Animal Cognition最新文献

{"title":"Turn-taking in grooming interactions of sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) in the wild","authors":"Pharisemène Tibesar,&nbsp;Catherine Crockford,&nbsp;Auriane Le Floch,&nbsp;Simone Pika","doi":"10.1007/s10071-025-02040-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-025-02040-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Language is widely regarded as a uniquely human trait, rooted in mechanisms of social interaction such as conversational turn-taking. It has been proposed that turn-taking may not be exclusive to humans but may represent an ancestral trait shared across primates and beyond. Early studies on great apes indicated a specialization in gestural forms of turn-taking, whereas monkeys appeared to rely more heavily on vocal exchanges. However, this ape–monkey difference may simply be due to a lack of research. To bridge this gap, the present study investigated turn-taking behaviors during grooming in an Afro-Eurasian monkey species, sooty mangabeys (<i>Cercocebus atys)</i>. We addressed the following three key questions: (1) What turn-taking patterns, if any, characterize grooming interactions in sooty mangabeys? (2) Do sooty mangabeys preferentially use vocal turn-taking? (3) Which elements characterizing turn-taking patterns of sooty mangabeys are shared with human conversational turn-taking? We collected 105.3 h of video footage from 22 adult female sooty mangabeys in Taï National Park (between May 2022 and August 2023), yielding 428 female–female grooming videos, of which 71 were coded. An additional 595 grooming interactions were described directly in the field. Results showed that exchanges involving both actions and signals were the most frequent (e.g., a present gesture followed by grooming). The most common type of signal exchange was gestural turn-taking, a form previously reported only in great apes. The study identified key elements of conversational turn-taking: rapid responses, adjacency pair-like sequences, and participation frameworks. These findings suggest that the fundamental structural principles of human conversation likely predate our species, offering valuable insight into the evolutionary history of language.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-025-02040-2.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147430371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Individual differences in inhibitory control may influence how endangered eels deal with river barriers during migration","authors":"Gaia De Russi,&nbsp;Mattia Lanzoni,&nbsp;Giuseppe Castaldelli,&nbsp;Cristiano Bertolucci,&nbsp;Angelo Bisazza,&nbsp;Tyrone Lucon-Xiccato","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02056-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02056-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The European eel is currently facing a critical risk of extinction. One of the contributing factors is that its catadromous migration is often obstructed by artificial barriers such as dams. Migrating juvenile eels display a strong rheotactic behaviour. Therefore, we hypothesized that inhibitory control, the ability to suppress motivated behaviour, in this case rheotaxis, could facilitate the search for alternative routes when encountering a barrier. Using a detour test and a test in which a shelter was blocked by a transparent barrier, we demonstrated that migrating eels exhibit some degree of inhibitory control, with evidence of individual differences in performance. Crucially, individual differences in these inhibitory control tests significantly predicted how eels behaved in a simulated river system with barriers. Individual eels may adopt distinct strategies to overcome migration barriers and these differences might be partly driven by variations in inhibitory control.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-026-02056-2.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147372166","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Treats or affection? Understanding reward preferences in Indian free-ranging dogs","authors":"Srijaya Nandi,&nbsp;Aesha Lahiri,&nbsp;Tuhin Subhra Pal,&nbsp;Anamitra Roy,&nbsp;Rittika Bairagya,&nbsp;Anindita Bhadra","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02046-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02046-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Free-ranging dogs (FRDs) constitute approximately 80% of the global dog population. They are freely breeding and live without direct human supervision, making them ideal for studying how factors such as the lack of supervision, unmanaged breeding, and variable human contact shape dog-human relationships. Living in proximity to humans, FRDs in India frequently interact with people, and previous studies suggest humans to be a crucial part of their social environment. Positive reinforcement in the form of food and petting is commonly received from humans. In this study, we investigated which reward, food or petting, is preferred more during short-term and repeated interactions. Field trials were conducted on 61 adult FRDs. During the familiarization phase (Days 1 to 5), two unfamiliar individuals each provided either food or petting to the dogs. This was followed by a series of choice tests (Days 1 to 10), in which dogs could choose between the two individuals. On the first day, dogs significantly preferred the food provider. However, from the second day onward, preference was no different from chance, suggesting that the strength of food as a reward was reduced. These findings suggest that while food is a stronger short-term motivator, repeated interactions involving either food or petting contribute equally to the formation of positive social associations over time. This study sheds light on the development of the dog-human relationship in Indian FRD populations and highlights the nuanced role of different rewards in fostering affiliative associations.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-026-02046-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147347253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring visual categorical learning in teleost fish Danio rerio and Xenotoca eiseni","authors":"Valeria Anna Sovrano,&nbsp;Valentina Truppa,&nbsp;Davide Potrich,&nbsp;Remo Job,&nbsp;Simone Sulpizio","doi":"10.1007/s10071-025-02037-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-025-02037-x","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Categorization skills enable animal species to sort entities based on their similarities, providing significant advantages in terms of learning efficiency. The extent of these skills and the mechanisms involved vary across taxa, making it critical to explore categorization in as many lineages as possible. From an evolutionary standpoint, fish are valuable models for studying categorization processes; however, until recently, this group of vertebrates has been neglected in visual categorization research. To address this gap, we conducted three experiments to investigate, for the first time, the visual categorical learning skills of the redtail splitfin (<i>Xenotoca eiseni</i>) and the zebrafish (<i>Danio rerio</i>), two teleost species studied in other contexts of animal cognition. Using a two-alternative forced-choice task, we first trained the fish to discriminate between several pairs of stimuli. Then, we tested their ability to generalize to pairs of new stimuli of the same categories. The stimulus categories varied across the experiments (Experiments 1 and 2: alphanumeric characters; Experiment 3: fish silhouettes) and were consistent with those used in past studies involving different taxa. Both fish species met the learning criterion in the training phase across all three experiments, but their ability to generalize to novel stimuli differed based on stimulus features. Moreover, both species presented interindividual differences in their ability to generalize what they learnt. Our results validate the use of <i>X. eiseni</i> and <i>D. rerio</i> as models for research on categorical learning. They also encourage further investigation into how experimental methods and stimuli could affect learning-based generalization abilities in these species.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-025-02037-x.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147316032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Generalist vs. specialist: cognition and behavioral flexibility in Gambusia across habitats","authors":"Kyndal Irwin,&nbsp;Colby Durocher,&nbsp;Ayden Wilroy,&nbsp;Timothy H. Bonner,&nbsp;Caitlin R. Gabor","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02052-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02052-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Identifying associations between ecological strategy and cognitive and behavioral traits is essential in predicting species sensitivity or persistence in the face of environmental change. Ecological generalists with a larger niche breadth are expected to exhibit high levels of behavioral flexibility, whereas specialists are likely to show increased performance of cognitive traits directly related to specific ecological challenges. To explore how ecological niche breadth is associated with cognitive and behavioral traits, we compared risk-taking, motivation, activity, and inhibitory control between two sister species of <i>Gambusia</i> that differ in ecological strategy: <i>Gambusia affinis</i> is an ecological generalist occupying a wide range of habitat types, and <i>Gambusia geiseri</i> is a specialist. Using a detour task and behavioral tracking, we evaluated cognitive and behavioral traits in both species from sympatric populations collected at two sites: one on the San Marcos River where <i>G. geiseri</i> dominates, and another on the Comal River characterized by more variable environmental conditions and roughly equal abundance of <i>G. geiseri</i> and <i>G. affinis</i>. We found that the generalist species, <i>G. affinis</i> was more likely to complete the detour task and was faster to exit a refuge indicating higher risk-taking behavior in this species. <i>Gambusia geiseri</i> from the variable habitat showed reduced solving success and slower solving speed which suggests that inhibitory control is associated with species identity and ecological niche breadth. Activity levels differed significantly across species and habitat type. We found a species by population interaction where <i>G. affinis</i> had a higher swimming velocity than G. <i>geiseri</i> in the Comal River, but a lower swimming velocity than <i>G. geiseri</i> in San Marcos River<i>.</i> Our findings highlight how cognitive and behavioral traits differ between generalist and specialist strategies and underscore these associations as drivers of species resilience to environmental change.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12932364/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146217981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Waiting for reward: preference for signalled delays increases with average wait time","authors":"Margaret A. McDevitt,&nbsp;Jeffrey M. Pisklak,&nbsp;Roger M. Dunn,&nbsp;Marcia L. Spetch","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02050-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02050-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>When rewards occur after a delay, signals that the wait will be shorter than average can be valuable. A recent study by Macias et al. (2024) found that pigeons preferred an alternative providing signals for a short or long delay to food over an alternative that provided no signals about delay. Preference for the signalled alternative increased with increases in the ratio of the long to short delay, with the average delay held constant. Here we report a preregistered experiment that tested the effect of changing the average delay, with the ratio of long to short delays held constant. Pigeons preferred the signalled alternative, and this preference was higher at longer delays (20 s and 40 s) than shorter delays (2 s and 4 s). This finding is opposite to the predictions from the modified Delta-Sigma model proposed by Macias et al., but fits well with predictions of the Signal for Good News (SiGN) model, which assumes that signals for a reduction in delay to reward reinforce choice.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12913260/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146194021","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An animal model of radiological medical image reading: detection of lung abnormalities in multi-slice CT by pigeons (Columba livia)","authors":"Muhammad A. J. Qadri,&nbsp;Reuben R. R. Reyes,&nbsp;Daria Kifjak,&nbsp;Bilal Elkaddouri,&nbsp;Alexander A. Bankier,&nbsp;Max P. Rosen,&nbsp;Gregory J. DiGirolamo","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02048-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02048-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Accurate detection of pathologies like pulmonary lung nodules is critical as they can be a marker of a potential cancerous, life-threatening condition. The detection of such nodules, however, is a difficult visual task requiring extensive radiological training. But, considering this process as a perceptual categorization task generates avenues for using pigeons to understand the underlying visual processes as these birds are experts at categorizing objects and behaviors visually, using a highly flexible and accurate visual cognition. Using a go/no-go paradigm, we presented six pigeons with short movies of CT sections that contained a solid lung nodule (Abnormal) or CT sections without nodules (Normal). Half the pigeons were reinforced for pecking during Abnormal, and the other half during Normal. Pigeons learned to detect the nodules and generalized their discrimination to novel exemplars, indicating the use of implicit visual categorization processes. Critically, this categorization transferred to different, visually distinct abnormalities (emphysema and ground glass nodules). Hence, pigeons can be employed as an animal model for evaluating perceptual processes during abnormality detection and may give insight into novel radiological training optimized by pigeons’ implicit visual cognitive mechanisms instead of explicit didactic instruction.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12909436/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146177385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ecological factors affecting prosociality in marmoset monkeys","authors":"Anand R. Mysorekar,&nbsp;Anushka Vispute,&nbsp;Cory T. Miller","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02049-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02049-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Prosocial behaviors, such as cooperation and food sharing, are critical for maintaining group cohesion in social species, yet the influence of transient physiological states on these behaviors remains poorly understood. This study investigates how short-term ecological factors impact social behavior in common marmosets (<i>Callithrix jacchus</i>), a highly prosocial nonhuman primate species. Specifically, we tested how food divisibility (small vs. large food items) and time since food access (TSFA; 0 h, 1 h, and 3 h) influenced food sharing behavior. Results revealed that larger food portions consistently promoted prosocial interactions, while longer durations since food access shifted behavior toward individualism. No significant interaction effect between TSFA and food size was observed. These findings suggest that marmoset prosociality is sensitive to immediate ecological conditions, reflecting flexible, context-dependent social decision-making.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12909480/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146148773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"‘Unwilling’ vs. ‘Unable’: do domesticated dogs choose partners based on their intentional actions?","authors":"Youjung Choi,&nbsp;Laurie R. Santos","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02045-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02045-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The capacity to understand the intentions of other agents is a useful capacity for all social organisms. Several studies to date have explored whether domesticated dogs (<i>Canis familiaris</i>) share this capacity. Although previous studies show that dogs behave differently toward humans who are unable versus unwilling to share food, it remains unclear whether dogs can use this information to guide broader social decisions such as partner selection. We therefore asked whether dogs would rely on an agent’s intentions—being unable versus unwilling to give food—when choosing whom to approach. In four within-subjects experiments (total <i>N</i> = 86), we gave dogs a choice between two experimenters: an unable experimenter who tried but failed to deliver a reward and an unwilling experimenter who intentionally withheld it. We found that dogs preferred to approach the unable over the unwilling experimenter but only in cases where they were familiarized to the two agents using an asymmetric but predictable reward schedule. Dogs showed no preference for an unable over an unwilling experimenter when given no rewards (Experiment 1), when receiving rewards from both experimenters’ sides (Experiment 2), or when rewards were delivered randomly between the experimenters’ sides (Experiment 4). Dogs showed a clear preference only when a single experimenter’s side was consistently paired with a reward in Experiment 3, regardless of that experimenter’s role. These results suggest that dogs can exploit intention information when choosing social partners, but only under specific motivational contexts.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12886311/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146130974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Simple life, simple minds? How habitat simplification in aquatic ecosystems shape fish cognition","authors":"Annabell Klinke,&nbsp;Culum Brown","doi":"10.1007/s10071-025-02042-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-025-02042-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This narrative review synthesises current knowledge on the effects of habitat complexity, defined as the variation in physical structures within ecosystems, on fish cognition, brain morphology, and personality. Globally, habitat complexity is declining through a process known as habitat simplification, with largely unknown effects on animal cognition. Owing to their remarkable diversity and capacity for neural plasticity, fish provide an ideal model for investigating these cognitive consequences. We first examine how habitat complexity shapes brain structure both between and within species. The results highlight that species from more complex habitats often evolve larger brains and specific brain regions, like the telencephalon and cerebellum, which are crucial for advanced cognitive and motor functions. Conversely, a lack of structural complexity, such as experienced in hatchery environments, can lead to smaller brains in fishes, though this effect can be mitigated by physical environmental enrichment. The paper then explores the impact of habitat complexity on four key areas of fish cognition, i.e., general cognition including simple learning and executive functions, spatial cognition, social cognition, and numeracy. We then propose an intricate three-way interaction between habitat complexity, personality, and cognition, whereby changes in habitat complexity can indirectly alter cognition via changes in personality. The review concludes by identifying areas for future research and warns that the continued simplification of aquatic habitats may pose a significant threat to the cognitive abilities and adaptive capacity of fish in an increasingly altered world.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12876469/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146111914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}