Journal of Comparative Psychology最新文献

Understanding conspecifics' age classes is crucial for animals, facilitating adaptive behavioral responses to their social environment. This may include gathering and integrating information through multiple modalities. Using a cross-modal preferential-looking paradigm, we investigated whether dogs possess a cross-modal mental representation of conspecific age classes. In Experiment 1, dogs were presented with images of an adult dog and a puppy projected side by side on a wall while a vocalization of either an adult dog or a puppy was played back simultaneously. To test the effect of relative body size between adult dog and puppy images, two size conditions (natural size and same size) were employed for visual stimuli. We examined dogs' looking behavior in response to cross-modally matched versus mismatched stimuli. We predicted that if dogs have cross-modal representations of age classes, they would exhibit prolonged attention toward matched images compared to mismatched ones. In Experiment 2, we administered the same paradigm within an eye-tracking experiment to further improve the measurement quality of dogs' looking times. However, dogs' looking times in either experiment did not demonstrate significant differences based on the match or mismatch between image and vocalization. Instead, we observed a size effect, indicating dogs' increased attention toward larger adult dog images compared to smaller puppy images. Consequently, we found no evidence of cross-modal representation of age class in dogs. Nonetheless, we found increased looking time and pupil size upon hearing puppy vocalizations compared to adult vocalizations in Experiment 2, suggesting that dogs exhibited heightened arousal when hearing puppy whining. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Many parrot species exhibit a high degree of limb lateralization on both the individual and species levels. In particular, the members of the cockatoo family are left-footed for food-holding at proportions reminiscent of right-handedness in humans. Here, we examine the limb lateralization of the Goffin's cockatoo (Cacatua goffiniana), a tool-using and technically proficient species used as a model of parrot cognition. First, we investigated the postural origins theory, originally proposed in primates to explain handedness. According to this theory, the hand that was used by ancestral primates to cling to trees developed finer motor control. Using a series of problem-solving tasks, we tested the possibility that the parrot's postural foot, which is similarly used to grasp tree branches, could be more motorically skilled. Although we did not find support for this idea, we did discover that task type does affect foot use, as subjects switched from using their food-holding dominant foot to their other foot during reaching tasks. We also found that the cockatoos more flexibly switched and used both feet when faced with more challenging tasks. Secondly, we attempted a partial replication of a previous study with parrots derived from the enhanced cognition hypothesis, which claimed that more lateralized individuals were better problem solvers. However, we did not find this relationship to be significant in any of our tasks. We did confirm that individual Goffin's cockatoos are extremely limb lateralized for food-holding in addition to other tasks, which may play a role in their approaches to problem-solving. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Maze studies have provided substantial information about nonhuman cognition, such as insights on navigational strategies, spatial memory, and choice discriminations. This knowledge can aid in how we understand the foraging strategies of many animals, particularly understudied and endangered species, such as the Guatemalan beaded lizard (Heloderma charlesbogerti). These actively foraging lizards rely on chemoreception to locate prey, but it is unknown to what extent they engage in olfaction and vomerolfaction to hunt and navigate their environment. We investigated how Guatemalan beaded lizards moved through a physical maze. When navigating an eight-arm radial maze with all arms baited, lizards tended to turn into the immediately adjacent arm in a single direction, similar to other reptiles that have been tested in radial arm mazes. In a T-maze, the lizards had to discriminate between arms that contained scent and no-scent from a distance. They were generally unable to choose the baited (correct) arm at levels greater than chance, indicating an inability for this discrimination. With the addition of a scent trail, however, all lizards chose the baited arm at levels significantly above chance, and this increased accuracy was correlated with increased latency to make the arm choice. The lizards also demonstrated a decreased rate of tongue flicking as proximity to reward increased. Guatemalan beaded lizards can efficiently navigate a radial arm maze and can successfully use vomerolfaction with substrate-borne cues to locate prey, but they appear to have minimal olfaction abilities when sensing from a distance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Like many other species, dogs have a natural quantity judgment system to assist with decision making to maximize resources. Additionally, dogs are highly sensitive to, and influenced by, human-delivered ostensive (i.e., social) cues. Here, we assessed the influence of one such cue-a high, rising, positive "Oooh!" sound-on dogs' choice of differing quantities of pieces of food presented on two different plates. Subjects (N = 29) received 16 randomized trials of four conditions: 1 versus 1 paired with experimenter "Oooh!" while looking at the one plate, 1 versus 3, 3 versus 1 paired with experimenter "Oooh!," and 1 versus 1. As predicted, dogs chose the larger quantity more often in 1 versus 3 conditions. Contrary to one of our predictions, subjects chose the 1 versus 1+ "Oooh!" at chance levels. However, in support of another prediction, pairing the smaller reward with a positive intonation in 3 versus 1+ "Oooh!" significantly reduced dogs' choice of the larger reward. That is to say, without the presence of words, eye contact, or facial expressions, dogs followed a misguiding cue and chose a smaller reward that a stranger had deemed more valuable than a larger one. Local enhancement as well as a drive to increase social capital with the human are discussed as possible explanations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Contrafreeloading is defined as choosing to perform work to obtain a reward, despite the presence of an identical, freely available alternative. According to standard learning and optimal foraging theories, it should not exist. Thus, any evidence of such behavior is noteworthy. We briefly review the recently introduced play hypothesis, which proposes that contrafreeloading is more likely if the action involved is viewed as play rather than work (i.e., agreeable rather than aversive). One might consequently expect species that are relatively more playful to be more likely to engage in contrafreeloading. We evaluated this possibility by testing purportedly playful umbrella cockatoos (Cacatua alba); we studied four residents of a bird sanctuary in upstate New York (Dudley, JJ, Poly, and Teddy Bear). The task involved choosing between shelled and deshelled almonds; the former choice constituting evidence of contrafreeloading. We documented contrafreeloading in a novel species and then compared our results with previously published data on the reportedly less playful Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus). Individually, a higher percentage of cockatoos engaged in contrafreeloading on more than half the trials than did the Greys, with statistically similar levels of individual variation, but the overall amount of contrafreeloading was not statistically significantly different between the species at a group level. We discuss possible reasons for these findings. Additionally, we examine similarities in the behavioral expression of play and contrafreeloading. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Play behavior has been extensively studied across species, but its direct role in social relationships remains unclear. Here we use an "isolation versus separation" protocol to identify behaviors associated with relationship renewal in adolescent female rats. Members of a dyad that had been separated for 24 hr, without isolation from other peers, initially increased investigative behaviors relative to nonseparated peers; however, in contrast with social isolation, separation by itself did not increase rough-and-tumble play. The data suggest that increased play following isolation depends on general motivations, rather than a "peer-specific" drive to renew relationships with an individual. This is consistent with a role of play in more general social learning rather than reestablishing bonds or expectations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Surface chemical cues from prey elicit elevated levels of tongue-flicking and striking behavior in many species of snakes and lizards. These responses are mediated by the vomeronasal system, and they may even occur in the absence of other sensory cues. How individuals of a species respond to prey chemical cues can reflect developmental, ecological, and evolutionary processes. Our focus in this study was ecologically based, and involved testing whether levels of chemosensory responding reflect the putative relative intake of prey types in nature. We tested 11 wild-caught adult gopher snakes (Pituophis catenifer) for their chemosensory responses, namely tongue flicking, in response to surface chemicals of natural prey items (rodent and bird) and to two control stimuli (distilled water and hexane). On average the snakes had significantly higher rates of tongue flicking toward prey cues than to control stimuli (p = .001). Responses to rodent and bird surface chemicals did not significantly differ from each other (p = .35). Tongue-flick responses to rodent surface chemicals were significantly higher than to both water and hexane (ps < .01), while responses to bird surface chemicals were significantly higher than to water (p < .05) but not to hexane (p = .12). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Utilizing Automated Cognitive Testing Systems (ACTS) with group-housed nonhuman primates offers a number of advantages over manual testing and computerized testing of singly housed subjects. To date, ACTS usage has been limited to great apes or African monkeys. Here, we detail what we have learned while implementing ACTS with socially housed squirrel monkeys and rhesus macaques and provide information about the training process. In addition, we examined the effects of age on learning acquisition. We found age differences in learning for both squirrel monkeys and rhesus monkeys. Older monkeys were not as proficient as younger monkeys on learning to use the touch screens (squirrel monkeys only), discrimination learning (rhesus monkeys only; note: squirrel monkeys were not trained to criterion on this task), and recognition learning (both species). Overall, ACTS provide a number of advantages for studying cognition in socially living nonhuman primates and can be used to further investigate cognitive decline whether related to natural aging processes or disease pathology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Typical approaches to study self-control present subjects with a simultaneous choice between a larger-later (LL) reinforcer and a smaller-sooner (SS) reinforcer. In contrast, in patch-leaving tasks, subjects choose between staying at a patch for an SS (or LL) reinforcer and leaving for an LL (or SS) reinforcer. Previous studies show that blue jays, monkeys, humans, and rats prefer the SS reinforcer in binary-choice tasks, whereas the same subjects prefer the LL reinforcer in equivalent patch-leaving tasks. The current study systematically replicated this research using pigeons. Six pigeons responded in a binary-choice task and in two patch-leaving tasks in which staying led to an LL (Patch-L) or SS (Patch-S) reinforcer. Across conditions, the SS reinforcer delay varied from 5 to 55 s; the LL reinforcer delay was always 60 s. In binary-choice conditions, subjects preferred the SS reinforcer. In Patch-L and Patch-S conditions, subjects preferred the LL and SS reinforcer, respectively, reflecting a bias to stay at the patch. This bias persisted when the stay response was more effortful and when the delays to both reinforcers were equal. This may reflect a species-specific win-stay bias and the differential consequences of staying (which led to a stimulus signaling food) versus leaving (which led to a stimulus never associated with food). Thus, we propose a conditioned-reinforcement account of intertemporal choice in patch-leaving contexts. We suggest several avenues for further investigations of the mechanisms underlying intertemporal choice in different contexts and question the economic equivalence of the operant and patch-leaving procedures. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Animals navigate complex environments that present both hazards and essential resources. The prioritization of perceptual information that is relevant to their next actions, such as accessing or avoiding different resources, poses a potential challenge to animals, one that can impact survival. While animals' attentional biases toward negatively valanced and threatening stimuli have been explored, parallel biases toward differently valued resources remain understudied. Here, we assessed whether three primate species (chimpanzees [Pan troglodytes], gorillas [Gorilla gorilla gorilla], and Japanese macaques [Macaca fuscata]) prioritized their attention to positively valued resources-preferred foods compared to unpreferred foods. We employed a computerized dot probe attentional bias task in which we presented participants with paired images of their preferred and unpreferred foods in randomized locations (left or right). Latencies to touch the "probe" that replaced either image revealed that all three species responded faster to the probe when it replaced the preferred option (χ²(1) = 284.50, SE² = .03, p < .001). The uniformity of the primates' responses hints that a propensity to prioritize highly preferred items is rooted in these primates' evolutionary past, one that may serve as a mechanism to rapidly detect and locate resources such as highly valued foods. Future research will help disentangle the role that color plays in these biases. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).