Learning & Behavior最新文献

A new study with cleaner fish demonstrates the need to expand cognitive testing of animals beyond success testing (a simple pass or fail criteria), and instead investigate the signatures of how animals solve tasks. By tailoring traditional cognitive tests to the focal species' natural behaviour, researchers can provide animals with a better chance for demonstrating their cognitive abilities, offering a more comprehensive understanding of the evolution of cognition.

In a recent study, Wasserman, Kain, and O'Donoghue (Current Biology, 33(6), 1112-1116, 2023) set out to resolve the associative learning paradox by showing that pigeons can solve a complex category learning task through associative learning. The present Outlook paper presents their findings, expands on this paradox, and discusses implications of their results.

Solitarily foraging ant species differ in their reliance on their two primary navigational systems- path integration and visual learning. Despite many species of Australian bull ants spending most of their foraging time on their foraging tree, little is known about the use of these systems while climbing. "Rewinding" displacements are commonly used to understand navigational system usage, and work by introducing a mismatch between these navigational systems, by displacing foragers after they have run-down their path integration vector. We used rewinding to test the role of path integration on the arboreal and terrestrial navigation of M. midas. We rewound foragers along either the vertical portion, the ground surface portion, or across both portions of their homing trip. Since rewinding involves repeatedly capturing and releasing foragers, we included a nondisplacement, capture-and-release control, in which the path integration vector is unchanged. We found that rewound foragers do not seem to accumulate path integration vector, although a limited effect of vertical rewinding was found, suggesting a potential higher sensitivity while descending the foraging tree. However, the decrease in navigational efficiency due to capture was larger than the vertical rewinding effect, which along with the negative impact of the vertical surface, and an interaction between capture and rewinding, may suggest aversion rather than path integration caused the vertical rewinding response. Together these results add to the evidence that M. midas makes minimal use of path integration while foraging, and the growing evidence that they are capable of quickly learning from aversive stimulus.

Summary

Heinsohn et al. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 290, 2023.1271, (2023) report that the choice of tool type (drumsticks or seed pods) and the shape of drumsticks manufactured by palm cockatoos differ among individuals. This variation does not seem to be culturally transmitted as no spatial correlation between proximity of display trees and tool shape was found.

A recent paper by Pepperberg, Learning & Behavior, 51, 5–6, (2023) enquires about the validity of the finding that dogs are susceptible to the Kanizsa’s triangle illusion, reported by Lõoke and coauthors (Lõoke et al., Animal Cognition, 25, 43–51, 2022). Here we elaborate on the matter, providing both theoretical considerations and further data, supporting the soundness of our previous conclusions.

Bielecki et al. Current Biology, 33, 4150-4159, (2023) described new behavioral and physiological paradigms to study associative learning and its neural basis in the Cnidaria Tripedalia cystophora. We discuss the relevance of these findings to further our understanding of the intertwined evolution of cognition and the nervous systems.

Is there sufficient evidence to make a decision, or has enough time passed to justify making a decision? According to Ofir and Landau (2022, Current Biology: CB, 32[18], 4093-4100.e6), these two questions are closely related: brain activity measured by EEG at the offset of stimulus presentation predicts the behavioral temporal decision, being influenced by the current context, and reflecting the relative distance to a decision threshold which is also context dependent.

Recursive sequence generation (i.e., the ability to transfer recursive patterns to novel items) was recently reported in crows (Liao et al., 2022, Science Advances, 8[44], eabq3356). Here, we argue that although the reported data are certainly compatible with the recursion hypothesis, they can also be explained by other, much simpler mechanisms of associative learning.

A recent study by Shushruth et al. (2022, Current Biology 32[9], 1949-1960) demonstrated that monkeys postpone evidence accumulation until the relevant motor actions are revealed and then sequentially sample the evidence from memory. Here, we reflect on the insights this work provides into reinforcement learning in evidence accumulation tasks and neural mechanisms for the temporal organization of memory.

During computer-controlled cognitive tasks, chimpanzees often look up at the food dispenser, which activates at the same time as feedback for the correct choice but not for feedback for the incorrect choice. Do these "looking back" behaviors also indicate signs of spontaneous monitoring of their confidence in their choices? To address this question, we delayed the feedback for 1 s after their choice responses and observed their look-back behaviors during the delay period. Two chimpanzees looked up at the food dispenser significantly less frequently when their choice was incorrect (but the feedback was not given) than when it was correct. These look-back behaviors have not been explicitly trained under experimental contexts. Therefore, these results indicate that chimpanzees spontaneously change the frequency of their look-back behaviors in response to the correctness or incorrectness of their own choices, even without external feedback, suggesting that their look-back behaviors may reflect the level of "confidence" or "uncertainty" of their responses immediately before.