Superior abstract-concept learning by Clark's nutcrackers (
            Nucifraga columbiana
            )

The ability to learn abstract relational concepts is fundamental to higher level cognition. In contrast to item-specific concepts (e.g. pictures containing trees versus pictures containing cars), abstract relational concepts are not bound to particular stimulus features, but instead involve the relationship between stimuli and therefore may be extrapolated to novel stimuli. Previous research investigating the same/different abstract concept has suggested that primates might be specially adapted to extract relations among items and would require fewer exemplars of a rule to learn an abstract concept than non-primate species. We assessed abstract-concept learning in an avian species, Clark's nutcracker ( Nucifraga columbiana ), using a small number of exemplars (eight pairs of the same rule, and 56 pairs of the different rule) identical to that previously used to compare rhesus monkeys, capuchin monkeys and pigeons. Nutcrackers as a group ( N = 9) showed more novel stimulus transfer than any previous species tested with this small number of exemplars. Two nutcrackers showed full concept learning and four more showed transfer considerably above chance performance, indicating partial concept learning. These results show that the Clark's nutcracker, a corvid species well known for its amazing feats of spatial memory, learns the same/different abstract concept better than any non-human species (including non-human primates) yet tested on this same task.

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Corvids Outperform Pigeons and Primates in Learning a Basic Concept

Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/0956797616685871 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 28 (4) ◽

pp. 437-444 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Anthony A. Wright ◽

John F. Magnotti ◽

Jeffrey S. Katz ◽

Kevin Leonard ◽

Alizée Vernouillet ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Concept Learning ◽

Test Accuracy ◽

Abstract Concept ◽

Set Size ◽

The Family ◽

Intelligent Behavior ◽

Training Concept ◽

Species Comparisons ◽

Better Than ◽

Cache Location

Corvids (birds of the family Corvidae) display intelligent behavior previously ascribed only to primates, but such feats are not directly comparable across species. To make direct species comparisons, we used a same/different task in the laboratory to assess abstract-concept learning in black-billed magpies ( Pica hudsonia). Concept learning was tested with novel pictures after training. Concept learning improved with training-set size, and test accuracy eventually matched training accuracy—full concept learning—with a 128-picture set; this magpie performance was equivalent to that of Clark’s nutcrackers (a species of corvid) and monkeys (rhesus, capuchin) and better than that of pigeons. Even with an initial 8-item picture set, both corvid species showed partial concept learning, outperforming both monkeys and pigeons. Similar corvid performance refutes the hypothesis that nutcrackers’ prolific cache-location memory accounts for their superior concept learning, because magpies rely less on caching. That corvids with “primitive” neural architectures evolved to equal primates in full concept learning and even to outperform them on the initial 8-item picture test is a testament to the shared (convergent) survival importance of abstract-concept learning.

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Self-Prioritization Beyond Perception

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000307 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 62 (6) ◽

pp. 415-425 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Sarah Schäfer ◽

Dirk Wentura ◽

Christian Frings

Keyword(s):

The Self ◽

Stimulus Category ◽

Abstract Concept ◽

Conceptual Level ◽

New Paradigm ◽

Stimulus Features ◽

Relevant Word ◽

Word Shape

Abstract. Recently, Sui, He, and Humphreys (2012) introduced a new paradigm to measure perceptual self-prioritization processes. It seems that arbitrarily tagging shapes to self-relevant words (I, my, me, and so on) leads to speeded verification times when matching self-relevant word shape pairings (e.g., me – triangle) as compared to non-self-relevant word shape pairings (e.g., stranger – circle). In order to analyze the level at which self-prioritization takes place we analyzed whether the self-prioritization effect is due to a tagging of the self-relevant label and the particular associated shape or due to a tagging of the self with an abstract concept. In two experiments participants showed standard self-prioritization effects with varying stimulus features or different exemplars of a particular stimulus-category suggesting that self-prioritization also works at a conceptual level.

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