Smaller on the Left? Flexible Association Between Space and Magnitude in Pigeons (Columba livia) and Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata)
Smaller on the Left? Flexible Association Between Space and Magnitude in Pigeons (Columba livia) and Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata)
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DOI：
10.1037/com0000193
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发表时间：
2020-02-01
影响因子：
1.4
通讯作者：
Gazes, Regina Paxton
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Lazareva, Olga F.;Gould, Kristy;Gazes, Regina Paxton
人类和其他类人猿在空间上表现出大小，表现为当呈现少量时，他们对空间一侧的反应更快、更准确，而当呈现大量时，他们对空间另一侧的反应更快、更准确。这种表现是灵活的，并显示出人类文化群体之间以及类人猿个体之间和个体内部的巨大差异。相比之下，最近的发现表明，雏鸟表现出高度侧化和僵化的大小空间表征，这意味着与灵长类动物的潜在表征在性质上不同。使用与类人猿和人类类似的方法，我们训练成年家鸽(Columba Livia)和蓝鸦(Cyanocitta Cristata)从两个不相邻的数量阵列中选择较小的(或较大的)；后来，这项任务颠倒了过来。在测试中，鸟被呈现给由相邻数量对组成的新的探针对(例如，2对3)。这两个物种都显示出了数量的灵活空间表征的有力证据，这种表征的方向具有相当大的个体差异性。这些结果与鸟类不灵活的、从左到右的量值表示法不一致，但与在类人猿和人类中观察到的灵活的量值空间表示法一致。我们得出结论，在空间上组织数量的趋势可能是在脊椎动物中普遍存在的认知的一个基本的和进化的古老特征。
Humans and other apes represent magnitudes spatially, demonstrated by their responding faster and more accurately to one side of space when presented with small quantities and to the other side of space when presented with large quantities. This representation is flexible and shows substantial variability between cultural groups in humans and between and within individuals in great apes. In contrast, recent findings suggest that chicks show a spatial representation of magnitude that is highly lateralized and inflexible, implying a qualitatively different underlying representation than in primates. Using methods similar to those used with great apes and humans, we trained adult domestic pigeons (Columba livia) and blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) to select the smaller (or larger) of two nonadjacent quantity arrays; later, this task was reversed. At test, birds were presented with novel probe pairs consisting of adjacent quantity pairs (e.g., 2 vs. 3). Both species showed robust evidence for a flexible spatial representation of magnitude with considerable individual variability in the orientation of this representation. These results are not consistent with an inflexible, lateralized, left-to-right representation of magnitude in birds, but are consistent with the flexible spatial representation of magnitude observed in apes and humans. We conclude that the tendency to organize quantities spatially may be a fundamental and evolutionarily ancient feature of cognition that is widespread among vertebrates.