3 Pt 1), 867–868.
Abstract: Panel-touch behavior of 3 geldings was successfully established by a response-termination type of autoshaping procedure. An omission or negative contingency introduced after the training of an animal, however, decreased the response rate to a near-zero level.
|
