The long and the short of it: Rule-based relative length discrimination in carrion crows, Corvus corone
The long and the short of it: Rule-based relative length discrimination in carrion crows, Corvus corone
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DOI：
10.1016/j.beproc.2014.08.009
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发表时间：
2014-09-01
影响因子：
1.3
通讯作者：
Nieder, Andreas
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Moll, Felix W.;Nieder, Andreas
鸟类和其他非人类动物可以在两个离散或连续的数量中选择较大的那个。然而，鸟类是否具有概念把握和认知控制，以灵活地在相对的“多”或“少”判断之间切换，仍然是一个谜。因此，我们在一个基于规则的线长辨别任务中测试腐肉乌鸦，根据它们的相对长度灵活地选择显示在触摸屏上的线。在第一个实验中，乌鸦需要区分较短的线和较长的线，反之亦然。在第二个实验中，乌鸦被要求从三条不同长度的线中选择一条中等长度的线（中等大小的任务）。乌鸦毫不费力地在“长于/短于”规则之间切换，没有显示出任何试验历史影响切换性能的迹象。他们可靠地选择了相对较长的和较短的线长，从而证明了一个连续量级的大于/小于的概念。然而，两只乌鸦都没有区分出嵌入在较长和较短线条中的“中等”长度的线条。这些结果表明，关系歧视表现出不同的认知需求。大于/小于概念只需要一个关系比较（分别是更大或更小的量级），而“中等”量级的区分需要两个或更多的比较，这可能会使乌鸦和其他动物负担过重。(C) 2014 Elsevier B.V.版权所有
Birds and other nonhuman animals can choose the larger of two discrete or continuous quantities. However, whether birds possess the conceptual grasp and cognitive control to flexibly switch between relative more-or-less-than judgments remains elusive. We therefore tested carrion crows in a rule-based line-length discrimination task to flexibly select lines presented on a touchscreen according to their relative length. In the first experiment, the crows needed to discriminate a shorter from a longer line, and vice versa. In the second experiment, the crows were required to choose a medium long line among three lines of different length (intermediate-size task). The crows switched effortlessly between "longer than/shorter than" rules, showing no signs of trial history affecting switching performance. They reliably chose the relatively longer and shorter line length, thus demonstrating a concept of greater than/less than with a continuous magnitude. However, both crows failed to discriminate a line of 'medium' length embedded in longer and shorter lines. These results indicate that relational discrimination exhibits different cognitive demands. While a greater than/less than concept requires only one relational comparison (with the respectively greater or smaller magnitude), the discrimination of a 'medium' magnitude demands to relate two or more comparisons, which might overburden crows and maybe animals in general. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.