scholarly journals Comparative cognition in three understudied ungulate species: European bison, forest buffalos and giraffes

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvaro Lopez Caicoya ◽  
Federica Amici ◽  
Conrad Ensenyat ◽  
Montserrat Colell
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Comparative Cognition ◽  
Object Permanence ◽  
European Bison ◽  
Ecological Characteristics ◽  
Selective Pressures ◽  
Dietary Breadth ◽  
Stimulus Enhancement ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Inference Task

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.

scholarly journals Intra-specific differences in cognition: bumblebee queens learn better than workers

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 20210280
Author(s):  
Felicity Muth
Keyword(s):  
Social Insects ◽  
Nest Site ◽  
Comparative Cognition ◽  
The Body ◽  
Wild Bees ◽  
Ecological Requirements ◽  
Future Success ◽  
Learning Capabilities ◽  
Foraging Experience ◽  
Better Than

Species’ cognitive traits are shaped by their ecology, and even within a species, cognition can reflect the behavioural requirements of individuals with different roles. Social insects have a number of discrete roles (castes) within a colony and thus offer a useful system to determine how ecological requirements shape cognition. Bumblebee queens are a critical point in the lifecycle of their colony, since its future success is reliant on a single individual's ability to learn about floral stimuli while finding a suitable nest site; thus, one might expect particularly adept learning capabilities at this stage. I compared wild Bombus vosnesenskii queens and workers on their ability to learn a colour association and found that queens performed better than workers. In addition, queens of another species, B. insularis, a cuckoo species with a different lifecycle but similar requirements at this stage, performed equally well as the non-parasitic queens. To control for differences in foraging experience, I then repeated this comparison with laboratory-based B. impatiens and found that unmated queens performed better than workers. These results add to the body of work on how ecology shapes cognition and opens the door to further research in comparative cognition using wild bees.

Hearing the Beat

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen M. Einarson ◽  
Laurel J. Trainor
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Superior Performance ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Perceptual Sensitivity ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Phase Errors ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Better Than

Adults can extract the underlying beat from music, and entrain their movements with that beat. Although infants and children are poor at synchronizing their movements to auditory stimuli, recent findings suggest they are perceptually sensitive to the beat. We examined five-year-old children’s perceptual sensitivity to musical beat alignment (adapting the adult task of Iversen & Patel, 2008). We also examined whether sensitivity is affected by metric complexity, and whether perceptual sensitivity correlates with cognitive skills. On each trial of the complex Beat Alignment Test (cBAT) children were presented with two successive videos of puppets drumming to music with simple or complex meter. One puppet’s drumming was synchronized with the beat of the music while the other had either incorrect tempo or incorrect phase, and children were asked to select the better drummer. In two experiments, five-year-olds were able to detect beat misalignments in simple meter music significantly better than beat misalignments in complex meter music for both phase errors and tempo errors, with performance for complex meter music at chance levels. Although cBAT performance correlated with short-term memory in Experiment One, the relationship held for both simple and complex meter, so cannot explain the superior performance for culturally typical meters.

scholarly journals Assessment of Students’ Higher-level Text Comprehension Skills in Basic School

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Triinu Kärbla ◽  
Krista Uibu
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Text Comprehension ◽  
Narrative Text ◽  
Analysis And Evaluation ◽  
Grade 5 ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Reading Text ◽  
Basic School ◽  
Better Than

Text comprehension is a sophisticated process that is influenced by the reader’s cognitive skills, prior knowledge and the type of texts. The aim of the present longitudinal study was to assess the students’ ability to analyse and evaluate the narrative text in Grades 4 and 5. A total of 831 Estonian students were tested in two consecutive years. The results indicated that fewer than half of the students succeeded in analysing and evaluating the contents of the text, while the students’ text comprehension skills in Grade 5 were significantly better than in Grade 4. Students had more difficulties answering the questions that examined their skill of evaluating the text, compared to their ability to analyse the text. This led to the conclusion that teachers should pay more attention to the students’ higher-level cognitive processes and support their text comprehension skills. Keywords: Analysis and evaluation skills; Basic school; Reading; Text comprehension 

Ecological variation in cognition: Insights from bonobos and chimpanzees

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra G. Rosati
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Foraging Behaviour ◽  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Comparative Cognition ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Last Common Ancestor ◽  
Fallback Foods ◽  
Cognitive Domains ◽  
Spatially Distributed

Bonobos and chimpanzees are closely related, yet they exhibit important differences in their wild socio-ecology. Whereas bonobos live in environments with less seasonal variation and more access to fallback foods, chimpanzees face more competition over spatially distributed, variable resources. This chapter argues that bonobo and chimpanzee cognition show psychological signatures of their divergent wild ecology. Current evidence shows that despite strong commonalities in many cognitive domains, apes express targeted differences in specific cognitive skills critical for wild foraging behaviours. In particular, bonobos exhibit less accurate spatial memory, reduced levels of patience and greater risk aversion than do chimpanzees. These results have implications for understanding the evolution of human cognition, as studies of apes are a critical tool for modelling the last common ancestor of humans with nonhuman apes. Linking comparative cognition to species’ natural foraging behaviour can begin to address the ultimate reason for why differences in cognition emerge across species. Les bonobos et les chimpanzés sont prochement liés, pourtant ils montrent d’importantes différences dans leur sociologie naturelle. Alors que les bonobos vivent dans des environnements avec peu de diversité de climat entre saisons et plus d’accès à des ressources de nourriture alternatives, les chimpanzés ménagent une compétition étalée spatialement et des ressources plus variées. Je soutiens que la cognition des chimpanzés et bonobos montre les signatures psychologiques de leur écologie naturelle divergente. Les témoignages courants montrent que, malgré les forts points communs dans en cognition, les grands singes expriment des différences au niveau de compétences cognitives importantes au butinage. En particulier, les bonobos démontrent une mémoire spatial moin précise, moin de patience, et plus d’aversion de risques que les chimpanzés. Ces résultats fournissent des signes dans l’étude de l’évolution de la cognition humaine. Les études des grands singe sont un outil d’importance majeure dans la modélisation du dernier ancêtre commun des humains et grands singes non-humains. Faire des liens cognitives comparatives entre le butinage des différentes espèces peut commencer à dévoiler les raisons pour les différences de cognition entre espèces.

Cognitive Skills Associated with the Onset of Multiword Utterances

1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 645-656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charleen A. Kelly ◽  
Philip S. Dale
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Object Permanence ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Language And Cognition ◽  
Linguistic Groups ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cognitive Areas

The relationship between early language and cognition was studied in 20 children between one and two years of age. Linguistically, the subjects were classifed as No Word Users, Single Word Users, Nonproductive Syntax Users, and Productive Syntax Users. Four cognitive areas were tested: Object Permanence, Means-end, Play, and Imitation. When adjacent pairs of linguistic groups were compared in terms of specific cognitive skills demonstrated, several significant differences were found. First, a significant difference in Play was found between No Word Users and Single Word Users. Second, there were significant differences between Single Word Users and Nonproductive Syntax Users in terms of specific cognitive advances in both Imitation and Play. Third, Nonproductive and Productive Syntax Users were significantly different in Means-end skills. In accordance with the Correlational Hypothesis, specific cognitive skills seem temporally associated with some linguistic abilities, although attainment of skills can be evidenced first in language or cognition.

scholarly journals Did we find a copycat? Do as I Do in a domestic cat (Felis catus)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Fugazza ◽  
Andrea Sommese ◽  
Ákos Pogány ◽  
Ádám Miklósi
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Felis Catus ◽  
Domestic Cat ◽  
Human Model ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Stimulus Enhancement ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Small Set ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Control

Abstract This study shows evidence of a domestic cat (Felis catus) being able to successfully learn to reproduce human-demonstrated actions based on the Do as I Do paradigm. The subject was trained to reproduce a small set of familiar actions on command “Do it!” before the study began. To test feature–contingent behavioural similarity and control for stimulus enhancement, our test consisted of a modified version of the two-action procedure, combined with the Do as I Do paradigm. Instead of showing two different actions on an object to different subjects, we applied a within-subject design and showed the two actions to the same subject in separate trials. We show evidence that a well-socialized companion cat was able to reproduce actions demonstrated by a human model by reproducing two different actions that were demonstrated on the same object. Our experiment provides the first evidence that the Do as I Do paradigm can be applied to cats, suggesting that the ability to recognize behavioural similarity may fall within the range of the socio-cognitive skills of this species. The ability of reproducing the actions of a heterospecific human model in well-socialized cats may pave the way for future studies addressing cats’ imitative skills.

scholarly journals Decision-making and dynamics of eye movements in volleyball experts

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Fortin-Guichard ◽  
Vincent Laflamme ◽  
Anne-Sophie Julien ◽  
Christiane Trottier ◽  
Simon Grondin
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Upper Body ◽  
Video Sequences ◽  
Ball Contact ◽  
Dynamics Analyses ◽  
Better Than

Abstract Key decision-makers among experts in a given field can sometimes be identified based on their role and responsibilities. The aim of the study is to compare perceptual-cognitive skills of experts with decisional responsibilities (setters in volleyball) with that of other volleyball experts. Eighty-two participants (26 setters, 36 other players and 20 controls) viewed 50 volleyball video sequences. Sequences stopped 120 ms before ball contact and participants, whose eye movements were recorded, had to predict the ball direction. Generalized Estimating Equations analysis revealed that setters and controls made more but shorter fixations than other players. However, both expert groups made better predictions than controls. Dynamics analyses of eye movements over time show that, right before ball contact, opposing players’ upper body is a most relevant attentional cue in all game situations. Results are discussed in terms of decision-making responsibilities to identify key decision-makers in volleyball and in general. They point towards specific perceptual-cognitive abilities found in setters and support the idea that they constitute a subgroup of experts, but that they are not “better” than other players in anticipating the game.

scholarly journals The Impact of Virtual Classroom Template on the Development of Cognitive Skills, Infographic Production Quality and Usability

2019 ◽  
pp. 291-325
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Production Quality ◽  
Virtual Classroom ◽  
Technology Program ◽  
Measuring Scale ◽  
Mode Versus ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
Better Than

This study aims at pointing out the impact of "lobby mode" versus that of "analytical mode" on developing cognitive skills, quality of production and usability of the model system; all through using Adobe Connect. An achievement was developed and it consisted of 20 lexicon to measure the cognitive skills of instructional infographic design. In addition, an assessment card has been used to assess the final production in terms of quality. The card is composed of 44 texts designed to measure the quality of infographic. Besides, a measuring scale has been founded, that is composed of 55 phrases distributed among five areas; thus to measure the usability of using the virtual classroom module. The study focus groups were randomly selected of the students of Educational Technology Program, specifically, second semester of an academic year 2016/2017. Forty students have been selected and divided into two experimental groups. In terms of usability, results of the study showed up that the analytical model has been proven better than the lobby one in managing a virtual classroom using adobe connect system; whereas same results highlighted a no statistically documented difference between both models in terms of cognitive skills related to instructional infographic design together with level a d quality of production.

Locomotor experience influences the spatial cognitive development of infants with Spina Bifida

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 181-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph J. Campos ◽  
David I. Anderson ◽  
Robert Telzrow
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Spina Bifida ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Object Permanence ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Spatial Skills ◽  
Specific Question ◽  
Manual Search ◽  
Locomotor Development

Abstract. This study tested the hypothesis, derived from studies of normal infants, that experience with self-produced locomotion facilitates the development of two important spatial cognitive skills: a two-position object permanence manual search task, and a task assessing the infant’s following of the point/gaze gesture of the experimenter. Both of these tasks, as assessed in these studies, show median ages of onset between 7 and 9 months in normal infants, but very recent studies with normals have shown that, within this age group, locomotor experience, rather than age, forecasts the development of these skills. The specific question tested in this study concerned whether infants who were delayed in locomotor development due to meningomyelocele were also delayed in spatial skills until after the age at which locomotion was attained. The hypothesis was confirmed with both tasks.

Evidence for POT expansion in early Homo: A pretty theory with ugly (or no) paleoneurological facts

1995 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph L. Holloway
Keyword(s):  
Selective Pressures ◽  
Early Homo ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Better Than

AbstractIf POT (parieto-occipital-temporal junction) reorganization came earlier in australopithecines than in Homo, it is likely that the selective pressures were different, and not necessarily directed toward language. The brain endocast evidence for the POT in A. afarensis is actually better than it is for early Homo.

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