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Articles 61 - 90 of 129
Full-Text Articles in Other Animal Sciences
Constructive And Deconstructive Tool Modification By Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Amanda E. Bania, Stephany Harris, Hannah R. Kinsley, Sarah T. Boysen
Constructive And Deconstructive Tool Modification By Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Amanda E. Bania, Stephany Harris, Hannah R. Kinsley, Sarah T. Boysen
Sentience Collection
Nine chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) were tested for their ability to assemble or disassemble the appropriate tool to obtain a food reward from two different apparatus. In its deconstructed form, the tool functioned as a probe for one apparatus. In its constructed form, the tool functioned as a hook, appropriate for a second apparatus. Each subject completed four test trials with each apparatus type. Tool types were randomized and counter-balanced between the two forms. Results demonstrated that adult and juvenile chimpanzees (N = 7) were successful with both tool types, while two infant chimpanzees performed near chance. Off-line video analyses revealed …
It's In Your Nature: A Pluralistic Folk Psychology, Kristin Andrews
It's In Your Nature: A Pluralistic Folk Psychology, Kristin Andrews
Sentience Collection
I suggest a pluralistic account of folk psychology according to which not all predictions or explanations rely on the attribution of mental states, and not all intentional actions are explained by mental states. This view of folk psychology is supported by research in developmental and social psychology. It is well known that people use personality traits to predict behavior. I argue that trait attribution is not shorthand for mental state attributions, since traits are not identical to beliefs or desires, and an understanding of belief or desire is not necessary for using trait attributions. In addition, we sometimes predict and …
Behavioural Analysis Of A Nociceptive Event In Fish: Comparisons Between Three Species Demonstrate Specific Responses, Siobhan C. Reilly, John P. Quinn, Andrew R. Cossins, Lynne U. Sneddon
Behavioural Analysis Of A Nociceptive Event In Fish: Comparisons Between Three Species Demonstrate Specific Responses, Siobhan C. Reilly, John P. Quinn, Andrew R. Cossins, Lynne U. Sneddon
Sentience Collection
Nociception is the sensory mechanism by which potentially harmful stimuli are detected in animals and humans. The behavioural responses to noxious stimulation have been studied in two fish species thus far. However, since species-specific differences are seen in mammals, more species need to be examined to determine whether nociceptive responses are generic in fish. The present study investigated the behavioural and respiratory response to an acute noxious or potentially painful stimulus in common carp (Cyprinus carpio), zebrafish (Danio rerio) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Behavioural parameters such as frequency of swimming, use of cover and any anomalous behaviour were measured …
Visual Attention And Its Relation To Knowledge States In Chimpanzees, Pan Troglodytes, Megan J. Bulloch, Sarah T. Boysen, Ellen E. Furlong
Visual Attention And Its Relation To Knowledge States In Chimpanzees, Pan Troglodytes, Megan J. Bulloch, Sarah T. Boysen, Ellen E. Furlong
Sentience Collection
Primates rely on visual attention to gather knowledge about their environment. The ability to recognize such knowledge-acquisition activity in another may demonstrate one aspect of Theory of Mind. Using a series of experiments in which chimpanzees were presented with a choice between an experimenter whose visual attention was available and another whose vision was occluded, we asked whether chimpanzees understood the relationship between visual attention and knowledge states. The animals showed sophisticated understanding of attention from the first presentation of each task. Under more complex experimental conditions, the subjects had more difficulty with species-typical processing of attentional cues and those …
Processing Of The Müller-Lyer Illusion By A Grey Parrot (Psittacus Erithacus), Irene M. Pepperberg, Jennifer Vicinay, Patrick Cavanagh
Processing Of The Müller-Lyer Illusion By A Grey Parrot (Psittacus Erithacus), Irene M. Pepperberg, Jennifer Vicinay, Patrick Cavanagh
Sentience Collection
Alex, a Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) who identifies the bigger or smaller of two objects by reporting its color or matter using a vocal English label and who states "none'' if they do not differ in size, was presented with two-dimensional Müller-Lyer figures (Brentano form) in which the central lines were of contrasting colors. His responses to ``What color bigger/smaller?'' demonstrated that he saw the standard length illusion in the Müller-Lyer figures in 32 of 50 tests where human observers would also see the illusion and reported the reverse direction only twice. He did not report the illusion when (a) …
Heritable And Experiential Effects On Boldness In A Tropical Poeciliid, Culum Brown, Fiona Burgess, Victoria Braithwaite
Heritable And Experiential Effects On Boldness In A Tropical Poeciliid, Culum Brown, Fiona Burgess, Victoria Braithwaite
Sentience Collection
Consistent differences in human behaviour are often explained with reference to personality traits. Recent evidence suggests that similar traits are widespread across the entire animal kingdom and that they may have substantial fitness consequences. One of the major components of personality is the shyness–boldness continuum. Little is known about the relative contributions of genes and the environment in the development of boldness in wild animal populations. Here, we bred wild-caught fish (Brachyraphis episcopi) collected from regions of highand low-predation pressure, reared their offspring in the laboratory under varying conditions and tested boldness utilising an open-field paradigm. First-generation laboratory-reared fish showed …
Correlation Between Boldness And Body Mass In Natural Populations Of The Poeciliid Brachyrhaphis Episcopi, C. Brown, F. Jones, V. Braithwaite
Correlation Between Boldness And Body Mass In Natural Populations Of The Poeciliid Brachyrhaphis Episcopi, C. Brown, F. Jones, V. Braithwaite
Sentience Collection
The boldness of individual Brachyrhaphis episcopi, collected from regions of high and low predation, was investigated using two independent assays: (1) the time to emerge from cover and (2) the propensity to leave shoal mates and investigate a novel object. A strong correlation between the two assays was revealed such that fish that emerged from shelter sooner were also more likely to approach a novel object. This is indicative of a boldness personality axis acting across both behavioural contexts. Fish from high-predation areas were bolder than those from low-predation areas and males were bolder than females. A significant correlation between …
Animal Mind: Science, Philosophy, And Ethics, Bernard E. Rollin
Animal Mind: Science, Philosophy, And Ethics, Bernard E. Rollin
Sentience Collection
Although 20th-century empiricists were agnostic about animal mind and consciousness, this was not the case for their historical ancestors – John Locke, David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and, of course, Charles Darwin and George John Romanes. Given the dominance of the Darwinian paradigm of evolutionary continuity, one would not expect belief in animal mind to disappear. That it did demonstrates that standard accounts of how scientific hypotheses are overturned – i.e., by empirical disconfirmation or by exposure of logical flaws – is inadequate. In fact, it can be demonstrated that belief in animal mind disappeared as a result …
Animal Minds, Cognitive Ethology, And Ethics, Colin Allen, Marc Bekoff
Animal Minds, Cognitive Ethology, And Ethics, Colin Allen, Marc Bekoff
Sentience Collection
Our goal in this paper is to provide enough of an account of the origins of cognitive ethology and the controversy surrounding it to help ethicists to gauge for themselves how to balance skepticism and credulity about animal minds when communicating with scientists. We believe that ethicists’ arguments would benefit from better understanding of the historical roots of ongoing controversies. It is not appropriate to treat some widely reported results in animal cognition as if their interpretations are a matter of scientific consensus. It is especially important to understand why loose references to ‘‘cognitive ethology’’ by philosophers can signal ignorance …
Grey Parrots Do Not Always ‘Parrot’: The Roles Of Imitation And Phonological Awareness In The Creation Of New Labels From Existing Vocalizations, Irene M. Pepperberg
Grey Parrots Do Not Always ‘Parrot’: The Roles Of Imitation And Phonological Awareness In The Creation Of New Labels From Existing Vocalizations, Irene M. Pepperberg
Sentience Collection
Evidence exists for a form of imitation, vocal segmentation, by a Grey parrot. Data show that the bird understands that his labels are comprised of individual units that can be recombined in novel ways to create a novel referential vocalization; that is, a novel act. Previous data suggested, but could not substantiate, this behaviour. Such evidence implies that a parrot not only has phonological awareness but also demonstrates true imitation rather than mimicry, and has implications for the studies of both the evolution of communicative competence and the development of robotic speech.
Aquatic Animals, Cognitive Ethology, And Ethics: Questions About Sentience And Other Troubling Issues That Lurk In Turbid Water, Marc Bekoff
Sentience Collection
In this general, strongly pro-animal, and somewhat utopian and personal essay, I argue that we owe aquatic animals respect and moral consideration just as we owe respect and moral consideration to all other animal beings, regardless of the taxonomic group to which they belong. In many ways it is more difficult to convince some people of our ethical obligations to numerous aquatic animals because we do not identify or empathize with them as we do with animals with whom we are more familiar or to whom we are more closely related, including those species (usually terrestrial) to whom we refer …
The Changing Concept Of Animal Sentience, Ian J. H. Duncan
The Changing Concept Of Animal Sentience, Ian J. H. Duncan
Sentience Collection
A brief history of the concept of sentience is given. It is pointed out that the idea of sentience, at least in the mammals and birds, was accepted by lay people by the time of the Renaissance and before it was acknowledged by philosophers. It was not until the Enlightenment of the 18th century that philosophers started to accept the notion that animals have feelings. Towards the end of the 19th century, scientists and philosophers had developed a fairly sophisticated concept of sentience. Little consideration was given to sentience by scientists through much of the 20th century due to the …
Ordinality And Inferential Abilities Of A Grey Parrot (Psittacus Erithacus), Irene M. Pepperberg
Ordinality And Inferential Abilities Of A Grey Parrot (Psittacus Erithacus), Irene M. Pepperberg
Sentience Collection
A grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus), able to label the color of the bigger or smaller object in a pair (I. M. Pepperberg & M. V. Brezinsky, 1991), to vocally quantify ≤6 item sets (including heterogeneous subsets; I. M. Pepperberg, 1994), and separately trained to identify Arabic numerals 1–6 with the same vocal English labels but not to associate Arabic numbers with their relevant physical quantities, was shown pairs of Arabic numbers or an Arabic numeral and a set of objects and was asked for the color of the bigger or smaller one. The parrot’s success showed he (a) understood number …
Grey Parrot (Psittacus Erithacus) Numerical Abilities: Addition And Further Experiments On A Zero-Like Concept, Irene M. Pepperberg
Grey Parrot (Psittacus Erithacus) Numerical Abilities: Addition And Further Experiments On A Zero-Like Concept, Irene M. Pepperberg
Sentience Collection
A Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus), able to quantify 6 or fewer item sets (including heterogeneous subsets) by using English labels (I. M. Pepperberg, 1994), was tested on addition of quantities involving 0–6. He was, without explicit training, asked, “How many total X?” for 2 sequentially presented collections (e.g., of variously sized jelly beans or nuts) and required to answer with a vocal English number label. His accuracy suggested (a) that his addition abilities are comparable to those of nonhuman primates and young children, (b) some limits as to his correlation of “none” and the concept of zero, and (c) a …
Exploration And Habituation In Intact Free Moving Octopus Vulgaris, Jennifer Mather
Exploration And Habituation In Intact Free Moving Octopus Vulgaris, Jennifer Mather
Sentience Collection
Despite the huge numbers of studies published on the learning of cephalopod mollusks, studies on non-associative learning are scarce. We tested non-associative learning (habituation) and exploration in Octopus vulgaris in two different studies using a prey-shaped object (Study A) and inanimate objects and food objects (Study B). Study A consisted of the repeated presentation of a prey-like stimulus, which 23 subjects could only explore visually. In study B, 14 octopuses were presented two Lego blocks (one black and white with a smooth surface, one a blue "snowflake" with a rough surface) and two food items, one preferred (clams) and one …
Chimpanzee Theory Of Mind: Looking In All The Wrong Places?, Kristin Andrews
Chimpanzee Theory Of Mind: Looking In All The Wrong Places?, Kristin Andrews
Sentience Collection
I respond to an argument presented by Daniel Povinelli and Jennifer Vonk that the current generation of experiments on chimpanzee theory of mind cannot decide whether chimpanzees have the ability to reason about mental states. I argue that Povinelli and Vonk’s proposed experiment is subject to their own criticisms and that there should be a more radical shift away from experiments that ask subjects to predict behavior. Further, I argue that Povinelli and Vonk’s theoretical commitments should lead them to accept this new approach, and that experiments which offer subjects the opportunity to look for explanations for anomalous behavior should …
In Situ Examination Of Boldness–Shyness Traits In The Tropical Poeciliid, Brachyraphis Episcopi, Culum Brown, Felicity Jones, Victoria Braithwaite
In Situ Examination Of Boldness–Shyness Traits In The Tropical Poeciliid, Brachyraphis Episcopi, Culum Brown, Felicity Jones, Victoria Braithwaite
Sentience Collection
Explaining consistent variation in the behaviour of individuals in terms of personality differences is one of the cornerstones of understanding human behaviour but is seldom discussed in behavioural ecology for fear of invoking anthropomorphism. Recently, however, interest has begun to focus on identifying personality traits in animals and examining their possible evolutionary consequences. One major axis used to define personality traits is the shyness–boldness continuum. We examined boldness in an in situ experiment using fish from eight populations of the poeciliid Brachyraphis episcopi (also referred to as Brachyrhaphis episcopi). Fish from high- and low-predation regions within four streams that run …
Number Comprehension By A Grey Parrot (Psittacus Erithacus), Including A Zero-Like Concept, Irene M. Pepperberg, Jesse D. Gordon
Number Comprehension By A Grey Parrot (Psittacus Erithacus), Including A Zero-Like Concept, Irene M. Pepperberg, Jesse D. Gordon
Sentience Collection
A Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) that was able to quantify 6 item sets (including subsets of heterogeneous groups, e.g., blue blocks within groupings of blue and green blocks and balls) using English labels (I. M. Pepperberg, 1994a) was tested on comprehension of these labels, which is crucial for numerical competence (K. C. Fuson, 1988). He was, without training, asked “What color/object [number]?” for collections of various simultaneously presented quantities (e.g., subsets of 4, 5, and 6 blocks of 3 different colors; subsets of 2, 4, and 6 keys, corks, and sticks). Accuracy was greater than 80% and was unaffected by …
Effects Of Predation Pressure On The Cognitive Ability Of The Poeciliid Brachyraphis Episcopi, Culum Brown, Victoria A. Braithwaite
Effects Of Predation Pressure On The Cognitive Ability Of The Poeciliid Brachyraphis Episcopi, Culum Brown, Victoria A. Braithwaite
Sentience Collection
Variable levels of predation pressure are known to have significant impacts on the evolutionary ecology of different populations and can affect life-history traits, behavior, and morphology. To date, no studies have directly investigated the impact of predation pressure on cognitive ability. Here we use a system of replicate rivers, each with sites of high- and low-predation pressure, to investigate how this ecological variable affects learning ability in a tropical poeciliid, Brachyraphis episcopi. We used a spatial task to assess the cognitive ability of eight populations from four independent streams (four high- and four low- predation populations). The fish were required …
Size Matters: A Test Of Boldness In Eight Populations Of The Poeciliid Brachyraphis Episcopi, Culum Brown, Victoria Braithwaite
Size Matters: A Test Of Boldness In Eight Populations Of The Poeciliid Brachyraphis Episcopi, Culum Brown, Victoria Braithwaite
Sentience Collection
Individual variation in behaviour within populations may be explained in part by demographics and long-term, stable individual psychological differences. We examined the relation between boldness (taken as the time to emerge from a shelter and explore a novel environment) and body size in eight populations of the poeciliid Brachyraphis episcopi originating from sites upstream and downstream of waterfalls in four rivers that run into the Panama Canal. The relation between body size and time to emerge from a shelter was positive, with larger fish taking longer to emerge. This relation differed between downstream and upstream sites, being significant in the …
Reflections On Animal Selves, Marc Bekoff, Paul W. Sherman
Reflections On Animal Selves, Marc Bekoff, Paul W. Sherman
Sentience Collection
Is self-cognizance a uniquely human attribute, or do other animals also have a sense of self? Although there is considerable interest in this question, answers remain elusive. Progress has been stymied by misunderstandings in terminology, a focus on a narrow range of species, and controversies over key concepts, experimental paradigms and interpretations of data. Here, we propose a new conceptual and terminological framework, emphasizing that degrees of self-cognizance differ among animals because of the cognitive demands that their species-specific social structures and life-history characteristics have placed upon them over evolutionary time. We suggest that the self-cognizance of an organism falls …
Considering Animals—Not “Higher” Primates, Marc Bekoff
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, …
Social Learning Of A Novel Avoidance Task In The Guppy: Conformity And Social Release, Culum Brown, Kevin N. Laland
Social Learning Of A Novel Avoidance Task In The Guppy: Conformity And Social Release, Culum Brown, Kevin N. Laland
Sentience Collection
Studies of social learning suggest that many animals are disproportionately likely to adopt the behavior of the majority, and that this conformist transmission hinders the spread of novel behavioural variants. However, novel learned behaviour patterns regularly diffuse through animal populations. We propose a hypothesis, termed the ‘social release hypothesis’, that resolves these apparently conflicting findings by suggesting that animals are released from conforming to traditional behaviour in the absence of demonstrators. We investigated the role of pretrained, female demonstrator guppies, Poecilia reticulata, in influencing the escape response of untrained females to an artificial predator. Naïve ‘observer’ guppies were given the …
Convergence Of Complex Cognitive Abilities In Cetaceans And Primates, Lori Marino
Convergence Of Complex Cognitive Abilities In Cetaceans And Primates, Lori Marino
Sentience Collection
What examples of convergence in higher-level complex cognitive characteristics exist in the animal kingdom? In this paper I will provide evidence that convergent intelligence has occurred in two distantly related mammalian taxa. One of these is the order Cetacea (dolphins, whales and porpoises) and the other is our own order Primates, and in particular the suborder anthropoid primates (monkeys, apes, and humans). Despite a deep evolutionary divergence, adaptation to physically dissimilar environments, and very different neuroanatomical organization, some primates and cetaceans show striking convergence in social behavior, artificial ‘language’ comprehension, and self-recognition ability. Taken together, these findings have important implications …
Cognitive And Communicative Abilities Of Grey Parrots, Irene M. Pepperberg
Cognitive And Communicative Abilities Of Grey Parrots, Irene M. Pepperberg
Sentience Collection
Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) solve various cognitive tasks and acquire and use English speech in ways that often resemble those of very young children. Given that the psittacine brain is organized very differently from that of mammals, these results have intriguing implications for the study and evolution of vocal learning, communication, and cognition.
Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) Recognize Spatial And Object Correspondences Between A Scale Model And Its Referent, Valerie A. Kuhlmeier, Sarah T. Boysen
Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) Recognize Spatial And Object Correspondences Between A Scale Model And Its Referent, Valerie A. Kuhlmeier, Sarah T. Boysen
Sentience Collection
In the present study, the contributions of spatial and object features to chimpanzees’ comprehension of scale models were examined. Seven chimpanzees that previously demonstrated the ability to use a scale model as an information source for the location of a hidden item were tested under conditions manipulating the feature correspondence and spatial-relational correspondence between objects in the model and an outdoor enclosure. In Experiment 1, subjects solved the task under two conditions in which one object cue (color or shape) was unavailable, but positional cues remained. Additionally, performance was above chance under a third condition in which both types of …
In Search Of King Solomon’S Ring: Cognitive And Communicative Studies Of Grey Parrots (Psittacus Erithacus), Irene M. Pepperberg
In Search Of King Solomon’S Ring: Cognitive And Communicative Studies Of Grey Parrots (Psittacus Erithacus), Irene M. Pepperberg
Sentience Collection
During the past 24 years, I have used a modeling technique (M/R procedure) to train Grey parrots to use an allospecific code (English speech) referentially; I then use the code to test their cognitive abilities. The oldest bird, Alex, labels more than 50 different objects, 7 colors, 5 shapes, quantities to 6, 3 categories (color, shape, material) and uses ‘no’, ‘come here’, wanna go X’ and ‘want Y’ (X and Y are appropriate location or item labels). He combines labels to identify, request, comment upon or refuse more than 100 items and to alter his environment. He processes queries to …
Familiarity With The Test Environment Improves Escape Responses In The Crimson Spotted Rainbowfish, Melanotaenia Duboulayi, Culum Brown
Sentience Collection
Animals that are familiar with their environment have been reported to have greater survivorship for a number of reasons related to their knowledge of the terrain, which they recall from memory. In an initial experiment rainbowfish significantly improved their escape response towards a novel trawl apparatus over a sequence of five runs. Escape latencies were still low during a subsequent exposure 11 months after the initial exposure. While part of the improvement in escape success was certainly due to learning associated with the location of the escape route, it is likely that this was aided by habituation to the tank …
The Effect Of Response Contingencies On Scale Model Task Performance By Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Valerie A. Kuhlmeier, Sarah T. Boysen
The Effect Of Response Contingencies On Scale Model Task Performance By Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Valerie A. Kuhlmeier, Sarah T. Boysen
Sentience Collection
The effects of modified procedures on chimpanzees' (Pan troglodytes) performance in a scale model comprehension task were examined. Seven chimpanzees that previously participated in a task in which they searched an enclosure for a hidden item after watching an experimenter hide a miniature item in the analogous location in a scale model were retested under procedures incorporating response costs. In Experiment 1, chimpanzees were trained under procedures that rewarded only item retrievals occurring on the 1st search attempt. During test trials, 6 chimpanzees performed above chance, including 4 that were previously unsuccessful under the original procedures (V. A. Kuhlmeier, S. …
Mirror Self-Recognition In The Bottlenose Dolphin: A Case Of Cognitive Convergence, Diana Reiss, Lori Marino
Mirror Self-Recognition In The Bottlenose Dolphin: A Case Of Cognitive Convergence, Diana Reiss, Lori Marino
Sentience Collection
The ability to recognize oneself in a mirror is an exceedingly rare capacity in the animal kingdom. To date, only humans and great apes have shown convincing evidence of mirror self-recognition. Two dolphins were exposed to reflective surfaces, and both demonstrated responses consistent with the use of the mirror to investigate marked parts of the body. This ability to use a mirror to inspect parts of the body is a striking example of evolutionary convergence with great apes and humans.