Animal Cognition最新文献

{"title":"Nest excavators’ learning walks in the Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti","authors":"Sudhakar Deeti,&nbsp;Donald James McLean,&nbsp;Ken Cheng","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01877-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01877-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The Australian red honey ant, <i>Melophorus bagoti</i>, stands out as the most thermophilic ant in Australia, engaging in all outdoor activities during the hottest periods of the day during summer months. This species of desert ants often navigates by means of path integration and learning landmark cues around the nest. In our study, we observed the outdoor activities of <i>M. bagoti</i> workers engaged in nest excavation, the maintenance of the nest structure, primarily by taking excess sand out of the nest. Before undertaking nest excavation, the ants conducted a single exploratory walk. Following their initial learning expedition, these ants then engaged in nest excavation activities. Consistent with previous findings on pre-foraging learning walks, after just one learning walk, the desert ants in our study demonstrated the ability to return home from locations 2 m away from the nest, although not from locations 4 m away. These findings indicate that even for activities like dumping excavated sand within a range of 5–10 cm outside the nest, these ants learn and utilize the visual landmark panorama around the nest.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11126504/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141092658","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":"In “Tone” with dogs: exploring canine musicality","authors":"Claudia Pinelli,&nbsp;Anna Scandurra,&nbsp;Cristina Giacoma,&nbsp;Alfredo Di Lucrezia,&nbsp;Biagio D’Aniello","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01875-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01875-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study investigates the musical perception skills of dogs through playback experiments. Dogs were trained to distinguish between two different target locations based on a sequence of four ascending or descending notes. A total of 16 dogs of different breeds, age, and sex, but all of them with at least basic training, were recruited for the study. Dogs received training from their respective owners in a suitable environment within their familiar home settings. The training sequence consisted of notes [Do-Mi-Sol#-Do (C7-E7-G7#-C8; Hz frequency: 2093, 2639, 3322, 4186)] digitally generated as pure sinusoidal tones. The training protocol comprised 3 sequential training levels, with each level consisting of 4 sessions with a minimum of 10 trials per session. In the test phase, the sequence was transposed to evaluate whether dogs used relative pitch when identifying the sequences. A correct response by the dog was recorded as 1, while an incorrect response, occurring when the dog chose the opposite zone of the bowl, was marked as 0. Statistical analyses were performed using a binomial test. Among 16 dogs, only two consistently performed above the chance level, demonstrating the ability to recognize relative pitch, even with transposed sequences. This study suggests that dogs may have the ability to attend to relative pitch, a critical aspect of human musicality.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11096221/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140943819","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":"Changes in movement patterns in relation to sun conditions and spatial scales in wild western gorillas","authors":"B. Robira,&nbsp;S. Benhamou,&nbsp;E. Obeki Bayanga,&nbsp;T. Breuer,&nbsp;S. Masi","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01871-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01871-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>For most primates living in tropical forests, food resources occur in patchworks of different habitats that vary seasonally in quality and quantity. Efficient navigation (i.e., spatial memory-based orientation) towards profitable food patches should enhance their foraging success. The mechanisms underpinning primate navigating ability remain nonetheless mostly unknown. Using GPS long-term tracking (596 days) of one group of wild western lowland gorillas (<i>Gorilla gorilla gorilla)</i>, we investigated their ability to navigate at long distances, and tested for how the sun was used to navigate at any scale by improving landmark visibility and/or by acting as a compass. Long episodic movements ending at a distant swamp, a unique place in the home range where gorillas could find mineral-rich aquatic plants, were straighter and faster than their everyday foraging movements relying on spatial memory. This suggests intentional targeting of the swamp based on long-distance navigation skills, which can thus be efficient over a couple of kilometres. Interestingly, for both long-distance movements towards the swamp and everyday foraging movements, gorillas moved straighter under sunlight conditions even under a dense vegetation cover. By contrast, movement straightness was not markedly different when the sun elevation was low (the sun azimuth then being potentially usable as a compass) or high (so providing no directional information) and the sky was clear or overcast. This suggests that gorillas navigate their home range by relying on visual place recognition but do not use the sun azimuth as a compass. Like humans, who rely heavily on vision to navigate, gorillas should benefit from better lighting to help them identify landmarks as they move through shady forests. This study uncovers a neglected aspect of primate navigation. Spatial memory and vision might have played an important role in the evolutionary success of diurnal primate lineages.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-024-01871-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140829715","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":"Hooded crows (Corvus cornix) manufacture objects relative to a mental template","authors":"Anna A. Smirnova,&nbsp;Leia R. Bulgakova,&nbsp;Maria A. Cheplakova,&nbsp;Sarah A. Jelbert","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01874-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01874-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>It was recently found that not only tool-specialized New Caledonian crows, but also Goffin cockatoos can manufacture physical objects in accordance with a mental template. That is, they can emulate features of existing objects when they manufacture new items. Both species spontaneously ripped pieces of card into large strips if they had previously learned that a large template was rewarded, and small strips when they previously learned that a small template was rewarded. Among New Caledonian crows, this cognitive ability was suggested as a potential mechanism underlying the transmission of natural tool designs. Here, we tested for the same ability in another non-specialised tool user–Hooded crows (<i>Corvus cornix</i>). Crows were exposed to pre-made template objects, varying first in colour and then in size, and were rewarded only if they chose pre-made objects that matched the template. In subsequent tests, birds were given the opportunity to manufacture versions of these objects. All three crows ripped paper pieces from the same colour material as the rewarded template, and, crucially, also manufactured objects that were more similar in size to previously rewarded, than unrewarded, templates, despite the birds being rewarded at random in both tests. Therefore, we found the ability to manufacture physical objects relative to a mental template in yet another bird species not specialized in using or making foraging tools in the wild, but with a high level of brain and cognitive development.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-024-01874-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140809688","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":"Proto-tool use for food processing in wild Arabian babblers: matching processing methods, substrates and prey types","authors":"Yitzchak Ben Mocha,&nbsp;Francesca Frisoni,&nbsp;Oded Keynan,&nbsp;Michael Griesser","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01866-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01866-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Cognition is a powerful adaptation, enabling animals to utilise resources that are unavailable without manipulation. Tool use and food processing are examples of using cognition to overcome the protective mechanisms of food resources. Here, we describe and examine the flexibility of proto-tool use (defined as the alteration of an object through object-substrate manipulation) for food processing in a cooperatively breeding bird, the Arabian babbler (<i>Argya squamiceps</i>). Field observations demonstrate that the birds transport different caterpillar species to different substrate types depending on the processing method needed to prepare the caterpillar for eating. Species with toxic setae (e.g. <i>Casama innotata</i>) are transported to be rubbed on rough substrates (e.g. sand) before consumption, while other species (e.g. <i>Hyles livornica</i>) are transported to be pounded against hard substrates until their inner organs are removed and only their external body part is consumed. These results are among the few to describe flexible proto-tool use for food processing in wild animals. They thereby contribute to the taxonomic mapping of proto-tool use and food processing in non-human species, which is a fundamental step to advance comparative studies on the evolution of these behaviours and their underlying cognitive mechanisms.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-024-01866-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140661308","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":"Perception of vocoded speech in domestic dogs","authors":"Amritha Mallikarjun,&nbsp;Emily Shroads,&nbsp;Rochelle S. Newman","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01869-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01869-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Humans have an impressive ability to comprehend signal-degraded speech; however, the extent to which comprehension of degraded speech relies on human-specific features of speech perception vs. more general cognitive processes is unknown. Since dogs live alongside humans and regularly hear speech, they can be used as a model to differentiate between these possibilities. One often-studied type of degraded speech is noise-vocoded speech (sometimes thought of as cochlear-implant-simulation speech). Noise-vocoded speech is made by dividing the speech signal into frequency bands (channels), identifying the amplitude envelope of each individual band, and then using these envelopes to modulate bands of noise centered over the same frequency regions – the result is a signal with preserved temporal cues, but vastly reduced frequency information. Here, we tested dogs’ recognition of familiar words produced in 16-channel vocoded speech. In the first study, dogs heard their names and unfamiliar dogs’ names (foils) in vocoded speech as well as natural speech. In the second study, dogs heard 16-channel vocoded speech only. Dogs listened longer to their vocoded name than vocoded foils in both experiments, showing that they can comprehend a 16-channel vocoded version of their name without prior exposure to vocoded speech, and without immediate exposure to the natural-speech version of their name. Dogs’ name recognition in the second study was mediated by the number of phonemes in the dogs’ name, suggesting that phonological context plays a role in degraded speech comprehension.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-024-01869-3.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140613761","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":"Figure-ground segmentation based on motion in the archerfish","authors":"Svetlana Volotsky,&nbsp;Ronen Segev","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01873-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01873-7","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Figure-ground segmentation is a fundamental process in visual perception that involves separating visual stimuli into distinct meaningful objects and their surrounding context, thus allowing the brain to interpret and understand complex visual scenes. Mammals exhibit varying figure-ground segmentation capabilities, ranging from primates that can perform well on figure-ground segmentation tasks to rodents that perform poorly. To explore figure-ground segmentation capabilities in teleost fish, we studied how the archerfish, an expert visual hunter, performs figure-ground segmentation. We trained archerfish to discriminate foreground objects from the background, where the figures were defined by motion as well as by discontinuities in intensity and texture. Specifically, the figures were defined by grating, naturalistic texture, and random noise moving in counterphase with the background. The archerfish performed the task well and could distinguish between all three types of figures and grounds. Their performance was comparable to that of primates and outperformed rodents. These findings suggest the existence of a complex visual process in the archerfish visual system that enables the delineation of figures as distinct from backgrounds, and provide insights into object recognition in this animal.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-024-01873-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140560448","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":"How to solve novel problems: the role of associative learning in problem-solving performance in wild great tits Parus major","authors":"Laure Cauchard,&nbsp;Pierre Bize,&nbsp;Blandine Doligez","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01872-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01872-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Although problem-solving tasks are frequently used to assess innovative ability, the extent to which problem-solving performance reflects variation in cognitive skills has been rarely formally investigated. Using wild breeding great tits facing a new non-food motivated problem-solving task, we investigated the role of associative learning in finding the solution, compared to multiple other non-cognitive factors. We first examined the role of accuracy (the proportion of contacts made with the opening part of a string-pulling task), neophobia, exploration, activity, age, sex, body condition and participation time on the ability to solve the task. To highlight the effect of associative learning, we then compared accuracy between solvers and non-solvers, before and after the first cue to the solution (i.e., the first time they pulled the string opening the door). We finally compared accuracy over consecutive entrances for solvers. Using 884 observations from 788 great tits tested from 2010 to 2015, we showed that, prior to initial successful entrance, solvers were more accurate and more explorative than non-solvers, and that females were more likely to solve the task than males. The accuracy of solvers, but not of non-solvers, increased significantly after they had the opportunity to associate string pulling with the movement of the door, giving them a first cue to the task solution. The accuracy of solvers also increased over successive entrances. Our results demonstrate that variations in problem-solving performance primarily reflect inherent individual differences in associative learning, and are also to a lesser extent shaped by sex and exploratory behaviour.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-024-01872-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140560372","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":"Social demonstration of colour preference improves the learning of associated demonstrated actions","authors":"Noam Zurek,&nbsp;Na’ama Aljadeff,&nbsp;Donya Khoury,&nbsp;Lucy M. Aplin,&nbsp;Arnon Lotem","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01865-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01865-7","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We studied how different types of social demonstration improve house sparrows' (<i>Passer domesticus</i>) success in solving a foraging task that requires both operant learning (opening covers) and discrimination learning (preferring covers of the rewarding colour). We provided learners with either paired demonstration (of both cover opening and colour preference), action-only demonstration (of opening white covers only), or no demonstration (a companion bird eating without covers). We found that sparrows failed to learn the two tasks with no demonstration, and learned them best with a paired demonstration. Interestingly, the action of cover opening was learned faster with paired rather than action-only demonstration despite being equally demonstrated in both. We also found that only with paired demonstration, the speed of operant (action) learning was related to the demonstrator’s level of activity. Colour preference (i.e. discrimination learning) was eventually acquired by all sparrows that learned to open covers, even without social demonstration of colour preference. Thus, adding a demonstration of colour preference was actually more important for operant learning, possibly as a result of increasing the similarity between the demonstrated and the learned tasks, thereby increasing the learner’s attention to the actions of the demonstrator. Giving more attention to individuals in similar settings may be an adaptive strategy directing social learners to focus on ecologically relevant behaviours and on tasks that are likely to be learned successfully.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-024-01865-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140560773","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":"No evidence tube entrapment distresses rodents in typical empathy tests","authors":"Dwi Atmoko Agung Nugroho,&nbsp;Sri Kusrohmaniah,&nbsp;Emma Pilz,&nbsp;Clare Krikorian,&nbsp;David Kearns,&nbsp;Burton Slotnick,&nbsp;Maria Gomez,&nbsp;Alan Silberberg","doi":"10.1007/s10071-024-01863-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-024-01863-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In the first two experiments an empty tube open at one end was placed in different locations. Male hamsters, tested one at a time, tended to stay close to the tube or in it. During the first minute of the first 4 sessions of Experiment 3, the hamster was unrestrained. If it entered the tube, it was locked within the tube. If it did not enter the tube during the first min, it was placed in it, and the tube was locked. Fifteen min later, the tube was opened, and the hamster was unrestrained for a further 20 min. The tube remained open during Session 5. Hamsters spent more time near the tube than predicted by chance and continued to enter the tube although tube-occupancy duration did not differ from chance levels. In Experiment 4, male rats were tested in two groups: rats in one group had been previously trapped in a tube and rats in the other group allowed to freely explore the test space. For the first two min of each of four 20-min sessions, trapped-group subjects were permitted to move about the chamber unless they entered the tube. In that case, they were locked in for the remainder of the session. If, after two min, they did not enter the tube, they were locked in it for the remaining 18 min. Free rats were unrestricted in all sessions. In Session 5, when both groups were permitted to move freely in the chamber, trapped and free rats spent more time in and near the tube than predicted by chance. These data show tube restraint does not seem to distress either hamsters or rats.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10984888/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140334443","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}