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Tran TTU, Esseily R, Bovet D, Király I. One Function One Tool? A Review on Mutual Exclusivity in Tool Use Learning in Human and Non-human Species. Front Psychol 2021; 12:603960. [PMID: 34887793 PMCID: PMC8649634 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.603960] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2020] [Accepted: 10/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The goal of this review is twofold: first to explore whether mutual exclusivity and functional fixedness overlap and what might be their respective specificities and second, to investigate whether mutual exclusivity as an inferential principle could be applied in other domains than language and whether it can be found in non-human species. In order to do that, we first give an overview of the representative studies of each phenomenon. We then analyze papers on tool use learning in children that studied or observed one of these phenomena. We argue that, despite their common principle -one tool one function- mutual exclusivity and functional fixedness are two distinct phenomena and need to be addressed separately in order to fully understand the mechanisms underlying social learning and cognition. In addition, mutual exclusivity appears to be applicable in other domains than language learning, namely tool use learning and is also found in non-human species when learning symbols and tools.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thuy Tuong Uyen Tran
- Laboratoire Ethologie Cognition Développement, UPL, Univ Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France
| | - Rana Esseily
- Laboratoire Ethologie Cognition Développement, UPL, Univ Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France
| | - Dalila Bovet
- Laboratoire Ethologie Cognition Développement, UPL, Univ Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France
| | - Ildikó Király
- MTA-ELTE Social Minds Research Group, Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.,Department of Cognitive Science, Cognitive Development Center, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
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Heimbauer LA, Beran MJ, Owren MJ. A chimpanzee recognizes varied acoustical versions of sine-wave and noise-vocoded speech. Anim Cogn 2021; 24:843-854. [PMID: 33555417 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-021-01478-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2020] [Revised: 01/01/2021] [Accepted: 01/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Previous research demonstrated that a language-trained chimpanzee recognized familiar English words in sine-wave and noise-vocoded forms (Heimbauer et al. Curr Biol 21:1210-1214, 2011). However, those results did not provide information regarding processing strategies of the specific acoustic cues to which the chimpanzee may have attended. The current experiments tested this chimpanzee and adult humans using sine-wave and noise-vocoded speech manipulated using specific sine-waves and a different number of noise bands, respectively. Similar to humans tested with the same stimuli, the chimpanzee was more successful identifying sine-wave speech when both SW1 and SW2 were present - the components that are modeled on formants F1 and F2 in the natural speech signal. Results with noise-vocoded speech revealed that the chimpanzee and humans performed best with stimuli that included four or five noise bands, as compared to those with three and two. Overall, amplitude and frequency modulation over time were important for identification of sine-wave and noise-vocoded speech, with further evidence that a nonhuman primate is capable of using top-down processes for speech perception when the signal is altered and incomplete.
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Fugazza C, Andics A, Magyari L, Dror S, Zempléni A, Miklósi Á. Rapid learning of object names in dogs. Sci Rep 2021; 11:2222. [PMID: 33500506 PMCID: PMC7838202 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-81699-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2020] [Accepted: 01/11/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Learning object names after few exposures, is thought to be a typically human capacity. Previous accounts of similar skills in dogs did not include control testing procedures, leaving unanswered the question whether this ability is uniquely human. To investigate the presence of the capacity to rapidly learn words in dogs, we tested object-name learning after four exposures in two dogs with knowledge of multiple toy-names. The dogs were exposed to new object-names either while playing with the objects with the owner who named those in a social context or during an exclusion-based task similar to those used in previous studies. The dogs were then tested on the learning outcome of the new object-names. Both dogs succeeded after exposure in the social context but not after exposure to the exclusion-based task. Their memory of the object-names lasted for at least two minutes and tended to decay after retention intervals of 10 min and 1 h. This reveals that rapid object-name learning is possible for a non-human species (dogs), although memory consolidation may require more exposures. We suggest that rapid learning presupposes learning in a social context. To investigate whether rapid learning of object names in a social context is restricted to dogs that have already shown the ability to learn multiple object-names, we used the same procedure with 20 typical family dogs. These dogs did not demonstrate any evidence of learning the object names. This suggests that only a few subjects show this ability. Future studies should investigate whether this outstanding capacity stems from the exceptional talent of some individuals or whether it emerges from previous experience with object name learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudia Fugazza
- Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
| | - Attila Andics
- Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. .,MTA-ELTE 'Lendület' Neuroethology of Communication Research Group, Budapest, Hungary.
| | - Lilla Magyari
- Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.,MTA-ELTE 'Lendület' Neuroethology of Communication Research Group, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Shany Dror
- Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - András Zempléni
- Department of Probability Theory and Statistics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Ádám Miklósi
- Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.,MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group, Budapest, Hungary
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Koopman SE, Arre AM, Piantadosi ST, Cantlon JF. One-to-one correspondence without language. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2019; 6:190495. [PMID: 31824689 PMCID: PMC6837223 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.190495] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2019] [Accepted: 10/01/2019] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
A logical rule important in counting and representing exact number is one-to-one correspondence, the understanding that two sets are equal if each item in one set corresponds to exactly one item in the second set. The role of this rule in children's development of counting remains unclear, possibly due to individual differences in the development of language. We report that non-human primates, which do not have language, have at least a partial understanding of this principle. Baboons were given a quantity discrimination task where two caches were baited with different quantities of food. When the quantities were baited in a manner that highlighted the one-to-one relation between those quantities, baboons performed significantly better than when one-to-one correspondence cues were not provided. The implication is that one-to-one correspondence, which requires intuitions about equality and is a possible building block of counting, has a pre-linguistic origin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah E. Koopman
- Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, 500 Wilson Boulevard, Rochester, NY, USA
| | | | - Steven T. Piantadosi
- Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, 500 Wilson Boulevard, Rochester, NY, USA
- Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Jessica F. Cantlon
- Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, 500 Wilson Boulevard, Rochester, NY, USA
- Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
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Plazas EA, Villamil CW. Formation of new stimulus equivalence classes by exclusion. J Exp Anal Behav 2018; 109:380-393. [DOI: 10.1002/jeab.322] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2016] [Accepted: 02/15/2018] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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Gazes RP, Chee NW, Hampton RR. Monkeys choose, but do not learn, through exclusion. ANIMAL BEHAVIOR AND COGNITION 2018; 5:9-18. [PMID: 32864425 PMCID: PMC7450826 DOI: 10.26451/abc.05.01.02.2018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Human children will select a novel object from among a group of known objects when presented with a novel object name. This disambiguation by exclusion may facilitate new name-object mappings and may play a role in the rapid word learning shown by young children. Animals including dogs, apes, monkeys, and birds make similar exclusion choices. However, evidence regarding whether children and nonhuman animals learn new associations through choice by exclusion is mixed. In the present study we dissociate choice by exclusion from learning by exclusion in rhesus monkeys using a paired-associate task. In experiment 1, monkeys demonstrated choice by exclusion by choosing a novel comparison image from among known comparison images when presented with a novel sample image. In experiment 2, monkeys failed to benefit from choice by exclusion in learning new sets of paired associates. Monkeys learned new sets of four paired associates by trial and error alone or by a combination of exclusion and trial and error. Despite choosing correctly by exclusion on almost 100% of opportunities, monkeys did not learn any faster by exclusion than by trial and error alone. These results indicate that monkeys chose, but do not learn, through exclusion, highlighting the importance of separately evaluating choice and learning in studies of exclusion in word learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Regina Paxton Gazes
- Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA; Department of Psychology and Program in Animal Behavior Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA
| | - Nicholas W Chee
- Department of Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA; NYU Langone Medical Center
| | - Robert R Hampton
- Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta GA, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta GA
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Zaine I, Domeniconi C, de Rose JC. Exclusion performance and learning by exclusion in dogs. J Exp Anal Behav 2016; 105:362-74. [DOI: 10.1002/jeab.209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2015] [Accepted: 04/20/2016] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Isabela Zaine
- Universidade Federal de São Carlos and Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia sobre Comportamento, Cognição e Ensino
| | - Camila Domeniconi
- Universidade Federal de São Carlos and Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia sobre Comportamento, Cognição e Ensino
| | - Julio C. de Rose
- Universidade Federal de São Carlos and Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia sobre Comportamento, Cognição e Ensino
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Beran MJ, Heimbauer LA. A longitudinal assessment of vocabulary retention in symbol-competent chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). PLoS One 2015; 10:e0118408. [PMID: 25706561 PMCID: PMC4338080 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0118408] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2014] [Accepted: 01/16/2015] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
A number of studies from the 1960s to 1990s assessed the symbolic competence of great apes and other animals. These studies provided varying forms of evidence that some species were capable of symbolically representing their worlds, both through productive symbol use and comprehension of symbolic stimuli. One such project at the Language Research Center involved training chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) to use lexigram symbols (geometric visual stimuli that represented objects, actions, locations, and individuals). Those studies now are more than 40 years old, and only a few of the apes involved in those studies are still alive. Three of these chimpanzees (and a fourth, control chimpanzee) were assessed across a 10-year period from 1999 to 2008 for their continued knowledge of lexigram symbols and, in the case of one chimpanzee, the continued ability to comprehend human speech. This article describes that longitudinal assessment and outlines the degree to which symbol competence was retained by these chimpanzees across that decade-long period. All chimpanzees showed retention of lexigram vocabularies, although there were differences in the number of words that were retained across the individuals. One chimpanzee also showed continual retention of human speech perception. These retained vocabularies largely consisted of food item names, but also names of inedible objects, locations, individuals, and some actions. Many of these retained words were for things that are not common in the daily lives of the chimpanzees and for things that are rarely requested by the chimpanzees. Thus, the early experiences of these chimpanzees in symbol-rich environments have produced long-lasting memories for symbol meaning, and those competencies have benefited research in a variety of topics in comparative cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael J. Beran
- Language Research Center, Georgia State University, University Plaza, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Lisa A. Heimbauer
- Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, Moore Building, University Park, State College, Pennsylvania, United States of America
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Felipe de Souza M, Schmidt A. Responding by exclusion in Wistar rats in a simultaneous visual discrimination task. J Exp Anal Behav 2014; 102:346-52. [PMID: 25220019 DOI: 10.1002/jeab.106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2013] [Accepted: 08/14/2014] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Responding by exclusion is to select a correct alternative by rejecting other potential alternatives. Studies describe this ability in some mammals and birds. However, this type of performance has not been reported in rodents. The aim of this study was to verify the occurrence of responding by exclusion in Wistar rats after a baseline of simple simultaneous visual discrimination. Six male Wistar learned nose-poking tunnels displaying visual stimuli (projected geometric shapes) in an operant chamber. After establishing the simultaneous discrimination baseline, three probe sessions were conducted. In each session, there was a novelty-control probe (a new stimulus was presented together with a stimulus trained as the S(+)) and an exclusion probe (a second new stimulus was presented simultaneously with a stimulus trained as the S(-)). Only one rat responded to the new stimulus in one of the three novelty probe trials. Four rats responded to the three new stimuli and one responded to the new stimulus in two of the three exclusion probes. One subject responded to the S(-) in all the exclusion probes. Five of the six subjects were therefore able to choose the new stimulus, rejecting stimuli trained as the S(-). This is the first experimental evidence for performance by exclusion in rats.
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Cippola NS, Domeniconi C, Machado A. Responding by exclusion in temporal discrimination tasks. J Exp Anal Behav 2014; 101:215-29. [DOI: 10.1002/jeab.71] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2013] [Accepted: 11/19/2013] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
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Lurz RW. Belief Attribution in Animals: On How to Move Forward Conceptually and Empirically. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2010. [DOI: 10.1007/s13164-010-0042-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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