Studies of Animal Cognition

这项研究将帮助我们更好地理解自然环境中觅食的动物是如何编码和记忆重要事件和地点的，比如在哪里和什么时候有营养的食物来源，在哪里和什么时候可以找到配偶，在什么地方筑巢是安全的，在什么地方筑巢是安全的，因为有捕食者的存在，应该避免在什么地方筑巢。因此，这些发现将对加拿大自然环境下的动物生存具有重要意义。本提案概述了在实验控制环境中研究鸽子和大鼠觅食和空间记忆的计划。鸽子的行为将在一个新的装置中进行研究，该装置由一个带有两扇门的起始箱组成，每扇门都通向一个大的竞技场或补丁。这些补丁的优势在于，不同的食物（谷物或颗粒）可以以不同的配置或随机模式排列。此外，不同食物（喜欢的和不喜欢的）的比例可以变化。在训练试验中，鸽子将被强制访问不同的斑块，并进行自由选择探针试验来衡量斑块偏好。通过这个程序，我将能够检查鸽子对不同食物的偏好，在不同条件下（如可获得的总食物的变化），喜欢和不喜欢的食物的百分比控制选择的程度，以及斑块中食物的配置是否影响斑块偏好。此外，摄像机将记录鸽子在斑块中的觅食行为。因此，我们将能够研究觅食模式作为食物种类及其在斑块中的分布的函数，并将觅食行为与探针试验中的斑块选择联系起来。在与大鼠的相关工作中，我将研究径向迷宫中工作记忆的准确性如何受到迷宫手臂之间食物分布模式的控制。这项工作将集中在我们最近的发现，即老鼠在迷宫中表现出隔离效应。老鼠更准确地选择含有食物的未被访问过的手臂，如果这只手臂之前访问过它两侧的手臂，而不是它之前没有访问过的手臂。这一假设将被验证，即老鼠表现出这种效应是一种进化的觅食策略，即在两个先前发现食物的地点之间寻找食物。我预计这项研究将有助于揭示鸟类和啮齿动物的认知过程如何通过使用学习和记忆来指导行为策略，从而促进它们的生存，从而使它们能够有效地觅食。对狗的认知的持续研究将进一步揭示狗的思维与人类的相似程度。

The research proposed will help us better understand how foraging animals in natural settings encode and remember significant events and locations, such as where and when nutritious sources of food are available, where and when mates can be found, what locations are safe for nests to raise new offspring, and what locations should be avoided because of the presence of predators.  Thus, these findings will be important for animal survival in natural Canadian settings.  This proposal outlines a plan to study foraging and spatial memory in pigeons and rats in experimentally controlled environments. Pigeon behavior will be studied in a new apparatus that consists of a start box with two doors, each of which leads to a large arena or patch. The advantage of these patches is that different food items (grains or pellets) can be arranged in different configurations or in a random pattern. In addition, the proportions of different foods (favored and non-favored) can be varied. Pigeons will be forced to visit the different patches on training trials, and free-choice probe trials will be given to measure patch preference. With this procedure, I will be able to examine pigeons' preferences for different foods, the extent to which percentage of favored vs. non-favored food controls choice under different conditions (such as variation in the total food available), and whether configuration of foods in a patch affects patch preference. In addition, video cameras will record pigeons' foraging behavior in the patches. Thus, we will be able to study patterns of foraging as a function of kinds of foods and their distributions in the patches and to correlate foraging behavior with patch choice on probe trials.  In related work with rats, I will examine how accuracy of working memory on the radial maze is controlled by the pattern of food distribution among the arms of the maze. This work will focus on our recent finding that rats show an isolation effect on the maze. Rats more accurately choose a non-visited arm containing food if that arm has previously visited arms on either side of it than if it has previously non-visited arms on either side of it. The hypothesis will be tested that rats show this effect as an evolved foraging strategy for finding food in a location between two locations where food has been found previously.  I anticipate that this research will help to reveal how cognitive processes in birds and rodents promote their survival through the use of learning and memory to direct behavioural strategies that allow them to efficiently forage for food.  Continuing studies of dog cognition will further reveal how much (or little) dogs' thinking resembles that of humans.