Animal CognitionPub Date : 2024-03-26DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01850-0
Feng-Chun Lin, Pei-Jen Lee Shaner, Ming-Ying Hsieh, Martin J. Whiting, Si-Min Lin
{"title":"Trained quantity discrimination in the invasive red-eared slider and a comparison with the native stripe-necked turtle","authors":"Feng-Chun Lin, Pei-Jen Lee Shaner, Ming-Ying Hsieh, Martin J. Whiting, Si-Min Lin","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01850-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01850-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Little is known about the behavioral and cognitive traits that best predict invasion success. Evidence is mounting that cognitive performance correlates with survival and fecundity, two pivotal factors for the successful establishment of invasive populations. We assessed the quantity discrimination ability of the globally invasive red-eared slider (<i>Trachemys scripta elegans</i>). We further compared it to that of the native stripe-necked turtle (<i>Mauremys sinensis</i>), which has been previously evaluated for its superior quantity discrimination ability. Specifically, our experimental designs aimed to quantify the learning ability as numerosity pairs increased in difficulty (termed fixed numerosity tests), and the immediate response when turtles were presented with varied challenges concurrently in the same tests (termed mixed numerosity tests). Our findings reaffirm the remarkable ability of freshwater turtles to discern numerical differences as close as 9 vs 10 (ratio = 0.9), which was comparable to the stripe-necked turtle’s performance. However, the red-eared slider exhibited a moderate decrease in performance in high ratio tests, indicating a potentially enhanced cognitive capacity to adapt to novel challenges. Our experimental design is repeatable and is adaptable to a range of freshwater turtles. These findings emphasize the potential importance of cognitive research to the underlying mechanisms of successful species invasions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10965720/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140292551","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}
Animal CognitionPub Date : 2024-03-12DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01862-w
Emil Isaksson, Julie Morand-Ferron, Alexis Chaine
{"title":"Environmental harshness does not affect the propensity for social learning in great tits, Parus major","authors":"Emil Isaksson, Julie Morand-Ferron, Alexis Chaine","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01862-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01862-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>According to the harsh environment hypothesis, natural selection should favour cognitive mechanisms to overcome environmental challenges. Tests of this hypothesis to date have largely focused on asocial learning and memory, thus failing to account for the spread of information via social means. Tests in specialized food-hoarding birds have shown strong support for the effects of environmental harshness on both asocial and social learning. Whether the hypothesis applies to non-specialist foraging species remains largely unexplored. We evaluated the relative importance of social learning across a known harshness gradient by testing generalist great tits, <i>Parus major,</i> from high (harsh)- and low (mild)-elevation populations in two social learning tasks. We showed that individuals use social learning to find food in both colour-associative and spatial foraging tasks and that individuals differed consistently in their use of social learning. However, we did not detect a difference in the use or speed of implementing socially observed information across the elevational gradient. Our results do not support predictions of the harsh environment hypothesis suggesting that context-dependent costs and benefits as well as plasticity in the use of social information may play an important role in the use of social learning across environments. Finally, this study adds to the accumulating evidence that the harsh environment hypothesis appears to have more pronounced effects on specialists compared to generalist species.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10927812/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140100897","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}
Animal CognitionPub Date : 2024-03-07DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01836-y
Shambhavi Chidambaram, Sabine Wintergerst, Alex Kacelnik, Vladislav Nachev, York Winter
{"title":"Serial reversal learning in nectar-feeding bats","authors":"Shambhavi Chidambaram, Sabine Wintergerst, Alex Kacelnik, Vladislav Nachev, York Winter","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01836-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01836-y","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We explored the behavioral flexibility of Commissaris’s long-tongued bats through a spatial serial reversal foraging task. Bats kept in captivity for short periods were trained to obtain nectar rewards from two artificial flowers. At any given time, only one of the flowers provided rewards and these reward contingencies reversed in successive blocks of 50 flower visits. All bats detected and responded to reversals by making most of their visits to the currently active flower. As the bats experienced repeated reversals, their preference re-adjusted faster. Although the flower state reversals were theoretically predictable, we did not detect anticipatory behavior, that is, frequency of visits to the alternative flower did not increase within each block as the programmed reversal approached. The net balance of these changes was a progressive improvement in performance in terms of the total proportion of visits allocated to the active flower. The results are compatible with, but do not depend on, the bats displaying an ability to ‘learn to learn’ and show that the dynamics of allocation of effort between food sources can change flexibly according to circumstances.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10920430/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140048618","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}
Animal CognitionPub Date : 2024-03-06DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01853-x
Elizabeth L. Haseltine, Michael J. Beran
{"title":"Maze runners: monkeys show restricted Arabic numeral summation during computerized two-arm maze performance","authors":"Elizabeth L. Haseltine, Michael J. Beran","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01853-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01853-x","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Mazes have been used in many forms to provide compelling results showcasing nonhuman animals’ capacities for spatial navigation, planning, and numerical competence. The current study presented computerized two-arm mazes to four rhesus macaques. Using these mazes, we assessed whether the monkeys could maximize rewards by overcoming mild delays in gratification and sum the values of Arabic numerals. Across four test phases, monkeys used a joystick controller to choose one of two maze arms on the screen. Each maze arm contained zero, one or two Arabic numerals, and any numerals in the chosen maze arm provided the monkeys with rewards equivalent to the value of those numerals. When deciding which arm to enter, monkeys had to consider distance to numerals and numeral value. In some tests, gaining the maximum reward required summing the value of two numerals within a given arm. All four monkeys successfully maximized reward when comparing single numerals and when comparing arms that each contained two numerals. However, some biases occurred that were suboptimal: the largest single numeral and the delay of reward (by placing numerals farther into an arm from the start location) sometimes interfered with the monkeys’ abilities to optimize. These results indicate that monkeys experience difficulties with inhibition toward single, high valence stimuli in tasks where those stimuli must be considered in relation to overall value when represented by symbolic stimuli such as numerals.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10914902/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140038601","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}
Animal CognitionPub Date : 2024-03-05DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01851-z
Lorraine Subias, Noriko Katsu, Kazunori Yamada
{"title":"Metacognition in wild Japanese macaques: cost and stakes influencing information-seeking behavior","authors":"Lorraine Subias, Noriko Katsu, Kazunori Yamada","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01851-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01851-z","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Metacognition allows us to evaluate memories and knowledge, thus enabling us to distinguish between what we know and what we do not. Studies have shown that species other than humans may possess similar abilities. However, the number of species tested was limited. Testing ten free-ranging Japanese macaques (<i>Macaca fuscata</i>) on a task in which they had to find food hidden inside one of the four opaque tubes, we investigated whether these subjects would seek information when needed. The monkeys could look inside the tubes before selecting one. We varied three parameters: the baiting process, the cost that monkeys had to pay to look inside the tubes, and the reward at stake. We assessed whether and how these parameters would affect the monkeys’ tendency to look inside the tube before selecting one. When they were not shown which tube contained the reward, nine monkeys looked significantly more frequently in at least one condition. Half of them tended to reduce their looks when the cost was high, but only when they already knew the location of the reward. When a high-quality reward was at stake, four monkeys tended to look more inside the tubes, even though they already knew the reward’s location. Our results are consistent with those of rhesus macaques, suggesting that metacognitive-like abilities may be shared by Cercopithecidae, and that, at least some monkeys may be aware of their lack of knowledge.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10914859/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140027191","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}
Animal CognitionPub Date : 2024-03-05DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01857-7
Guilherme Ferreira Pagoti, Jerry A. Hogan, Rodrigo Hirata Willemart
{"title":"Habituation to a predatory stimulus in a harvester (Arachnida, Opiliones)","authors":"Guilherme Ferreira Pagoti, Jerry A. Hogan, Rodrigo Hirata Willemart","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01857-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01857-7","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Several studies have investigated habituation in a defensive context, but few have addressed responses to dangerous stimuli. In such cases, animals should not habituate since this could cost their lives. Here we have stimulated individuals of the harvester <i>Mischonyx squalidus</i> with a predatory stimulus (squeezing with tweezers) in repeated trials within and between days, and measured the occurrence and magnitude of nipping, a defensive behavior. Contrary to our expectations, they did habituate to this stimulus. The probability and magnitude of response declined over trials during each of three days of testing in a typical habituation pattern. During the trials we also observed other defensive behaviors. We discuss our results mainly considering alternative defensive responses. Our data show that we lack information on (1) the role played by the ambiguity of stimuli, (2) the role played by subsequent stimuli and (3) the importance of the array of defensive behaviors of a species in understanding habituation. Although ubiquitous across animals and therefore expected, habituation is described for the first time in the order Opiliones.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10914851/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140027190","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":"Do domestic budgerigars perceive predation risk?","authors":"Chang Wang, Xueqi Zhao, Baodan Tao, Jiaqi Peng, Haitao Wang, Jiangping Yu, Longru Jin","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01847-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01847-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Predation risk may affect the foraging behavior of birds. However, there has been little research on the ability of domestic birds to perceive predation risk and thus adjust their feeding behavior. In this study, we tested whether domestic budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) perceived predation risk after the presentation of specimens and sounds of sparrowhawks (Accipiter nisus), domestic cats (Felis catus), and humans, and whether this in turn influenced their feeding behavior. When exposed to visual or acoustic stimuli, budgerigars showed significantly longer latency to feed under sparrowhawk, domestic cat, and human treatments than with controls. Budgerigars responded more strongly to acoustic stimuli than visual stimuli, and they showed the longest latency to feed and the least number of feeding times in response to sparrowhawk calls. Moreover, budgerigars showed shorter latency to feed and greater numbers of feeding times in response to human voices than to sparrowhawk or domestic cat calls. Our results suggest that domestic budgerigars may identify predation risk through visual or acoustic signals and adjust their feeding behavior accordingly.</p>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10907484/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140012048","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}
Animal CognitionPub Date : 2024-03-02DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01837-x
Shi-Jian Fu, Na Zhang, Jie Fan
{"title":"Personality and cognition: shoal size discrimination performance is related to boldness and sociability among ten freshwater fish species.","authors":"Shi-Jian Fu, Na Zhang, Jie Fan","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01837-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01837-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Several studies have reported that animals' personalities are often correlated with individual differences in cognition. Here, we tested whether personality is related to cognition across species, focusing on 10 freshwater fishes and a task relevant for fitness, the ability to discriminate shoal size. Bolder species exhibited more 'shuttle' behavior for information sampling during shoal selection and showed high performance (HP) in the numerical discrimination than shyer species, i.e., low performance (LP) species. Species at both the high and low ends of sociability showed LP, possibly due to loosened selection pressure because of either no need to perform shoal size discrimination tasks frequently in nature for very high sociability species or decreased willingness and motivation to join and stay within shoals for very low sociability species. Notably, the numerical discrimination was sensitive to the numerical contrast ratio in LP species but not in HP species, suggesting that the numerical system used for size discrimination also varied between species. Overall, we demonstrated the interspecies relationship between personality and shoal size discrimination across fish species, suggesting an evolutionary link between numerical abilities and behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10907435/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140011984","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}
Animal CognitionPub Date : 2024-03-02DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01844-y
Eli Shupe
{"title":"The irreconcilability of insight.","authors":"Eli Shupe","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01844-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01844-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We are said to experience insight when we suddenly and unexpectedly become aware of the solution to a problem that we previously took ourselves to be unable to solve. In the field of comparative cognition, there is rising interest in the question of whether non-human animals are capable of insightful problem-solving. Putative cases of animals demonstrating insight have generally attracted two types of criticism: first, that insight is being conflated with other cognitive capacities (e.g., causal cognition, or mental trial and error); and, second, that the relevant performances merely reflect associative learning-and on the received understanding of insight within comparative cognition, insight necessarily involves non-associative processes. I argue that even if we grant that some cases of animal insight do withstand these two criticisms, these cases of purported animal insight cannot shed light on the nature of insightful problem-solving in humans. For the phenomenon studied by cognitive psychologists under the heading of insight is fundamentally different from that studied in comparative cognition. In light of this impasse, I argue that the reinterpretation of the extant research on animal insight in terms of other high-level cognitive capacities (means-end reasoning in particular) can improve the prospect of a successful comparative research program.</p>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10907412/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140011988","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}
Animal CognitionPub Date : 2024-03-02DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01849-7
Federica Amici, Simone Meacci, Emmeline Caray, Linda Oña, Katja Liebal, Paolo Ciucci
{"title":"A first exploratory comparison of the behaviour of wolves (Canis lupus) and wolf-dog hybrids in captivity.","authors":"Federica Amici, Simone Meacci, Emmeline Caray, Linda Oña, Katja Liebal, Paolo Ciucci","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01849-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01849-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Extensive introgression of genes from domesticated taxa may be a serious threat for the genomic integrity and adaptability of wild populations. Grey wolves (Canis lupus) are especially vulnerable to this phenomenon, but there are no studies yet assessing the potential behavioural effects of dog-introgression in wolves. In this study, we conducted a first systematic comparison of admixed (N = 11) and non-admixed (N = 14) wolves in captivity, focusing on their reaction to unfamiliar humans and novel objects, and the cohesiveness of their social groups. When exposed to unfamiliar humans in the experimental task, wolves were more vigilant, fearful and aggressive than admixed wolves, and less likely to approach humans, but also more likely to spend time in human proximity. When exposed to novel objects, wolves were more aggressive than admixed wolves, less likely to spend time in object proximity, and more likely to interact with objects, but also less vigilant and as fearful as admixed wolves. Finally, social networks were more cohesive in wolves than in admixed wolves. Although caution is needed when comparing groups of captive individuals with different life experiences, our study suggests that dog admixture may lead to important behavioural changes in wolves, with possible implications for conservation strategies.</p>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10907477/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140012042","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}