The cognitive animal: Empirical and theoretical perspectives on animal cognition (original) (raw)
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Animal Cognition, 2009
Behavioral Xexibility is considered by some to be one of the hallmarks of advanced cognitive ability. One measure of behavioral Xexibility is how subjects respond to novel objects. Despite growing interest in comparative cognition, no comparative research on neophilia in wild primates has been conducted. Here, we compare responses to novel objects in wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) and geladas (Theropithecus gelada). Baboons and geladas are closely related taxa, yet they diVer in their ecology and degree of social tolerance: (1) baboons are habitat and dietary generalists, whereas geladas have one of the most specialized primate diets (90% grass); (2) baboons exhibit an aversion toward extra-group individuals, whereas geladas typically exhibit an attraction toward them. Using subjects of all age and sex classes, we examined responses to three diVerent objects: a plastic doll, a rubber ball, and a metal can. Overall, baboon subjects exhibited stronger responses to the objects (greater neophilia and exploration) than gelada subjects, yet we found no evidence that the geladas were afraid of the objects. Furthermore, baboons interacted with the objects in the same way they might interact with a potential food item. Responses were unrelated to sex, but immatures showed more object exploration than adults. Results corroborate novel object research conducted in captive populations and suggest that baboons and geladas have diVerences in behavioral Xexibility (at least in this cognitive domain) that have been shaped by ecological (rather than social) diVerences between the two species.
Functional Categorization of Objects and of Their Pictures in Baboons ( Papio anubis)
Learning and Motivation, 1998
Baboons were trained and tested on the natural category of food versus nonfood with real objects using an adapted version of a WGTA. Four subjects were first trained to categorize two objects, one food and one nonfood; then 80 other objects (40 food and 40 nonfood) were presented and categorical response to each object was recorded. The baboons showed a good and rapid transfer of their categorical abilities to the novel items. In subsequent experiments, two subjects were trained with cut-out photos or with whole photos (i.e., pictures with background) of one object in each of the previously learned category and then tested with a subset of photos of the objects used in the first experiment. After training with one pair of pictures, categorical transfer was high in both baboons for cut-out photos but one subject only correctly categorized whole photos of the objects. Results of these experiments and of additional control situations involving various modes of picture presentations further demonstrated the abilities of the baboons to relate real objects with their pictorial representations.
1996
Une tâche de categorisation perceptive a ete proposee a des babouins a l'aide d'un systeme informatique. En ayant recours a un protocole d'appariement symbolique, les singes devaient discriminer des caracteres alphanumeriques representant des B et des 3. Apres l'apprentissage, les singes sont capables de reconnaitre des B et des 3 presentes avec des polices differentes de celles de l'entrainement (Experience 1). Le recours a des procedures de categorisation est verifiee dans une autre etude (Experience 2) qui montre la capacite des babouins a discriminer des exemplaires appartenant a une meme categorie.
Categorization does not promote symmetry in Guinea baboons (Papio papio
Humans have the capacity to use stimuli interchangeably by forming equivalence classes, and this ability seems to be supported by our language system. According to Sidman and Tailby (Conditional discrimination vs. matching to sample: an expansion of the testing paradigm. J Exp Anal Behav 37:5–22, 1982), the formation of equivalence classes require that three relations are derived among the class members, and past experiments have shown that one of these relations, i.e., symmetry, corresponding to the ability to reverse a relation (if A ? B, then B ? A), is extremely difficult to obtain in non-human animals. Because language development and the ability to form equivalence classes both co-occur in children with an increased ability to form categories, the current study tested the idea that category learning might promote symmetry in a nonhuman primate species. In Experiment 1, twelve Guinea baboons (Papio papio) were trained to associate 60 pictures of bears and 60 pictures of cars to two category labels, before being tested in symmetry trials. In Experiment 2, symmetry was trained and tested by reversing the association order between labels and pictures, using a new set of stimuli. In both experiments, the baboons successfully demonstrated category discrimination, but had only a weak (though significant) tendency to respond in accordance with symmetry during test trials. Altogether, our results confirm that symmetry is inherently
Functional categorization of objects and of their pictures in baboons
Learning and Motivation
Baboons were trained and tested on the natural category of food versus nonfood with real objects using an adapted version of a WGTA. Four subjects were first trained to categorize two objects, one food and one nonfood; then 80 other objects (40 food and 40 nonfood) were presented and categorical response to each object was recorded. The baboons showed a good and rapid transfer of their categorical abilities to the novel items. In subsequent experiments, two subjects were trained with cut-out photos or with whole photos (i.e., pictures with background) of one object in each of the previously learned category and then tested with a subset of photos of the objects used in the first experiment. After training with one pair of pictures, categorical transfer was high in both baboons for cut-out photos but one subject only correctly categorized whole photos of the objects. Results of these experiments and of additional control situations involving various modes of picture presentations fur...
Categorization: The View from Animal Cognition
Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland), 2016
Exemplar, prototype, and rule theory have organized much of the enormous literature on categorization. From this theoretical foundation have arisen the two primary debates in the literature-the prototype-exemplar debate and the single system-multiple systems debate. We review these theories and debates. Then, we examine the contribution that animal-cognition studies have made to them. Animals have been crucial behavioral ambassadors to the literature on categorization. They reveal the roots of human categorization, the basic assumptions of vertebrates entering category tasks, the surprising weakness of exemplar memory as a category-learning strategy. They show that a unitary exemplar theory of categorization is insufficient to explain human and animal categorization. They show that a multiple-systems theoretical account-encompassing exemplars, prototypes, and rules-will be required for a complete explanation. They show the value of a fitness perspective in understanding categorizati...
Implicit and explicit category learning by capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella).
Journal of …, 2011
Current theories of human categorization differentiate an explicit, rule-based system of category learning from an implicit system that slowly associates regions of perceptual space with response outputs. The researchers extended this theoretical differentiation to the category learning of New World primates. Four capuchins learned categories of circular sine-wave gratings that varied in bar spatial frequency and orientation. The rule-based and information-integration tasks, respectively, had one-dimensional and two-dimensional solutions. Capuchins, like humans, strongly dimensionalized the stimuli and learned the rule-based task more easily. The results strengthen the suggestion that nonhuman primates have some structural components of humans' capacity for explicit categorization, which in humans is linked to declarative cognition and consciousness. The results also strengthen the primate contrast to other vertebrate species that may lack the explicit system. Therefore, the results raise important questions about the origins of the explicit categorization system during cognitive evolution and about its overall phylogenetic distribution.
Conceptual Analysis and Empirical Observations of Animal Minds
Philosophia, 2021
The relation between conceptual analysis and empirical observations when ascribing or denying concepts and beliefs to non-human animals is not straightforward. In order to reflect on this relation, I focus on two theoretical proposals (Davidson's and Allen's) and one empirical case (vervet monkeys' alarm calls), the three of which are permanently discussed and considered in the literature on animal cognition. First, I review briefly Davidson's arguments for denying thought to non-linguistic animals. Second, I review Allen's criteria for ascribing concepts to creatures capable of correcting their discriminatory powers by taking into account their previous errors. Allen affirms that this is an empirical proposal which offers good reasons, but not necessary or sufficient conditions, for concept attribution. Against Allen, I argue that his important proposal is not an empirical, but a conceptual one. Third, I resort to vervet monkeys to show that Allen's criteria, and not Davidson's, are very relevant for ascribing first-order and denying second-order beliefs to this species and thus make sense of the idea of animal cognition.