Cantlon, J. F., & Brannon, E. M. (2007). How Much Does Number Matter to a Monkey (Macaca mulatta)? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 33(1), 32–41.
Abstract: Although many animal species can represent numerical values, little is known about how salient number is relative to other object properties for nonhuman animals. In one hypothesis, researchers propose that animals represent number only as a last resort, when no other properties differentiate stimuli. An alternative hypothesis is that animals automatically, spontaneously, and routinely represent the numerical attributes of their environments. The authors compared the influence of number versus that of shape, color, and surface area on rhesus monkeys' (Macaca mulatta) decisions by testing them on a matching task with more than one correct answer: a numerical match and a nonnumerical (color, surface area, or shape) match. The authors also tested whether previous laboratory experience with numerical discrimination influenced a monkey's propensity to represent number. Contrary to the last-resort hypothesis, all monkeys based their decisions on numerical value when the numerical ratio was favorable.
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Bermú, & dez, J. é. (2007). Thinking Without Words: An Overview for Animal Ethics. The Journal of Ethics, 11, 319–335.
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Allen, C., & Bekoff, M. (2007). Animal Minds, Cognitive Ethology, and Ethics. The Journal of Ethics, 11, 299–317.
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Jellinger, K. A. (2007). Comparative Cognition: Experimental Exploration of Animal Intelligence. European Journal of Neurology, 14, e53.
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Doucette, T. A., Ryan, C. L., & Tasker, R. A. (2007). Gender-based changes in cognition and emotionality in a new rat model of epilepsy. Amino Acids, 32, 317–322.
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Evans, C. S., & Evans, L. (2007). Representational signalling in birds. Biology Letters, 3(1), 8–11.
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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Ducro, B. J., Koenen, E. P. C., van Tartwijk, J. M. F. M., & Bovenhuis, H. (2007). Genetic relations of movement and free-jumping traits with dressage and show-jumping performance in competition of Dutch Warmblood horses. Livestock Science, 107(2-3), 227–234.
Abstract: Genetic parameters for traits evaluated at the studbook entry inspection and genetic correlations with dressage and show-jumping performance in competition were estimated. Data comprised 36,649 Warmblood horses that entered the studbook between 1992 and 2002. The genetic analyses were performed using univariate and bivariate animal models. Heritabilities of the studbook entry traits were estimated in the range 0.15-0.40. The movement traits showed moderate to strong mutual genetic correlations, whereas the genetic correlations of movement traits with free-jumping traits were weak to moderate. The free-jumping traits showed strong to very strong mutual genetic correlations. Competition results of 33,459 horses with performance in dressage and 30,474 horse with performance in show-jumping were linked to the studbook entry data to estimate the genetic relationship with performance in competition. Heritability estimates for dressage and show jumping were 0.14. Genetic correlations of the movement traits with dressage were moderate to strong, and with show-jumping weak to moderate. Genetic correlations of the free-jumping traits with dressage were weak to moderate and unfavourable. The free-jumping traits were genetically strong to very strong correlated to show-jumping. It was concluded that a selection of the traits evaluated at the studbook entry inspection will favourably contribute to estimation of breeding values for sport performance.
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Ducro, B. J., Koenen, E. P. C., van Tartwijk, J. M. F. M., & van Arendonk, J. A. M. (2007). Genetic relations of First Stallion Inspection traits with dressage and show-jumping performance in competition of Dutch Warmblood horses. Livestock Science, 107(1), 81–85.
Abstract: Genetic parameters for traits evaluated at the First Stallion Inspection (FSI) and genetic correlations with dressage and show-jumping performance in competition were estimated. Data comprised 2361 stallions with FSI-observations from 1994 through 1999. Genetic analyses were performed using univariate and bivariate animal models. Heritability estimates of the FSI-traits ranged from 0.25 to 0.61. FSI-traits related to gaits showed strong genetic correlations (above 0.70) and FSI-traits related to free jumping had correlations close to unity. Competition results of 23,897 horses with performance in dressage and 22,811 horses with performance in show-jumping were linked to the FSI data to estimate the genetic relationship with performance in competition. Heritability estimates for dressage and show-jumping were 0.14. Genetic correlation between FSI-gaits and dressage in competition were positive, ranging from 0.37 to 0.72. Genetic correlation between FSI-jumping traits and show-jumping were all above 0.80. FSI-jumping traits showed negative correlations with dressage (about – 0.48). FSI-gait traits showed negative correlations with show-jumping, except for canter. It is concluded that selection at First Stallion Inspection comprises an important component of the stallion selection program, because FSI-traits have good genetic relationships with performance in competition and, due to the number of animals involved, relative high selection intensities can be achieved.
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Dugnol, B., Fernández, C., & Galiano, G. (2007). Wolf population counting by spectrogram image processing. Appl Math Comput, 186.
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Dugnol, B., Fernández, C., Galiano, G., & Velasco, J. (2007). Implementation of a diffusive differential reassignment method for signal enhancement: An application to wolf population counting. Appl Math Comput, 193.
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