1
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Blackburn G, Ashton BJ, Thornton A, Hunter H, Woodiss-Field S, Ridley AR. Investigating the relationship between physical cognitive tasks and a social cognitive task in a wild bird. Anim Cogn 2024; 27:52. [PMID: 39060612 PMCID: PMC11281958 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01892-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2024] [Revised: 05/29/2024] [Accepted: 07/10/2024] [Indexed: 07/28/2024]
Abstract
Despite considerable research into the structure of cognition in non-human animal species, there is still much debate as to whether animal cognition is organised as a series of discrete domains or an overarching general cognitive factor. In humans, the existence of general intelligence is widely accepted, but less work has been undertaken in animal psychometrics to address this question. The relatively few studies on non-primate animal species that do investigate the structure of cognition rarely include tasks assessing social cognition and focus instead on physical cognitive tasks. In this study, we tested 36 wild Western Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen dorsalis) on a battery of three physical (associative learning, spatial memory, and numerical assessment) and one social (observational spatial memory) cognitive task, to investigate if cognition in this species fits a general cognitive factor model, or instead one of separate physical and social cognitive domains. A principal component analysis (PCA) identified two principal components with eigenvalues exceeding 1; a first component onto which all three physical tasks loaded strongly and positively, and a second component onto which only the social task (observational spatial memory) loaded strongly and positively. These findings provide tentative evidence for separate physical and social cognitive domains in this species, and highlight the importance of including tasks assessing both social and physical cognition in cognitive test batteries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Grace Blackburn
- Centre of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
| | - Benjamin J Ashton
- Centre of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
- School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Alex Thornton
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK
| | - Holly Hunter
- Centre of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
| | - Sarah Woodiss-Field
- Centre of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
| | - Amanda R Ridley
- Centre of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
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2
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Hase K. Grouping rule in tadpole: is quantity more or size assortment more important? Anim Cogn 2023; 26:1905-1913. [PMID: 37668885 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-023-01823-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2023] [Revised: 08/21/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/06/2023]
Abstract
The ability to perceive group size and discriminate the ontogeny of conspecifics would play a crucial role in the grouping behavior of animals. However, the relative importance of numerical quantity and size-assortative preferences in shaping grouping rules remains poorly understood. In this study, I examined the responses of Miyako toad (Bufo gargarizans miyakonis) tadpoles to number quantity and size discrimination by choice tests at different ontogenetic stages (small, medium, and large). The results revealed that small-sized tadpoles in early developmental stages significantly preferred larger numbers (4) compared to smaller ones (1). However, this preference was not observed in later developmental stages (medium and large). And interestingly, when there was no quantity bias, size discrimination was not observed in tadpoles, irrespective of their ontogeny. These findings suggest that Miyako toad tadpoles discern quantity, i.e., the number of conspecifics, but exhibit ontogeny-dependent utilization of this ability. Understanding the interplay between numerical quantity and size-assortative preferences in grouping behavior will provide esteemed insights into the adaptive value of number sense in vertebrates and shed light on evolutionary processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kazuko Hase
- Research Center for Integrative Evolutionary Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies [SOKENDAI], Shonan Village, Hayama, Kanagawa, 240-0193, Japan.
- Department of Ecological Developmental Adaptability Life Sciences, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-Ku, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan.
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3
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Sanford EM, Halberda J. A Shared Intuitive (Mis)understanding of Psychophysical Law Leads Both Novices and Educated Students to Believe in a Just Noticeable Difference (JND). Open Mind (Camb) 2023; 7:785-801. [PMID: 37946851 PMCID: PMC10631794 DOI: 10.1162/opmi_a_00108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2023] [Accepted: 09/03/2023] [Indexed: 11/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Humans are both the scientists who discover psychological laws and the thinkers who behave according to those laws. Oftentimes, when our natural behavior is in accord with those laws, this dual role serves us well: our intuitions about our own behavior can serve to inform our discovery of new laws. But, in cases where the laws that we discover through science do not agree with the intuitions and biases we carry into the lab, we may find it harder to believe in and adopt those laws. Here, we explore one such case. Since the founding of psychophysics, the notion of a Just Noticeable Difference (JND) in perceptual discrimination has been ubiquitous in experimental psychology-even in spite of theoretical advances since the 1950's that argue that there can be no such thing as a threshold in perceiving difference. We find that both novices and psychologically educated students alike misunderstand the JND to mean that, below a certain threshold, humans will be unable to tell which of two quantities is greater (e.g., that humans will be completely at chance when trying to judge which is heavier, a bag with 3000 grains of sand or 3001). This belief in chance performance below a threshold is inconsistent with psychophysical law. We argue that belief in a JND is part of our intuitive theory of psychology and is therefore very difficult to dispel.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily M. Sanford
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Justin Halberda
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
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4
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Tomonaga M, Haraguchi D, Wilkinson A. Slowly walking down to the more food: relative quantity discrimination in African spurred tortoises (Centrochelys sulcata). Anim Cogn 2023; 26:1675-1683. [PMID: 37477740 PMCID: PMC10442272 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-023-01812-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2023] [Revised: 06/30/2023] [Accepted: 07/11/2023] [Indexed: 07/22/2023]
Abstract
Quantity discrimination, is thought to be highly adaptive as it allows an organism to select greater amounts of food or larger social groups. In contrast to mammals, the processes underlying this ability are not as well understood in reptiles. This study examined the effects of ratio and number size on relative quantity discrimination in African spurred tortoises (Centrochelys sulcata). To assess these effects, tortoises were presented with trays containing favored food pieces in all possible number combinations between 1 and 7. The tortoises had to approach the tray they perceived as having the larger quantity. If correct, they received one piece of food as reinforcement. The results revealed that relative quantity discrimination was influenced by the ratio between the numbers of pieces, with performance improving as the ratio between the numbers increased. This finding suggests that the approximate number system or analogue magnitude estimation may control their behavior. However, as the number size increased, their performance declined, also suggesting that the approximate number system alone could not explain the present results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Masaki Tomonaga
- Japan Monkey Centre, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-0081, Japan.
- University of Human Environments, Matsuyama, Ehime, 790-0825, Japan.
| | | | - Anna Wilkinson
- School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, LN6 7DL, UK.
- Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8203, Japan.
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5
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Bengochea M, Sitt JD, Izard V, Preat T, Cohen L, Hassan BA. Numerical discrimination in Drosophila melanogaster. Cell Rep 2023; 42:112772. [PMID: 37453418 PMCID: PMC10442639 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112772] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2023] [Revised: 06/18/2023] [Accepted: 06/22/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Sensitivity to numbers is a crucial cognitive ability. The lack of experimental models amenable to systematic genetic and neural manipulation has precluded discovering neural circuits required for numerical cognition. Here, we demonstrate that Drosophila flies spontaneously prefer sets containing larger numbers of objects. This preference is determined by the ratio between the two numerical quantities tested, a characteristic signature of numerical cognition across species. Individual flies maintained their numerical choice over consecutive days. Using a numerical visual conditioning paradigm, we found that flies are capable of associating sucrose with numerical quantities and can be trained to reverse their spontaneous preference for large quantities. Finally, we show that silencing lobula columnar neurons (LC11) reduces the preference for more objects, thus identifying a neuronal substrate for numerical cognition in invertebrates. This discovery paves the way for the systematic analysis of the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying the evolutionary conserved sensitivity to numerosity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mercedes Bengochea
- Institut du Cerveau-Paris Brain Institute (ICM), Sorbonne Université, Inserm, CNRS, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France
| | - Jacobo D Sitt
- Institut du Cerveau-Paris Brain Institute (ICM), Sorbonne Université, Inserm, CNRS, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France
| | - Veronique Izard
- Université de Paris, CNRS, Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center, 75006 Paris, France
| | - Thomas Preat
- Brain Plasticity Unit, CNRS, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University, 10 Rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Laurent Cohen
- Institut du Cerveau-Paris Brain Institute (ICM), Sorbonne Université, Inserm, CNRS, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France; AP-HP, Hôpital de La Pitié Salpêtrière, Féderation de Neurologie, Paris, France.
| | - Bassem A Hassan
- Institut du Cerveau-Paris Brain Institute (ICM), Sorbonne Université, Inserm, CNRS, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France.
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6
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Loconsole M, Regolin L, Rugani R. Asymmetric number-space association leads to more efficient processing of congruent information in domestic chicks. Front Behav Neurosci 2023; 17:1115662. [PMID: 36818607 PMCID: PMC9935666 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1115662] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2022] [Accepted: 01/13/2023] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Maria Loconsole
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy,Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom,*Correspondence: Maria Loconsole ✉ ; ✉
| | - Lucia Regolin
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
| | - Rosa Rugani
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
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7
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Clever pest control? The role of cognition in biological pest regulation. Anim Cogn 2023; 26:189-197. [PMID: 36526865 PMCID: PMC9877098 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01731-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2022] [Revised: 11/25/2022] [Accepted: 12/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Crop pest management is a global challenge. Increases in agricultural intensity due to anthropogenic demands, alongside the need to reduce the reliance on pesticides to minimize environmental harm, have resulted in an urgent need to improve and expand other methods of pest control. One increasingly utilized method is biological pest control, in which natural pest predators are used to regulating crop pests. Current approaches to biological pest regulation assess the importance of a pest controller by examining its ability to maintain pest populations over an extended period. However, this approach lacks efficiency, specificity, and efficacy because it does not take into account crucial factors which determine how predators find, evaluate and remember food sources-the cognitive processes underlying their behavior. This review will investigate the cognitive factors involved in biological pest control and examine how these factors may be manipulated to impact pest behavior and pest controller performance.
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8
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Count-based decision-making in mice: numerosity vs. stimulus control. Anim Cogn 2022; 25:1621-1630. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01652-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2022] [Revised: 05/24/2022] [Accepted: 06/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/01/2022]
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9
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Flaive A, Ryczko D. From retina to motoneurons: A substrate for visuomotor transformation in salamanders. J Comp Neurol 2022; 530:2518-2536. [PMID: 35662021 PMCID: PMC9545292 DOI: 10.1002/cne.25348] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2021] [Revised: 05/02/2022] [Accepted: 05/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
The transformation of visual input into motor output is essential to approach a target or avoid a predator. In salamanders, visually guided orientation behaviors have been extensively studied during prey capture. However, the neural circuitry involved is not resolved. Using salamander brain preparations, calcium imaging and tracing experiments, we describe a neural substrate through which retinal input is transformed into spinal motor output. We found that retina stimulation evoked responses in reticulospinal neurons of the middle reticular nucleus, known to control steering movements in salamanders. Microinjection of glutamatergic antagonists in the optic tectum (superior colliculus in mammals) decreased the reticulospinal responses. Using tracing, we found that retina projected to the dorsal layers of the contralateral tectum, where the dendrites of neurons projecting to the middle reticular nucleus were located. In slices, stimulation of the tectal dorsal layers evoked glutamatergic responses in deep tectal neurons retrogradely labeled from the middle reticular nucleus. We then examined how tectum activation translated into spinal motor output. Tectum stimulation evoked motoneuronal responses, which were decreased by microinjections of glutamatergic antagonists in the contralateral middle reticular nucleus. Reticulospinal fibers anterogradely labeled from tracer injection in the middle reticular nucleus were preferentially distributed in proximity with the dendrites of ipsilateral motoneurons. Our work establishes a neural substrate linking visual and motor centers in salamanders. This retino‐tecto‐reticulo‐spinal circuitry is well positioned to control orienting behaviors. Our study bridges the gap between the behavioral studies and the neural mechanisms involved in the transformation of visual input into motor output in salamanders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aurélie Flaive
- Département de Pharmacologie-Physiologie, Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
| | - Dimitri Ryczko
- Département de Pharmacologie-Physiologie, Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.,Centre de recherche du Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.,Centre d'excellence en neurosciences de l'Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.,Institut de Pharmacologie de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
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10
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Schluessel V, Kreuter N, Gosemann IM, Schmidt E. Cichlids and stingrays can add and subtract 'one' in the number space from one to five. Sci Rep 2022; 12:3894. [PMID: 35361791 PMCID: PMC8971382 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07552-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2021] [Accepted: 02/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
The numerical understanding of cichlids and stingrays was examined regarding addition and subtraction abilities within the number space of one to five. Experiments were conducted as two-alternative forced-choice experiments, using a delayed matching to sample technique. On each trial, fish had to perform either an addition or subtraction, based on the presentation of two-dimensional objects in two distinct colors, with the color signaling a particular arithmetic process. Six cichlids and four stingrays successfully completed training and recognized specific colors as symbols for addition and subtraction. Cichlids needed more sessions than stingrays to reach the learning criterion. Transfer tests showed that learning was independent of straightforward symbol memorization. Individuals did not just learn to pick the highest or lowest number presented based on the respective color; instead, learning was specific to adding or subtracting ‘one’. Although group results were significant for both species in all tests, individual results varied. Addition was learned more easily than subtraction by both species. While cichlids learned faster than stingrays, and more cichlids than stingrays learned the task, individual performance of stingrays exceeded that of cichlids. Previous studies have provided ample evidence that fish have numerical abilities on par with those of other vertebrate and invertebrate species tested, a result that is further supported by the findings of the current study.
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Affiliation(s)
- V Schluessel
- Institute of Zoology, University of Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 169, Poppelsdorfer Schloss, 53115, Bonn, Germany.
| | - N Kreuter
- Institute of Zoology, University of Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 169, Poppelsdorfer Schloss, 53115, Bonn, Germany
| | - I M Gosemann
- Institute of Zoology, University of Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 169, Poppelsdorfer Schloss, 53115, Bonn, Germany
| | - E Schmidt
- Institute of Zoology, University of Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 169, Poppelsdorfer Schloss, 53115, Bonn, Germany
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11
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Lin FC, Whiting MJ, Hsieh MY, Shaner PJL, Lin SM. Superior continuous quantity discrimination in a freshwater turtle. Front Zool 2021; 18:49. [PMID: 34563231 PMCID: PMC8466656 DOI: 10.1186/s12983-021-00431-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2021] [Accepted: 09/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Quantity discrimination, the ability to discriminate a magnitude of difference or discrete numerical information, plays a key role in animal behavior. While quantitative ability has been well documented in fishes, birds, mammals, and even in previously unstudied invertebrates and amphibians, it is still poorly understood in reptiles and has never been tested in an aquatic turtle despite the fact that evidence is accumulating that reptiles possess cognitive skills and learning ability. To help address this deficiency in reptiles, we investigated the quantitative ability of an Asian freshwater turtle, Mauremys sinensis, using red cubes on a white background in a trained quantity discrimination task. While spontaneous quantity discrimination methods are thought to be more ecologically relevant, training animals on a quantity discrimination task allows more comparability across taxa. RESULTS We assessed the turtles' quantitative performance in a series of tests with increasing quantity ratios and numerosities. Surprisingly, the turtles were able to discriminate quantities of up to 9 versus 10 (ratio = 0.9), which shows a good quantitative ability that is comparable to some endotherms. Our results showed that the turtles' quantitative performance followed Weber's law, in which success rate decreased with increasing quantity ratio across a wide range of numerosities. Furthermore, the gradual improvement of their success rate across different experiments and phases suggested that the turtles possess learning ability. CONCLUSIONS Reptile quantitative ability has long been ignored and therefore is likely under-estimated. More comparative research on numerical cognition across a diversity of species will greatly contribute to a clearer understanding of quantitative ability in animals and whether it has evolved convergently in diverse taxa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Feng-Chun Lin
- School of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Martin J Whiting
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | | | - Pei-Jen Lee Shaner
- School of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
| | - Si-Min Lin
- School of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
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12
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Kreuter N, Christofzik N, Niederbremer C, Bollé J, Schluessel V. Counting on Numbers-Numerical Abilities in Grey Bamboo Sharks and Ocellate River Stingrays. Animals (Basel) 2021; 11:2634. [PMID: 34573600 PMCID: PMC8466846 DOI: 10.3390/ani11092634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2021] [Revised: 08/05/2021] [Accepted: 08/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Over the last decade, studies examining the cognitive abilities of fish have increased, using a broad range of approaches. One of the foci has been to test the ability of fish to discriminate quantities of items and to determine whether fish can solve tasks solely on the basis of numerical information. This study is the first to investigate this ability in two elasmobranch species. All animals were trained in two-alternative forced-choice visual experiments and then examined in transfer tests, to determine if previously gained knowledge could be applied to new tasks. Results show that the grey bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium griseum) and the ocellate river stingray (Potamotrygon motoro) can discriminate quantities based on numerical information alone, while continuous variables were controlled for. Furthermore, the data indicates that similar magnitudes and limits for quantity discrimination exist as in other animals. However, the high degree of intraspecific variation that was observed as well as the low rate of animals proving to be successful suggest that the ability to discriminate quantities may not be as important to these species as to some other vertebrate and invertebrate species tested so far.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Vera Schluessel
- Institute of Zoology, University of Bonn, Poppelsdorfer Schloss, Meckenheimerallee 169, 53115 Bonn, Germany; (N.K.); (N.C.); (C.N.); (J.B.)
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13
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Khatiwada S, Burmeister SS. Quantity discrimination in a spontaneous task in a poison frog. Anim Cogn 2021; 25:27-32. [PMID: 34322772 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-021-01528-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2020] [Revised: 04/14/2021] [Accepted: 06/16/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
The use of quantitative information underlies a range of animal behaviors. There are thought to be two parallel systems for judging quantity: a precise representation of small numbers of objects, typically less than 4, that can be tracked visually (object tracking system) and an imprecise system for larger quantities (approximate number system) governed by Weber's law. Using a spontaneous discrimination task with live prey, we examined the ability of the poison frog Dendrobates auratus to discriminate quantities of low (1-4) or high (4-16) numerosity over a range of ratio contrasts (0.33, 0.5, 0.67, 0.75). Similar to a previous study in treefrogs, we found that the poison frogs chose the larger quantity of flies when choosing between 1 and 3 and between 1 and 2. However, their performance was near chance when choosing between 2 and 3 and below chance when choosing between 3 and 4. When the numerosity of flies was higher, they did not discriminate between the larger and smaller quantity. Our findings are consistent with the ability of poison frogs to discriminate small quantities of objects using an object tracking system, but could also reflect a singular vs. plural discrimination. We did not find evidence of an approximate number system governed by Weber's law, nor evidence of a speed-accuracy tradeoff. However, total set size was associated with lower accuracy and longer latencies to choose. Future studies should explore quantity discrimination in additional contexts to better understand the limits of these abilities in poison frogs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sunil Khatiwada
- Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, 27599, USA
| | - Sabrina S Burmeister
- Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, 27599, USA.
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14
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Caicoya AL, Amici F, Ensenyat C, Colell M. Comparative cognition in three understudied ungulate species: European bison, forest buffalos and giraffes. Front Zool 2021; 18:30. [PMID: 34158081 PMCID: PMC8218502 DOI: 10.1186/s12983-021-00417-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2020] [Accepted: 04/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Comparative cognition has historically focused on a few taxa such as primates, birds or rodents. However, a broader perspective is essential to understand how different selective pressures affect cognition in different taxa, as more recently shown in several studies. Here we present the same battery of cognitive tasks to two understudied ungulate species with different socio-ecological characteristics, European bison (Bison bonasus) and forest buffalos (Syncerus caffer nanus), and we compare their performance to previous findings in giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis). We presented subjects with an Object permanence task, Memory tasks with 30 and 60 s delays, two inference tasks based on acoustic cues (i.e. Acoustic inference tasks) and a control task to check for the use of olfactory cues (i.e. Olfactory task). Results Overall, giraffes outperformed bison and buffalos, and bison outperformed buffalos (that performed at chance level). All species performed better in the Object permanence task than in the Memory tasks and one of the Acoustic inference tasks (which they likely solved by relying on stimulus enhancement). Giraffes performed better than buffalos in the Shake full Acoustic inference task, but worse than bison and buffalos in the Shake empty Acoustic inference task. Conclusions In sum, our results are in line with the hypothesis that specific socio-ecological characteristics played a crucial role in the evolution of cognition, and that higher fission-fusion levels and larger dietary breadth are linked to higher cognitive skills. This study shows that ungulates may be an excellent model to test evolutionary hypotheses on the emergence of cognition. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12983-021-00417-w.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alvaro Lopez Caicoya
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. .,Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Federica Amici
- Behavioral Ecology Research Group, Institute of Biology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Research Group Primate Behavioural Ecology, Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | | | - Montserrat Colell
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.,Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
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15
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Hofstetter S, Dumoulin SO. Tuned neural responses to haptic numerosity in the putamen. Neuroimage 2021; 238:118178. [PMID: 34020014 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118178] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2021] [Revised: 05/05/2021] [Accepted: 05/15/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to perceive the numerosity of items in the environment is critical for behavior of species across the evolutionary tree. Though the focus of studies of numerosity perception lays on the parietal and frontal cortices, the ability to perceive numerosity by a range of species suggests that subcortical nuclei may be implicated in the process. Recently, we have uncovered tuned neural responses to haptic numerosity in the human cortex. Here, we questioned whether subcortical nuclei are also engaged in perception of haptic numerosity. To that end, we utilized a task of haptic numerosity exploration, together with population receptive field model of numerosity selective responses measured at ultra-high field MRI (7T). We found tuned neural responses to haptic numerosity in the bilateral putamen. Similar to the cortex, the population receptive fields tuning width increased with numerosity. The tuned responses to numerosity in the putamen extend its role in cognition and propose that the motor-sensory loops of the putamen and basal ganglia might take an active part in numerosity perception and preparation for future action.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shir Hofstetter
- Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Meibergdreef 75, Amsterdam 1105 BK, the Netherlands.
| | - Serge O Dumoulin
- Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Meibergdreef 75, Amsterdam 1105 BK, the Netherlands; Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1181 BT, the Netherlands; Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3584 CS, the Netherlands
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16
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Szabo B, Noble DWA, McCloghry KJ, Monteiro MES, Whiting MJ. Spontaneous quantity discrimination in a family-living lizard. Behav Ecol 2021. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arab019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
While foraging or during social interactions, animals may benefit from judging relative quantity. Individuals may select larger prey or a patch with more food and, likewise, it may pay to track the number and type of individuals and social interactions. We tested for spontaneous quantity discrimination in the gidgee skink (Egernia stokesii), a family-living lizard. Lizards were presented with food quantities differing in number or size and were able to select the larger quantity of food items when they differed in number but not when items differed in size. We show, for the first time, superior spontaneous discrimination of items differing in number over size in a lizard species, which contrasts with previous findings. Our simple method, however, did not include controls for the use of continuous quantities, and further tests are required to determine the role of such information during quantity discrimination. Our results provide support for the use of the parallel individuation system for the discrimination of small quantities (four or fewer items). Lizards might, however, still use the approximate number system if items in larger quantities (more than four) are presented. Overall, we uncovered evidence that species might possess specific cognitive abilities potentially adapted to their niche with respect to quantity information (discrete and/or continuous) and the processing system used when judging quantities. Importantly, our results highlight the need for testing multiple species using similar testing procedures to gain a better understanding of the underlying causes leading to differences across species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Birgit Szabo
- Division of Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Wohlenstrasse 50a, 3032 Bern, Switzerland
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
| | - Daniel W A Noble
- Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Kaitlin J McCloghry
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
| | - Marco E S Monteiro
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
| | - Martin J Whiting
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
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17
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Lorenzi E, Perrino M, Vallortigara G. Numerosities and Other Magnitudes in the Brains: A Comparative View. Front Psychol 2021; 12:641994. [PMID: 33935896 PMCID: PMC8082025 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.641994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2020] [Accepted: 03/12/2021] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The ability to represent, discriminate, and perform arithmetic operations on discrete quantities (numerosities) has been documented in a variety of species of different taxonomic groups, both vertebrates and invertebrates. We do not know, however, to what extent similarity in behavioral data corresponds to basic similarity in underlying neural mechanisms. Here, we review evidence for magnitude representation, both discrete (countable) and continuous, following the sensory input path from primary sensory systems to associative pallial territories in the vertebrate brains. We also speculate on possible underlying mechanisms in invertebrate brains and on the role played by modeling with artificial neural networks. This may provide a general overview on the nervous system involvement in approximating quantity in different animal species, and a general theoretical framework to future comparative studies on the neurobiology of number cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Lorenzi
- Centre for Mind/Brain Science, CIMeC, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
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18
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Snyder RJ, Barrett LP, Emory RA, Perdue BM. Performance of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) on a quantity discrimination task is similar to that of African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana). Anim Cogn 2021; 24:1121-1131. [PMID: 33811595 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-021-01504-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2020] [Revised: 01/24/2021] [Accepted: 03/08/2021] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Using an object-choice task, we measured the relative quantity discrimination ability of Asian elephants. Two zoo-housed elephants were given auditory cues of food being dropped into two containers (Nonvisible condition), and in one condition they could also see the food on top of the containers (Visible condition). Elephants received sets of varying ratios and magnitudes. We found that the elephants chose the greater quantity of food significantly above chance in both the Visible and Nonvisible conditions. Additionally, we found the elephants' ability to discriminate between quantities decreased as the ratio, and not the absolute difference, between the quantities increased, which is predicted by the accumulator model. We also compare our findings to those from a study using the same methods with African savanna elephants and found that the two species performed at similar levels, but given our small sample size it is difficult to make strong species-level conclusions. In discussing our results, we consider differences between the two species' wild environments as well as the types of sensory cues provided in human care, and we provide recommendations for extensions of this work.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca J Snyder
- Oklahoma City Zoo, 2000 Remington Way, Oklahoma City, OK, 73111, USA.
| | - Lisa P Barrett
- Oklahoma City Zoo, 2000 Remington Way, Oklahoma City, OK, 73111, USA
| | - Rachel A Emory
- Oklahoma City Zoo, 2000 Remington Way, Oklahoma City, OK, 73111, USA
| | - Bonnie M Perdue
- Agnes Scott College, 141 E. College Avenue, Decatur, GA, 30030, USA
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19
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Abstract
Many species from diverse and often distantly related animal groups (e.g. monkeys, crows, fish and bees) have a sense of number. This means that they can assess the number of items in a set - its 'numerosity'. The brains of these phylogenetically distant species are markedly diverse. This Review examines the fundamentally different types of brains and neural mechanisms that give rise to numerical competence across the animal tree of life. Neural correlates of the number sense so far exist only for specific vertebrate species: the richest data concerning explicit and abstract number representations have been collected from the cerebral cortex of mammals, most notably human and nonhuman primates, but also from the pallium of corvid songbirds, which evolved independently of the mammalian cortex. In contrast, the neural data relating to implicit and reflexive numerical representations in amphibians and fish is limited. The neural basis of a number sense has not been explored in any protostome so far. However, promising candidate regions in the brains of insects, spiders and cephalopods - all of which are known to have number skills - are identified in this Review. A comparative neuroscientific approach will be indispensable for identifying evolutionarily stable neuronal circuits and deciphering codes that give rise to a sense of number across phylogeny.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreas Nieder
- Animal Physiology Unit, Institute of Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
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20
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Corliss M, Brown T, Hurly TA, Healy SD, Tello-Ramos MC. Estimating on the fly: The approximate number system in rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus). Learn Behav 2021; 49:67-75. [PMID: 33319341 PMCID: PMC7979633 DOI: 10.3758/s13420-020-00448-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
When presented with resources that differ in quantity, many animals use a numerosity system to discriminate between them. One taxonomically widespread system is the approximate number system. This is a numerosity system that allows the rapid evaluation of the number of objects in a group and which is regulated by Weber's Law. Here we investigated whether wild, free-living rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) possess an approximate number system. The hummingbirds were presented with two experiments. In the first we investigated whether hummingbirds spontaneously chose an array containing more flowers than an alternate array. In the second we asked whether the hummingbirds could learn to use numerosity as a cue to which of two arrays contained the better reward. The birds did not spontaneously prefer an array containing more flowers. After minimal training, however, they learned to choose the more numerous array and could differentiate between arrays of five and seven flowers. These data support the presence of an approximate number system in the rufous hummingbird. It seems plausible that having such a system would enable much more efficient foraging in this species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mia Corliss
- School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9TH, UK
| | - Theo Brown
- School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9TH, UK
| | - T Andrew Hurly
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
| | - Susan D Healy
- School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9TH, UK.
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21
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Bisazza A, Gatto E. Continuous versus discrete quantity discrimination in dune snail (Mollusca: Gastropoda) seeking thermal refuges. Sci Rep 2021; 11:3757. [PMID: 33580099 PMCID: PMC7881015 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-82249-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2020] [Accepted: 01/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability of invertebrates to discriminate quantities is poorly studied, and it is unknown whether other phyla possess the same richness and sophistication of quantification mechanisms observed in vertebrates. The dune snail, Theba pisana, occupies a harsh habitat characterised by sparse vegetation and diurnal soil temperatures well above the thermal tolerance of this species. To survive, a snail must locate and climb one of the rare tall herbs each dawn and spend the daytime hours in an elevated refuge position. Based on their ecology, we predicted that dune snails would prefer larger to smaller groups of refuges. We simulated shelter choice under controlled laboratory conditions. Snails’ acuity in discriminating quantity of shelters was comparable to that of mammals and birds, reaching the 4 versus 5 item discrimination, suggesting that natural selection could drive the evolution of advanced cognitive abilities even in small-brained animals if these functions have a high survival value. In a subsequent series of experiments, we investigated whether snails used numerical information or based their decisions upon continuous quantities, such as cumulative surface, density or convex hull, which co-varies with number. Though our results tend to underplay the role of these continuous cues, behavioural data alone are insufficient to determine if dune snails were using numerical information, leaving open the question of whether gastropod molluscans possess elementary abilities for numerical processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angelo Bisazza
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padua, Italy.,Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Padua, Italy
| | - Elia Gatto
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padua, Italy.
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22
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Prey quantity discrimination and social experience affect foraging decisions of rock lizards. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-021-02979-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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23
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Dutour M, Kalb N, Salis A, Randler C. Number of callers may affect the response to conspecific mobbing calls in great tits (Parus major). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-021-02969-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
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24
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Kundey SMA, Phillips M. Recognition of novelty in leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius) and tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum). Behav Processes 2021; 184:104320. [PMID: 33460726 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104320] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2020] [Revised: 01/08/2021] [Accepted: 01/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Novelty recognition helps organisms identify changes over time. Studies to date have usually involved mammals, particularly rodents. We explored leopard geckos' (Eublepharis macularius; Experiment 1) and tiger salamanders' (Ambystoma tigrinum, Experiment 2) sensitivity to spatial and object novelty. We used an exploratory paradigm adapted from rodents where time spent near objects in an open-field box was compared. Subjects first habituated to three objects. To evaluate spatial novelty recognition, one object was moved to a new location. Subjects again habituated to the objects' locations. To evaluate object novelty recognition, one object that had not been moved earlier was replaced with an unfamiliar object. Results indicated when one object was moved to a new location, geckos and salamanders spent more time near that spatially-displaced object. Additionally, when a familiar object was replaced with a new object, geckos and salamanders spent more time near the substituted object. These results suggest geckos and salamanders recognized changes in objects' identities and locations. Geckos and salamanders acted differentially depending on familiarity in both spatial and object domains. These results support attempts to include lesser-studied species in our efforts to characterize cognition.
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25
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Do Domestic Dogs ( Canis lupus familiaris) Perceive Numerosity Illusions? Animals (Basel) 2020; 10:ani10122304. [PMID: 33291842 PMCID: PMC7762053 DOI: 10.3390/ani10122304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2020] [Revised: 11/18/2020] [Accepted: 12/02/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary Studying visual illusions in animals allows researchers to reveal similarities and differences between how human and non-human species perceive the world around them. Recently, investigations into dogs have found evidence for the differential perception of visual illusions, when compared with human observers. Here, we extended this line of investigation by testing dogs’ susceptibility to numerosity illusions. This type of illusion occurs when an individual under- or overestimates the number of objects presented in a visual scene owing to the spatial arrangement of the objects. In the current study, we observed the spontaneous likelihood for dogs to approach a larger quantity of food items. In Experiment 1, we first established whether dogs would try to maximize their food intake within the experimental context. Following this, Experiments 2 and 3 presented food items arranged so as to generate a well-known numerosity illusion—the Solitaire illusion. Overall, dogs were able to select the larger quantity of food (Experiment 1), but did not exhibit any evidence of a numerosity misperception in Experiments 2 and 3. Our results reinforce the idea that dogs’ representation of the world differs significantly from ours. Abstract Recent studies have showed that domestic dogs are only scantly susceptible to visual illusions, suggesting that the perceptual mechanisms might be different in humans and dogs. However, to date, none of these studies have utilized illusions that are linked to quantity discrimination. In the current study, we tested whether dogs are susceptible to a linear version of the Solitaire illusion, a robust numerosity illusion experienced by most humans. In the first experiment, we tested dogs’ ability to discriminate items in a 0.67 and 0.75 numerical ratio. The results showed that dogs’ quantity discrimination abilities fall in between these two ratios. In Experiment 2, we presented the dogs with the Solitaire illusion pattern using a spontaneous procedure. No evidence supporting any numerosity misperception was found. This conclusion was replicated in Experiment 3, where we manipulated dogs’ initial experience with the stimuli and their contrast with the background. The lack of dogs’ susceptibility to the Solitaire illusion suggests that numerical estimation of dogs is not influenced by the spatial arrangement of the items to be enumerated. In view of the existing evidence, the effect may be extended to dogs’ quantitative abilities at large.
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26
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Caicoya AL, Colell M, Holland R, Ensenyat C, Amici F. Giraffes go for more: a quantity discrimination study in giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis). Anim Cogn 2020; 24:483-495. [PMID: 33128196 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01442-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2020] [Revised: 10/01/2020] [Accepted: 10/14/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Many species, including humans, rely on an ability to differentiate between quantities to make decisions about social relationships, territories, and food. This study is the first to investigate whether giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) are able to select the larger of two sets of quantities in different conditions, and how size and density affect these decisions. In Task 1, we presented five captive giraffes with two sets containing a different quantity of identical foods items. In Tasks 2 and 3, we also modified the size and density of the food reward distribution. The results showed that giraffes (i) can successfully make quantity judgments following Weber's law, (ii) can reliably rely on size to maximize their food income, and (iii) are more successful when comparing sparser than denser distributions. More studies on different taxa are needed to understand whether specific selective pressures have favored the evolution of these skills in certain taxa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alvaro L Caicoya
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. .,Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Montserrat Colell
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.,Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | | | | | - Federica Amici
- Behavioral Ecology Research Group, Institute of Biology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Research Group "Primate Behavioural Ecology", Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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27
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Szabo B, Noble DWA, Whiting MJ. Learning in non-avian reptiles 40 years on: advances and promising new directions. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2020; 96:331-356. [PMID: 33073470 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2019] [Revised: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 10/05/2020] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Recently, there has been a surge in cognition research using non-avian reptile systems. As a diverse group of animals, non-avian reptiles [turtles, the tuatara, crocodylians, and squamates (lizards, snakes and amphisbaenids)] are good model systems for answering questions related to cognitive ecology, from the role of the environment on the brain, behaviour and learning, to how social and life-history factors correlate with learning ability. Furthermore, given their variable social structure and degree of sociality, studies on reptiles have shown that group living is not a pre-condition for social learning. Past research has demonstrated that non-avian reptiles are capable of more than just instinctive reactions and basic cognition. Despite their ability to provide answers to fundamental questions in cognitive ecology, and a growing literature, there have been no recent systematic syntheses of research in this group. Here, we systematically, and comprehensively review studies on reptile learning. We identify 92 new studies investigating learning in reptiles not included in previous reviews on this topic - affording a unique opportunity to provide a more in-depth synthesis of existing work, its taxonomic distribution, the types of cognitive domains tested and methodologies that have been used. Our review therefore provides a major update on our current state of knowledge and ties the collective evidence together under nine umbrella research areas: (i) habituation of behaviour, (ii) animal training through conditioning, (iii) avoiding aversive stimuli, (iv) spatial learning and memory, (v) learning during foraging, (vi) quality and quantity discrimination, (vii) responding to change, (viii) solving novel problems, and (ix) social learning. Importantly, we identify knowledge gaps and propose themes which offer important future research opportunities including how cognitive ability might influence fitness and survival, testing cognition in ecologically relevant situations, comparing cognition in invasive and non-invasive populations of species, and social learning. To move the field forward, it will be immensely important to build upon the descriptive approach of testing whether a species can learn a task with experimental studies elucidating causal reasons for cognitive variation within and among species. With the appropriate methodology, this young but rapidly growing field of research should advance greatly in the coming years providing significant opportunities for addressing general questions in cognitive ecology and beyond.
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Affiliation(s)
- Birgit Szabo
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia.,Division of Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Wohlenstrasse 50a, Bern, 3032, Switzerland
| | - Daniel W A Noble
- Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Martin J Whiting
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia
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28
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Cheyette SJ, Piantadosi ST. A unified account of numerosity perception. Nat Hum Behav 2020; 4:1265-1272. [PMID: 32929205 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-00946-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2019] [Accepted: 08/07/2020] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
People can identify the number of objects in sets of four or fewer items with near-perfect accuracy but exhibit linearly increasing error for larger sets. Some researchers have taken this discontinuity as evidence of two distinct representational systems. Here, we present a mathematical derivation showing that this behaviour is an optimal representation of cardinalities under a limited informational capacity, indicating that this behaviour can emerge from a single system. Our derivation predicts how the amount of information accessible to viewers should influence the perception of quantity for both large and small sets. In a series of four preregistered experiments (N = 100 each), we varied the amount of information accessible to participants in number estimation. We find tight alignment between the model and human performance for both small and large quantities, implicating efficient representation as the common origin behind key phenomena of human and animal numerical cognition.
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29
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Nieder A. Absolute Numerosity Discrimination as a Case Study in Comparative Vertebrate Intelligence. Front Psychol 2020; 11:1843. [PMID: 32849085 PMCID: PMC7426444 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01843] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2020] [Accepted: 07/06/2020] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The question of whether some non-human animal species are more intelligent than others is a reoccurring theme in comparative psychology. To convincingly address this question, exact comparability of behavioral methodology and data across species is required. The current article explores one of the rare cases in which three vertebrate species (humans, macaques, and crows) experienced identical experimental conditions during the investigation of a core cognitive capability – the abstract categorization of absolute numerical quantity. We found that not every vertebrate species studied in numerical cognition were able to flexibly discriminate absolute numerosity, which suggests qualitative differences in numerical intelligence are present between vertebrates. Additionally, systematic differences in numerosity judgment accuracy exist among those species that could master abstract and flexible judgments of absolute numerosity, thus arguing for quantitative differences between vertebrates. These results demonstrate that Macphail’s Null Hypotheses – which suggests that all non-human vertebrates are qualitatively and quantitatively of equal intelligence – is untenable.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreas Nieder
- Animal Physiology Unit, Institute of Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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30
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Does Brain Lateralization Affect the Performance in Binary Choice Tasks? A Study in the Animal Model Danio rerio. Symmetry (Basel) 2020. [DOI: 10.3390/sym12081294] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Researchers in behavioral neuroscience commonly observe the behavior of animal subjects in the presence of two alternative stimuli. However, this type of binary choice introduces a potential confound related to side biases. Understanding whether subjects exhibit this bias, and the origin of it (pre-existent or acquired throughout the experimental sessions), is particularly important to interpreting the results. Here, we tested the hypothesis according to which brain lateralization may influence the emergence of side biases in a well-known model of neuroscience, the zebrafish. As a measure of lateralization, individuals were observed in their spontaneous tendencies to monitor a potential predator with either the left or the right eye. Subjects also underwent an operant conditioning task requiring discrimination between two colors placed on the left–right axis. Although the low performance exhibited in the operant conditioning task prevents firm conclusions from being drawn, a positive correlation was found between the direction of lateralization and the tendency to select the stimulus presented on one specific side (e.g., right). The choice for this preferred side did not change throughout the experimental sessions, meaning that this side bias was not the result of the prolonged training. Overall, our study calls for a wider investigation of pre-existing lateralization biases in animal models to set up methodological counterstrategies to test individuals that do not properly work in a binary choice task with stimuli arranged on the left–right axis.
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31
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Nieder A. The Adaptive Value of Numerical Competence. Trends Ecol Evol 2020; 35:605-617. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2020.02.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2019] [Revised: 02/08/2020] [Accepted: 02/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
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32
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Gómez-Laplaza LM, Gerlai R. Food Quantity Discrimination in Angelfish ( Pterophyllum scalare): The Role of Number, Density, Size and Area Occupied by the Food Items. Front Behav Neurosci 2020; 14:106. [PMID: 32655384 PMCID: PMC7324792 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2020.00106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2020] [Accepted: 05/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Quantity discrimination, the ability to identify, process, and respond to differences in number, has been shown in a variety of animal species and may have fitness value. In fish, the ability to distinguish between numerically different shoals has been well studied. However, little work has been devoted to the investigation of such ability in a foraging context. Nevertheless, angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare) have been previously shown to be able to discriminate numerically different sets of food items, with variables such as size and density of the food items playing important roles in making the choice. Here, we examine the possible role of other numerical and non-numerical variables. Using a spontaneous binary choice task, we contrasted sets of food items differing in specifically controlled ways: (1) different numerical size but equal inter-item distance; (2) different numerical size and different inter-item distance; and (3) identical total contour length and area occupied but different individual food size and inter-food distance between the contrasted food sets. In Experiment 1, angelfish were found to prefer the sets with a large number of food items. In Experiment 2, they preferred the numerically smaller sets with clustered items to the numerically larger sets with scattered items, but only when the sets were in the large number range (10 vs. 5 food items). Finally, in Experiment 3 fish preferred numerically smaller sets with large-sized and scattered food items in the large number range sets. We conclude that food item number, density, and size may not be considered individually by angelfish, but instead, the fish respond to all these factors attempting to maximize energy gained from eating the food while minimizing energy expenditure collecting and/or protecting the food.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Robert Gerlai
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada
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33
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MaBouDi H, Galpayage Dona HS, Gatto E, Loukola OJ, Buckley E, Onoufriou PD, Skorupski P, Chittka L. Bumblebees Use Sequential Scanning of Countable Items in Visual Patterns to Solve Numerosity Tasks. Integr Comp Biol 2020; 60:929-942. [PMID: 32369562 PMCID: PMC7750931 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icaa025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Most research in comparative cognition focuses on measuring if animals manage certain tasks; fewer studies explore how animals might solve them. We investigated bumblebees’ scanning strategies in a numerosity task, distinguishing patterns with two items from four and one from three, and subsequently transferring numerical information to novel numbers, shapes, and colors. Video analyses of flight paths indicate that bees do not determine the number of items by using a rapid assessment of number (as mammals do in “subitizing”); instead, they rely on sequential enumeration even when items are presented simultaneously and in small quantities. This process, equivalent to the motor tagging (“pointing”) found for large number tasks in some primates, results in longer scanning times for patterns containing larger numbers of items. Bees used a highly accurate working memory, remembering which items have already been scanned, resulting in fewer than 1% of re-inspections of items before making a decision. Our results indicate that the small brain of bees, with less parallel processing capacity than mammals, might constrain them to use sequential pattern evaluation even for low quantities.
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Affiliation(s)
- HaDi MaBouDi
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK
| | - H Samadi Galpayage Dona
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK
| | - Elia Gatto
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - Olli J Loukola
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK
| | - Emma Buckley
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK.,Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
| | - Panayiotis D Onoufriou
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK
| | - Peter Skorupski
- Institute of Medical and Biomedical Education, St George's, University of London, London SW17 0RE, UK
| | - Lars Chittka
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK.,Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin-Institute for Advanced Study, Wallotstrasse 19, 14193 Berlin, Germany
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34
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Chacha J, Szenczi P, González D, Martínez-Byer S, Hudson R, Bánszegi O. Revisiting more or less: influence of numerosity and size on potential prey choice in the domestic cat. Anim Cogn 2020; 23:491-501. [PMID: 32052284 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01351-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2019] [Revised: 01/07/2020] [Accepted: 01/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Quantity discrimination is of adaptive relevance in a wide range of contexts and across a wide range of species. Trained domestic cats can discriminate between different numbers of dots, and we have shown that they also spontaneously choose between different numbers and sizes of food balls. In the present study we performed two experiments with 24 adult cats to investigate spontaneous quantity discrimination in the more naturalistic context of potential predation. In Experiment 1 we presented each cat with the simultaneous choice between a different number of live prey (1 white mouse vs. 3 white mice), and in Experiment 2 with the simultaneous choice between live prey of different size (1 white mouse vs. 1 white rat). We repeated each experiment six times across 6 weeks, testing half the cats first in Experiment 1 and then in Experiment 2, and the other half in the reverse order. In Experiment 1 the cats more often chose the larger number of small prey (3 mice), and in Experiment 2, more often the small size prey (a mouse). They also showed repeatable individual differences in the choices which they made and in the performance of associated predation-like behaviours. We conclude that domestic cats spontaneously discriminate between the number and size of potential prey in a way that can be interpreted as adaptive for a lone-hunting, obligate carnivore, and show complex levels of risk-reward analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jimena Chacha
- Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, AP 70228, CP 04510, Mexico City, Mexico.,Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Unidad de Posgrado, Edificio A, Circuito de Posgrados, CP 04510, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Péter Szenczi
- CONACYT-Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, Unidad Psicopatología y Desarrollo, Calz. México-Xochimilco 101, CP 14370, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Daniel González
- Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, AP 70228, CP 04510, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Sandra Martínez-Byer
- Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, AP 70228, CP 04510, Mexico City, Mexico.,Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Unidad de Posgrado, Edificio A, Circuito de Posgrados, CP 04510, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Robyn Hudson
- Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, AP 70228, CP 04510, Mexico City, Mexico.
| | - Oxána Bánszegi
- Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, AP 70228, CP 04510, Mexico City, Mexico.
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35
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Format-dependent and format-independent representation of sequential and simultaneous numerosity in the crow endbrain. Nat Commun 2020; 11:686. [PMID: 32019934 PMCID: PMC7000399 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14519-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2019] [Accepted: 01/14/2020] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Humans’ symbolic counting skills are built on a primordial ability to approximately estimate the number of items, or numerosity. To date it is debated whether numerosities presented in categorically different formats, that is as temporal sequences versus spatial arrays, are represented abstractly in the brain. To address this issue, we identified the behavioral characteristics and neuronal codes for sequential and simultaneous number formats in crows. We find a format-dependent representation by distinct groups of selective neurons during the sensory encoding stage. However, an abstract and format-independent numerosity code emerges once the encoding phase is completed and numerosities needed to be memorized. These results suggest a successive two-stage code for categorically different number formats and help to reconcile conflicting findings observed in psychophysics and brain imaging. Numbers are processed as abstract categories, despite considerable variations in presentation formats. By recording single-neuron activity in behaving crows, the authors show successive format-dependent and format-independent numerosity codes in the avian endbrain.
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36
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Miletto Petrazzini ME, Pecunioso A, Dadda M, Agrillo C. Searching for the Critical p of Macphail's Null Hypothesis: The Contribution of Numerical Abilities of Fish. Front Psychol 2020; 11:55. [PMID: 32116895 PMCID: PMC7025564 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2019] [Accepted: 01/09/2020] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
In 1985, Macphail argued that there are no differences among the intellects of non-human vertebrates and that humans display unique cognitive skills because of language. Mathematical abilities represent one of the most sophisticated cognitive skills. While it is unquestionable that humans exhibit impressive mathematical skills associated with language, a large body of experimental evidence suggests that Macphail hypothesis must be refined in this field. In particular, the evidence that also small-brained organisms, such as fish, are capable of processing numerical information challenges the idea that humans display unique cognitive skills. Like humans, fish may take advantage of using continuous quantities (such as the area occupied by the objects) as proxy of number to select the larger/smaller group. Fish and humans also showed interesting similarities in the strategy adopted to learn a numerical rule. Collective intelligence in numerical estimation has been also observed in humans and guppies. However, numerical acuity in humans is considerably higher than that reported in any fish species investigated, suggesting that quantitative but not qualitative differences do exist between humans and fish. Lastly, while it is clear that contextual factors play an important role in the performance of numerical tasks, inter-species variability can be found also when different fish species were tested in comparable conditions, a fact that does not align with the null hypothesis of vertebrate intelligence. Taken together, we believe that the recent evidence of numerical abilities in fish call for a deeper reflection of Macphail's hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Marco Dadda
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padua, Italy
| | - Christian Agrillo
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padua, Italy.,Padua Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Padua, Italy
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37
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Use of numerical and spatial information in ordinal counting by zebrafish. Sci Rep 2019; 9:18323. [PMID: 31797887 PMCID: PMC6893024 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-54740-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2019] [Accepted: 11/13/2019] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
The use of non-symbolic numerical information is widespread throughout the animal kingdom, providing adaptive benefits in several ecological contexts. Here we provide the possible evidence of ordinal numerical skills in zebrafish (Danio rerio). Zebrafish were trained to identify the second exit in a series of five identically-spaced exits along a corridor. When at test the total length of the corridor (Exp. 1) or the distance between exits (Exp. 2) was changed, zebrafish appeared not to use the absolute spatial distance. However, zebrafish relied both on ordinal as well as spatial cues when the number of exits was increased (from 5 to 9) and the inter-exit distance was reduced (Exp. 3), suggesting that they also take into account relative spatial information. These results highlight that zebrafish may provide a useful model organism for the study of the genetic bases of non-symbolic numerical and spatial cognition, and of their interaction.
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38
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Kundey SM, Phillips M. Tiger salamanders’ (Ambystoma tigrinum) use of features. Behav Processes 2019; 167:103919. [DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2019.103919] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2019] [Revised: 07/21/2019] [Accepted: 07/25/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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39
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Gazzola A, Vallortigara G, Pellitteri-Rosa D. Continuous and discrete quantity discrimination in tortoises. Biol Lett 2019; 14:20180649. [PMID: 30958247 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0649] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to estimate quantity, which is crucially important in several aspects of animal behaviour (e.g. foraging), has been extensively investigated in most taxa, with the exception of reptiles. The few studies available, in lizards, report lack of spontaneous discrimination of quantity, which may suggest that reptiles could represent an exception in numerical abilities among vertebrates. We investigated the spontaneous ability of Hermann's tortoises ( Testudo hermanni) to select the larger quantity of food items. Tortoises were able to choose the larger food item when exposed to two options differing in size, but equal in numerousness (0.25, 0.50, 0.67 and 0.75 ratio) and when presented with two groups differing in numerousness, but equal in size (1 versus 4, 2 versus 4, 2 versus 3 and 3 versus 4 items). The tortoises succeeded in both size and numerousness discrimination, and their performance appeared to depend on the ratio of items to be discriminated (thus following Weber's Law). These findings in chelonians provide evidence of an ancient system for the extrapolation of numerical magnitudes from given sets of elements, shared among vertebrates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Gazzola
- 1 Laboratorio di Eco-Etologia, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e dell'Ambiente, Università di Pavia , 27100 Pavia , Italy
| | | | - Daniele Pellitteri-Rosa
- 1 Laboratorio di Eco-Etologia, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e dell'Ambiente, Università di Pavia , 27100 Pavia , Italy
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40
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Affiliation(s)
- Elia Gatto
- Department of General Psychology University of Padua Padua Italy
- Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences Queen Mary University of London London UK
| | - Daniele Carlesso
- Department of General Psychology University of Padua Padua Italy
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41
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Effects of breed group and development on dogs' willingness to follow a human misleading advice. Anim Cogn 2019; 22:757-768. [PMID: 31161363 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01272-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2018] [Revised: 05/24/2019] [Accepted: 05/29/2019] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of dog breed groups, i.e., primitive, hunting/herding and Mastiff like (Study 1) and development, i.e., 4-month-old puppies vs adults (Study 2) on a quantity discrimination task. The task consisted of three conditions: C1-dogs were asked to choose between a large and a small amount of food; C2-the same choice was presented and dogs could choose after having witnessed the experimenter favouring the small quantity. C3-similar to C2 but the plates had two equally small food quantities. Study 1 revealed that dogs in the hunting/herding group were significantly more likely than Mastiff-like group to choose the small quantity indicated by the person over the large one, although all dog groups chose the large quantity over the small when they had a free choice. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that hunting/herding breeds have been selected for working in cooperation with humans and thus may be more sensitive to human social communicative cues than other breeds. In Study 2, results showed that 4-month-old puppies performed at chance level in C1, whereas in C2 both adults and puppies conformed to the experimenter's choice. In C3, adults followed the experimenter significantly more than puppies, although puppies still followed the experimenter above chance. Overall, domestic dogs seem to rely heavily on social communicative cues from humans, even when the information contradicts their own perception. This tendency to respond to human social cues is present, although at a lesser extent already at 4 months.
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42
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Gatto E, Agrillo C, Brown C, Dadda M. Individual differences in numerical skills are influenced by brain lateralization in guppies (Poecilia reticulata). INTELLIGENCE 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2019.04.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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43
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Balestrieri A, Gazzola A, Pellitteri-Rosa D, Vallortigara G. Discrimination of group numerousness under predation risk in anuran tadpoles. Anim Cogn 2019; 22:223-230. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01238-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2018] [Revised: 01/10/2019] [Accepted: 01/19/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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44
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Quantity discrimination in angelfish, Pterophyllum scalare: a novel approach with food as the discriminant. Anim Behav 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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45
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Nieder A. Evolution of cognitive and neural solutions enabling numerosity judgements: lessons from primates and corvids. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 373:rstb.2016.0514. [PMID: 29292361 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0514] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/29/2017] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Brains that are capable of representing numerosity, the number of items in a set, have arisen repeatedly and independently in different animal taxa. This review compares the cognitive and physiological mechanisms found in a nonhuman primate, the rhesus macaque, and a corvid songbird, the carrion crow, in order to elucidate the evolutionary adaptations underlying numerical competence. Monkeys and corvids are known for their advanced cognitive competence, despite them both having independently and distinctly evolved endbrains that resulted from a long history of parallel evolution. In both species, numerosity is represented as an analogue magnitude by an approximate number system that obeys the Weber-Fechner Law. In addition, the activity of numerosity-selective neurons in the fronto-parietal association cortex of monkeys and the telencephalic associative area nidopallium caudolaterale of crows mirrors the animals' performance. In both species' brains, neuronal activity is tuned to a preferred numerosity, encodes the numerical value in an approximate fashion, and is best represented on a logarithmic scale. Collectively, the data show an impressive correspondence of the cognitive and neuronal mechanisms for numerosity representations across monkeys and crows. This suggests that remotely related vertebrates with distinctly developed endbrains adopted similar physiological solutions to common computational problems in numerosity processing.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The origins of numerical abilities'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreas Nieder
- Animal Physiology Unit, Institute of Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
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46
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Benson-Amram S, Gilfillan G, McComb K. Numerical assessment in the wild: insights from social carnivores. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 373:rstb.2016.0508. [PMID: 29292356 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0508] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/11/2017] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Playback experiments have proved to be a useful tool to investigate the extent to which wild animals understand numerical concepts and the factors that play into their decisions to respond to different numbers of vocalizing conspecifics. In particular, playback experiments have broadened our understanding of the cognitive abilities of historically understudied species that are challenging to test in the traditional laboratory, such as members of the Order Carnivora. Additionally, playback experiments allow us to assess the importance of numerical information versus other ecologically important variables when animals are making adaptive decisions in their natural habitats. Here, we begin by reviewing what we know about quantity discrimination in carnivores from studies conducted in captivity. We then review a series of playback experiments conducted with wild social carnivores, including African lions, spotted hyenas and wolves, which demonstrate that these animals can assess the number of conspecifics calling and respond based on numerical advantage. We discuss how the wild studies complement those conducted in captivity and allow us to gain insights into why wild animals may not always respond based solely on differences in quantity. We then consider the key roles that individual discrimination and cross-modal recognition play in the ability of animals to assess the number of conspecifics vocalizing nearby. Finally, we explore new directions for future research in this area, highlighting in particular the need for further work on the cognitive basis of numerical assessment skills and experimental paradigms that can be effective in both captive and wild settings.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The origins of numerical abilities'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Benson-Amram
- Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA .,Program in Ecology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA
| | - Geoff Gilfillan
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer BN1 9RH, UK
| | - Karen McComb
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer BN1 9RH, UK
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47
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Skorupski P, MaBouDi H, Galpayage Dona HS, Chittka L. Counting insects. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 373:rstb.2016.0513. [PMID: 29292360 PMCID: PMC5784040 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0513] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/27/2017] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
When counting-like abilities were first described in the honeybee in the mid-1990s, many scholars were sceptical, but such capacities have since been confirmed in a number of paradigms and also in other insect species. Counter to the intuitive notion that counting is a cognitively advanced ability, neural network analyses indicate that it can be mediated by very small neural circuits, and we should therefore perhaps not be surprised that insects and other small-brained animals such as some small fish exhibit such abilities. One outstanding question is how bees actually acquire numerical information. For perception of small numerosities, working-memory capacity may limit the number of items that can be enumerated, but within these limits, numerosity can be evaluated accurately and (at least in primates) in parallel. However, presentation of visual stimuli in parallel does not automatically ensure parallel processing. Recent work on the question of whether bees can see ‘at a glance’ indicates that bees must acquire spatial detail by sequential scanning rather than parallel processing. We explore how this might be tested for a numerosity task in bees and other animals. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The origins of numerical abilities’.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Skorupski
- Institute of Medical and Biomedical Education, St George's, University of London, Cranmere Terrace, London SW170RE, UK
| | - HaDi MaBouDi
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK
| | | | - Lars Chittka
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK .,Wissenschaftskolleg, Institute for Advanced Study, Wallotstrasse 19, D-14193 Berlin, Germany
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48
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Rugani R. Towards numerical cognition's origin: insights from day-old domestic chicks. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 373:rstb.2016.0509. [PMID: 29292357 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/13/2017] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Instead of the scepticism on animal numerical understanding that characterized the first half of the twentieth century, in recent decades, a large and increasing body of the literature has shown that adult animals can master a variety of non-symbolic (in the absence of symbols such as mathematical words) numerical tasks. Nonetheless, evidence proving early numerical abilities in non-human animals was sparse. In this paper, I report the ongoing work to investigate numerical cognition in the day-old domestic chick (Gallus gallus). Unlike previous studies on adult animals, chicks can be tested very early in life, which gives us the opportunity to discover the origins of numerical comprehension. Here, I discuss studies revealing that day-old domestic chicks can: (i) discriminate between different numbers of objects; (ii) solve rudimentary arithmetic operations; and (iii) use ordinal information, identifying a target element (e.g. the fourth) in a series of identical elements, on the basis of its serial-numerical position. Some of these abilities are number-specific, while others underlie the interplay between number and continuous extents (continuous-quantity cues that covary with number, such as area and perimeter). These data are discussed in terms of ontogenetic development of mathematical comprehension.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The origins of numerical abilities'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rosa Rugani
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia, 8, 35131 Padua, Italy
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49
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Abstract
The less-is-better effect is a preference for the lesser of two alternatives sometimes observed when they are evaluated separately. For example, a dinner service of 24 intact pieces might be judged to be more valuable than a 40-piece dinner service containing nine broken pieces. Pattison and Zentall (Animal Cognition, 17: 1019-1022, 2014) reported similar sub-optimal choice behavior in dogs using a simultaneous choice procedure. Given a choice between a single high-value food item (cheese) or an equivalent high-value item plus a lower-value food item (carrot), their dogs chose the individual item. In a subsequent test, the dogs preferred two high-value items to a single high-value item, suggesting that avoidance of multiple items did not cause the sub-optimal choice behavior. In two experiments, we replicated Pattison and Zentall's procedure while including additional controls. In Experiment 1, habituation of neophobia for multiple items was controlled for by intermixing the two types of test trial within a single experimental session. In Experiment 2, we controlled for avoidance of heterogeneous rewards by including test trials in which a choice was offered between the combination of items and a single low-value item. In both experiments we observed sub-optimal choice behavior which could not be explained by either of these putative mechanisms. Our results, as well as those of Pattison and Zentall, are consistent with the suggestion that dogs' assessment of the total value of multiple items is based, at least partly, on their average quality.
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50
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Johnson-Ulrich Z, Vonk J. Spatial representation of magnitude in humans (Homo sapiens), Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), and American black bears (Ursus americanus). Anim Cogn 2018; 21:531-550. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-018-1186-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2017] [Revised: 04/21/2018] [Accepted: 04/25/2018] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
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