Information processing in animals

动物的信息处理

• 批准号: 7894-2009
• 负责人: Roberts, William
• 金额: $ 2.19万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2012-01-01 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=497229
• 关键词: Information; processing; animals

In keeping with previous work in my laboratory, I propose to explore animals' ability to process the dimensions of time, space, and number. I will continue to examine the question of whether animals have a concept of time and can thus cognitively time travel. Experiments with black-capped chickadees will look for evidence of episodic memory and its temporal basis, and experiments with rats will look for evidence of future planning. Cue competition (overshadowing and blocking) will be examined using the peak procedure when the cues signal different fixed time intervals to food reward. Recent research and theory suggests that humans and animals share a primitive counting process based on magnitude estimation. I have developed a model of number discrimination based on this process that makes specific quantitative predictions about performance. The predictions of this model will be tested in a series of experiments with pigeons. Although recent research indicates that dogs are highly sensitive to human cueing, relatively little is known about their basic cognitive abilities. I will carry out experiments with dogs to examine their spatial memory, ability to keep track of time, and ability to discriminate between different numbers of events.

为了与我实验室以前的工作保持一致，我提议探索动物处理时间、空间和数字维度的能力。 我将继续研究动物是否有时间概念，从而能够进行时间旅行的问题。 对黑顶山雀的实验将寻找情景记忆及其时间基础的证据，而对大鼠的实验将寻找未来计划的证据。 当提示信号到食物奖励的固定时间间隔不同时，将使用峰值程序来检查提示竞争（遮蔽和阻挡）。 最近的研究和理论表明，人类和动物共享一个基于大小估计的原始计数过程。 基于这个过程，我开发了一个数字识别模型，可以对绩效做出具体的定量预测。 这个模型的预测将在一系列的鸽子实验中得到检验。 尽管最近的研究表明，狗对人类的暗示非常敏感，但人们对它们的基本认知能力知之甚少。 我将对狗进行实验，以检查它们的空间记忆，跟踪时间的能力，以及区分不同数量事件的能力。