Spatial association learning by hummingbirds
Spatial association learning by hummingbirds
复制标题
蜂鸟的空间关联学习
作者：
Gayle S. Brown;C. L. Gass
摘要Abstract.在两个实验中，研究了棕褐色蜂鸟（Selasphorus rufus）学习线索和奖励喂食器之间空间关联的能力。在第一个实验中，蜂鸟学习了六个喂食器水平阵列中奖励喂食器的空间位置，有和没有线索，但是当奖励喂食器上方2.5厘米处出现恒定线索时，蜂鸟学习得更快。空间位置学习和空间联想学习在本实验中是同时进行的，并且这两个过程可能相互作用。在第二个实验中，这种可能性被排除了，在这个实验中，线索和相应的奖励喂食器的位置在连续的喂食试验之间随机变化。即使蜂鸟只能依靠空间关联学习，它们也能在几次试验中迅速学会选择正确的喂食者。在其他研究中，提示和喂食器之间的距离（与第一个实验相同，为2.5厘米）严重损害了动物的学习能力，但对蜂鸟的学习能力几乎没有影响。棕褐色蜂鸟的生理生态学特性和实验程序的特点可能是其快速学习的原因。
Abstract Abstract. The ability of rufous hummingbirds, Selasphorus rufus , to learn spatial associations between cues and rewarding feeders in two experiments was examined. In the first experiment, hummingbirds learned the spatial location of a rewarding feeder in horizontal arrays of six feeders, with and without cues, but learned faster when a constant cue was presented 2·5 cm above the rewarding feeder. Spatial location learning and spatial association learning were possible simultaneously in this experiment and these processes may have interacted. This possibility was removed in a second experiment in which the location of the cue and corresponding rewarding feeder changed randomly between successive feeding trials. Even when hummingbirds could rely only on spatial association learning, they rapidly learned to select correct feeders within a few trials. The distance between cues and feeders used in this experiment (2·5 cm, as in the first experiment) has severely impaired learning by animals in other studies but it had little effect on learning by the hummingbirds. Ecological and physiological characteristics of rufous hummingbirds and features of the experimental procedures used in these experiments may account for their rapid learning.