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Comparative Psychology Commons

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Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Comparative Psychology

Environmental Enrichment And Prior Experience Of Live Prey Improve Foraging Behaviour In Hatchery-Reared Atlantic Salmon, C. Brown, T. Davidson, K. Laland Dec 2003

Environmental Enrichment And Prior Experience Of Live Prey Improve Foraging Behaviour In Hatchery-Reared Atlantic Salmon, C. Brown, T. Davidson, K. Laland

Aquaculture Collection

Atlantic salmon salmo salar L. parr were reared for 3 months under standard hatchery conditions or in a structurally enriched tank (containing plants, rocks and novel objects). Half of each of these fish had prior exposure to live prey in the form of live bloodworm while the other half were fed hatchery-pellets. After 12 days all fish were tested on a novel live prey item (brine shrimp). A significant interaction between the two factors (prior exposure to live prey and rearing condition) revealed that foraging performance was only enhanced in fish that had been reared in a complex environment and …


Novel Object Test: Examining Nociception And Fear In The Rainbow Trout, Lynne U. Sneddon, Victoria A. Braithwaite, Michael J. Gentle Oct 2003

Novel Object Test: Examining Nociception And Fear In The Rainbow Trout, Lynne U. Sneddon, Victoria A. Braithwaite, Michael J. Gentle

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

This study aimed to assess fear responses to a novel object while experiencing a noxious event to determine whether nociception or fear will dominate attention in a fish in novel object testing paradigm. This experimentally tractable animal model was used to investigate (1) the degree of neophobia to a novel object while experiencing noxious stimulation, (2) the response of the fish after removing the fear-causing event by using a familiar object, and (3) the effects of removing the nociceptive response by morphine administration and examining the response to a novel object. Control animals displayed a classic fear response to the …


Social Learning Of Prey Location In Hatchery-Reared Atlantic Salmon, C. Brown, A. Markula, K. Laland Sep 2003

Social Learning Of Prey Location In Hatchery-Reared Atlantic Salmon, C. Brown, A. Markula, K. Laland

Aquaculture Collection

Naïve, hatchery-reared Atlantic salmon Salmo salar parr were paired with demonstrators that had been pre-trained to accept live prey from the surface or from the benthos. After 6 days of observing demonstrators through a clear perspex partition the naïve fish’s benthic foraging skills were tested. The results revealed that hatchery-reared Atlantic salmon can be taught to target benthic prey items by observation alone and social learning protocols can be utilized to dramatically increase benthic foraging success. The results are discussed with reference to refining hatchery-rearing practices with a view to improving the post-release survival of hatchery fishes. The role of …


Habitat-Predator Association And Avoidance In Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia Spp.), Culum Brown Jun 2003

Habitat-Predator Association And Avoidance In Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia Spp.), Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

The ability to recall the location of a predator and later avoid it was tested in nine populations of rainbowfish (Melanotaenia spp.), representing three species from a variety of environments. Following the introduction of a model predator into a particular microhabitat, the model was removed, the arena rotated and the distribution of the fish recorded again. In this manner it could be determined what cues the fish relied on in order to recall the previous location of the predator model. Fish from all populations but one (Dirran Creek) were capable of avoiding the predator by remembering either the location and/or …


Considering Animals—Not “Higher” Primates, Marc Bekoff Jun 2003

Considering Animals—Not “Higher” Primates, Marc Bekoff

Sentience Collection

In this essay I argue that many nonhuman animal beings are conscious and have some sense of self. Rather than ask whether they are conscious, I adopt an evolutionary perspective and ask why consciousness and a sense of self evolved—what are they good for? Comparative studies of animal cognition, ethological investigations that explore what it is like to be a certain animal, are useful for answering this question. Charles Darwin argued that the differences in cognitive abilities and emotions among animals are differences in degree rather than differences in kind, and his view cautions against the unyielding claim that humans, …


A Simple Reason For A Big Difference: Wolves Do Not Look Back At Humans, But Dogs Do, Ádám Miklósi, Eniko Kubinyi, József Topál, Márta Gácsi, Zsófia Virányi, Vilmos Csányi Apr 2003

A Simple Reason For A Big Difference: Wolves Do Not Look Back At Humans, But Dogs Do, Ádám Miklósi, Eniko Kubinyi, József Topál, Márta Gácsi, Zsófia Virányi, Vilmos Csányi

Communication Skills Collection

The present investigations were undertaken to compare interspecific communicative abilities of dogs and wolves, which were socialized to humans at comparable levels. The first study demonstrated that socialized wolves were able to locate the place of hidden food indicated by the touching and, to some extent, pointing cues provided by the familiar human experimenter, but their performance remained inferior to that of dogs. In the second study, we have found that, after undergoing training to solve a simple manipulation task, dogs that are faced with an insoluble version of the same problem look/gaze at the human, while socialized wolves do …


The Bold And The Shy: Individual Differences In Rainbow Trout, L. U. Sneddon Apr 2003

The Bold And The Shy: Individual Differences In Rainbow Trout, L. U. Sneddon

Aquaculture Collection

Boldness and shyness were investigated as ‘personality’ traits in hatchery-reared rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss. Bold fish spent more time in an open area and were more active than shy fish and these behaviours could be used as indicators of boldness and shyness. These differences were related to learning ability in a simple conditioning task. Bold fish learned the task more quickly than shy fish.


Play And The Evolution Of Fairness: A Game Theory Model, Lee Alan Dugatkin, Marc Bekoff Jan 2003

Play And The Evolution Of Fairness: A Game Theory Model, Lee Alan Dugatkin, Marc Bekoff

Ethology Collection

Bekoff [J. Consci. Stud. 8 (2001) 81] argued that mammalian social play is a useful behavioral phenotype on which to concentrate in order to learn more about the evolution of fairness. Here, we build a game theoretical model designed to formalize some of the ideas laid out by Bekoff, and to examine whether ‘fair’ strategies can in fact be evolutionarily stable. The models we present examine fairness at two different developmental stages during an individual’s ontogeny, and hence we create four strategies--fair at time 1/fair at time 2, not fair at time 1/not fair at time 2, fair at time …


Minding Animals, Minding Earth: Science, Nature, Kinship, And Heart, Marc Bekoff Jan 2003

Minding Animals, Minding Earth: Science, Nature, Kinship, And Heart, Marc Bekoff

Sentience Collection

This paper emphasizes the importance of broadening behavioral, ecological, and conservation science into a more integrative, interdisciplinary, socially responsible, compassionate, spiritual, and holistic endeavor.2,3 I will stress the significance of studies of animal behavior, especially ethological research concerned with animal emotions, in which individuals are named and recognized for their own personalities and temperaments, for helping us not only to learn about the nonhuman animal beings (hereafter animals) with whom we share Earth, but also for learning about who we are, our place in Nature, our humanness. We can be best understood in relationship to others. I will also develop …