Reasoning by exclusion in the kea (Nestor notabilis)

This or not that: select and reject control of relational responding in rats using a blank comparison procedure with odor stimuli

The blank comparison (BLC) task was developed to assess stimulus relations in discrimination learning; that is, are subjects learning to "select" the correct stimulus (S+) or "reject" the incorrect stimulus (S-) or both? This task has been used to study exclusion learning, mostly in humans and monkeys, and the present study extends the procedure to rats. The BLC task uses an ambiguous stimulus (BLC+/-) that replaces S+ (in the presence of S-) and replaces S- (in the presence of S+). In the current experiment, four rats were trained to remove session-novel scented lids from sand-filled cups in a two-choice, simultaneous presentation procedure called the Odor Span Task (OST) before being trained on the BLC procedure using odors as the discriminative stimuli. The BLC training procedure utilized simple discrimination training (S+ and S-) and added select (S+ and BLC-) and reject (BLC+ and S-) trial types. All rats demonstrated accurate performance in sessions with both select and reject type trials. Next, BLC probe trials were interspersed in standard OST sessions to assess the form of stimulus control in the OST. Rats performed accurately on select type probe trials (similar to baseline OST performance) and also showed above chance accuracy on reject type trials. Thus, we demonstrated that rats could acquire an odor-based version of the BLC task and that both select and exclusion-based (reject) relations were active in the OST. The finding of exclusion in rats under the rigorous BLC task conditions confirms that exclusion-based responding is not limited to humans and non-human primates.

Feathered Lectures-Evidence of Perceptual Factors on Social Learning in Kea Parrots (Nestor notabilis)

Social learning describes the acquisition of knowledge through observation of other individuals, and it is fundamental for the development of culture and traditions within human groups. Although previous studies suggest that Kea (Nestor notabilis) benefit from social learning, experimental evidence has been inconclusive, as in a recent two-action task, all perceptual factors were ignored. The present study attempts to address this by investigating social learning in Kea with a focus on social enhancement processes. In an experiment with a captive group of Kea, we investigated whether individuals that had the opportunity to observe a conspecific performing a simple task subsequently show better performance in that task than a control group without prior demonstration. This study provides a strong tendency of greater success in skill acquisition in Kea as a result of social learning. Kea that observed a conspecific solving a task showed clear evidence of perceptual factors drawing attention to the relevant parts of the experimental apparatus and manipulated these significantly more (100% of trials) than control birds (77.8% of trials). Combined with a strong trend (p = 0.056) of the test subjects solving the task more than the control subjects, this shows conclusively that Kea, at least when required to solve a task, do attend to perceptual factors of a demonstrated action.

Children's use of reasoning by exclusion to infer objects' identities in working memory

Reasoning by exclusion allows us to form more complete representations of our environments, "filling in" inaccessible information by ruling out known alternatives. In two experiments (Experiment 1: N = 34 4- to 6-year-olds; Experiment 2: N = 85 4- to 8-year-olds), we examined children's ability to use reasoning by exclusion to infer the identity of an unknown object and investigated the role of working memory in this ability. Children were asked to encode a set of objects that were then hidden, and after a brief retention interval children were asked to select the identity of the object hidden in one of the locations from two alternatives. On some trials, all the images were visible during encoding, so selecting the correct identity when probed required successful working memory storage and retrieval. On other trials, all but one of the images was visible during encoding, so selecting the correct identity when probed also required maintaining a representation of an unknown object in working memory and then using reasoning by exclusion to fill in the missing information retroactively to complete that representation by ruling out known alternatives. To investigate the working memory cost of exclusive reasoning, we manipulated the working memory demands of the task. Our results suggest that children can use reasoning by exclusion to retroactively assign an identity to an incomplete object representation at least by 4 years of age but that this ability incurs some cognitive cost, which eases with development. These results provide new insights into children's representational capacities and on the foundational building blocks of fully developed exclusive reasoning.

Two-action task, testing imitative social learning in kea (Nestor notabilis)

Social learning is an adaptive way of dealing with the complexity of life as it reduces the risk of trial-and-error learning. Depending on the type of information acquired, and associations formed, several mechanisms within the larger taxonomy of social learning can be distinguished. Imitation is one such process within this larger taxonomy, it is considered cognitively demanding and is associated with high-fidelity response matching. The present study reproduced a 2002 study conducted by Heyes and Saggerson, which successfully illustrated motor imitation in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus). In our study, eighteen kea (Nestor notabilis) that observed a trained demonstrator remove a stopper from a test box (1) took less time from hopping on the box to feeding (response duration) in session one and (2) were faster in making a vertical removal response on the stopper once they hopped on the box (removal latency) in session one than non-observing control group individuals. In contrast to the budgerigars (Heyes and Saggerson, Ani Behav. 64:851-859, 2002) the present study could not find evidence of motor imitation in kea. The results do illustrate, however, that there were strong social effects on exploration rates indicating motivational and attentional shifts. Furthermore, the results may suggest a propensity toward emulation in contrast to motor imitation or alternatively selectivity in the application of imitation.

'Do I know you?' Categorizing individuals on the basis of familiarity in kea (Nestor notabilis)

Categorizing individuals on the basis of familiarity is an adaptive way of dealing with the complexity of the social environment. It requires the use of conceptual familiarity and is considered higher order learning. Although, it is common among many species, ecological need might require and facilitate individual differentiation among heterospecifics. This may be true for laboratory populations just as much as for domesticated species and those that live in urban contexts. However, with the exception of a few studies, populations of laboratory animals have generally been given less attention. The study at hand, therefore, addressed the question whether a laboratory population of kea parrots (Nestor notabilis) were able to apply the concept of familiarity to differentiate between human faces in a two-choice discrimination task on the touchscreen. The results illustrated that the laboratory population of kea were indeed able to differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar human faces in a two-choice discrimination task. The results provide novel empirical evidence on abstract categorization capacities in parrots while at the same time providing further evidence of representational insight in kea.

Recent developments in parrot cognition: a quadrennial update

Psittacines, along with corvids, are commonly referred to as 'feathered apes' due to their advanced cognitive abilities. Until rather recently, the research effort on parrot cognition was lagging behind that on corvids, however current developments show that the number of parrot studies is steadily increasing. In 2018, M. L. Lambert et al. provided a comprehensive review on the status of the most important work done so far in parrot and corvid cognition. Nevertheless, only a little more than 4 years after this publication, more than 50 new parrot studies have been published, some of them chartering completely new territory. On the 25th anniversary of Animal Cognition we think this warrants a detailed review of parrot cognition research over the last 4 years. We aim to capture recent developments and current trends in this rapidly expanding and diversifying field.

Both sheep and goats can solve inferential by exclusion tasks

Despite the domestication of sheep and goats by humans for several millennia, we still lack comparative data on their cognitive capacity. Comparing the cognitive skills of farm animals can help understand the evolution of cognition. In this study, we compared the performances of sheep and goats in inference by exclusion tasks. We implemented two tasks, namely a cup task and a tube task, to identify whether success in solving the task could be attributed to either low-level mechanisms (avoiding the empty location strategy) or to deductive reasoning (if two possibilities A and B, but not A, then it must be B). In contrast to a previous study comparing goats and sheep in a cup task, we showed that both species solved the inferential condition with high success rates. In the tube task, performances could not be explained by alternative strategies such as avoiding the empty tube or preferring the bent tube. When applying a strict set of criteria concerning responses in all conditions and controlling for the potential effects of experience, we demonstrate that two individuals, a goat and a sheep, fulfil these criteria. This suggests that sheep and goats are able to make inferences based on deductive reasoning.

Kea (Nestor notabilis) show flexibility and individuality in within-session reversal learning tasks

The midsession reversal paradigm confronts an animal with a two-choice discrimination task where the reward contingencies are reversed at the midpoint of the session. Species react to the reversal with either win-stay/lose-shift, using local information of reinforcement, or reversal estimation, using global information, e.g. time, to estimate the point of reversal. Besides pigeons, only mammalian species were tested in this paradigm so far and analyses were conducted on pooled data, not considering possible individually different responses. We tested twelve kea parrots with a 40-trial midsession reversal test and additional shifted reversal tests with a variable point of reversal. Birds were tested in two groups on a touchscreen, with the discrimination task having either only visual or additional spatial information. We used Generalized Linear Mixed Models to control for individual differences when analysing the data. Our results demonstrate that kea can use win-stay/lose-shift independently of local information. The predictors group, session, and trial number as well as their interactions had a significant influence on the response. Furthermore, we discovered notable individual differences not only between birds but also between sessions of individual birds, including the ability to quite accurately estimate the reversal position in alternation to win-stay/lose-shift. Our findings of the kea’s quick and flexible responses contribute to the knowledge of diversity in avian cognitive abilities and emphasize the need to consider individuality as well as the limitation of pooling the data when analysing midsession reversal data.

Exclusion in the field: wild brown skuas find hidden food in the absence of visual information

Inferential reasoning by exclusion allows responding adaptively to various environmental stimuli when confronted with inconsistent or partial information. In the experimental context, this mechanism involves selecting correctly between an empty option and a potentially rewarded one. Recently, the increasing reports of this capacity in phylogenetically distant species have led to the assumption that reasoning by exclusion is the result of convergent evolution. Within one largely unstudied avian order, i.e. the Charadriiformes, brown skuas (Catharacta antarctica ssp lonnbergi) are highly flexible and opportunistic predators. Behavioural flexibility, along with specific aspects of skuas' feeding ecology, may act as influencing factors in their ability to show exclusion performance. Our study aims to test whether skuas are able to choose by exclusion in a visual two-way object-choice task. Twenty-six wild birds were presented with two opaque cups, one covering a food reward. Three conditions were used: 'full information' (showing the content of both cups), 'exclusion' (showing the content of the empty cup), and 'control' (not showing any content). Skuas preferentially selected the rewarded cup in the full information and exclusion condition. The use of olfactory cues was excluded by results in the control condition. Our study opens new field investigations for testing further the cognition of this predatory seabird.

Macphail's Null Hypothesis of Vertebrate Intelligence: Insights From Avian Cognition

Macphail famously criticized two foundational assumptions that underlie the evolutionary approach to comparative psychology: that there are differences in intelligence across species, and that intelligent behavior in animals is based on more than associative learning. Here, we provide evidence from recent work in avian cognition that supports both these assumptions: intelligence across species varies, and animals can perform intelligent behaviors that are not guided solely by associative learning mechanisms. Finally, we reflect on the limitations of comparative psychology that led to Macphail's claims and suggest strategies researchers can use to make more advances in the field.

Positive emotional contagion in a New Zealand parrot

Positive emotional contagions are outwardly emotive actions that spread from one individual to another, such as glee in preschool children [1] or laughter in humans of all ages [2]. The play vocalizations of some animals may also act as emotional contagions. For example, artificially deafened rats are less likely to play than their non-hearing-impaired conspecifics, while no such effect is found for blinded rats [3]. As rat play vocalizations are also produced in anticipation of play, they, rather than the play itself, may act as a contagion, leading to a hypothesis of evolutionary parallels between rat play vocalizations and human laughter [4]. The kea parrot (Nestor notabilis) has complex play behaviour and a distinct play vocalization [5]. We used acoustic playback to investigate the effect of play calls on wild kea, finding that play vocalizations increase the amount of play among both juveniles and adults, likely by acting as a positive emotional contagion.

Utilising dog-computer interactions to provide mental stimulation in dogs especially during ageing

Aged dogs suffer from reduced mobility and activity levels, which can affect their daily lives. It is quite typical for owners of older dogs to reduce all activities such as walking, playing and training, since their dog may appear to no longer need them. Previous studies have shown that ageing can be slowed by mental and physical stimulation, and thus stopping these activities might actually lead to faster ageing in dogs, which can result in a reduction in the quality of life of the animal, and may even decrease the strength of the dog-owner bond. In this paper, we describe in detail a touchscreen apparatus, software and training method that we have used to facilitate dog computer interaction (DCI). We propose that DCI has the potential to improve the welfare of older dogs in particular through cognitive enrichment. We provide hypotheses for future studies to examine the possible effects of touchscreen use on physiological, behavioural and cognitive measures of dogs' positive affect and well-being, and any impact on the dog-owner bond. In the future, collaborations between researchers in animal-computer interaction, dog trainers, and cognitive scientists are essential to develop the hardware and software necessary to realise the full potential of this training and enrichment tool.

Where is the evidence for general intelligence in nonhuman animals?

This commentary contrasts evolutionary plausibility with empirical evidence and cognitive continuity with radiation and convergent evolution. So far, neither within-species nor between-species comparisons on the basis of rigorous experimental and species-appropriate tests substantiate the claims made in the target article. Caution is advisable on meta-analytical comparisons that primarily rely on publication frequencies and overgeneralizations (from murids and primates to other nonhuman animals).