Natural History and Cognition

小行星9504103 当今生物学面临的一个主要挑战是理解认知能力的进化和适应意义。 为了应对这一挑战，生物学家已经开始研究动物在面对自然界中面临的问题时，认知能力实际上是如何使用的。 这些信息反过来又导致了关于不同物种如何拥有不同认知能力的假设。 在拟议的研究中，Kamil和Balda博士将使用比较方法，研究自然历史不同的密切相关物种。 由于自然历史不同，物种在自然界中面临的挑战有所不同，因此，他们假设，拥有不同的认知能力。 在一组实验中，他们将研究空间记忆的差异，这些差异与物种对储存食物的依赖性差异有关，这些食物的位置被食物储存动物记住。 在另一组实验中，他们将测试社会性不同的物种之间认知能力的差异。 这两组实验将进一步加深我们对认知进化和认知能力在自然世界中的作用的理解。

9504103 Balda A major challenge confronting biology today is to understand the evolution and adaptive significance of cognitive abilities. In order to meet this challenge, biologists have begun to investigate how cognitive abilities are actually used by animals in confronting the problems they face in nature. This information, in turn, leads to hypotheses about how different species may possess differing suites of cognitive abilities. In the proposed research, Drs. Kamil and Balda will use a comparative approach, studying closely related species whose natural histories are different. Because the natural histories differ, the species confront somewhat different challenges in nature and therefore, they hypothesize, possess differing cognitive abilities. In one set of experiments, they will investigate difference in spatial memory that are associated with species differences in dependence on stored food whose locations are remembered by food-caching animals. In another set of experiments, they will test for differences in cognitive ability among species who differ in sociality. These two sets of experiments will further our understanding of the evolution of cognition and of the role of cognitive abilities in the natural world.