Quantity Discrimination in Domestic Rats, Rattus norvegicus

Cox, Laura; Montrose, V. Tamara

doi:10.3390/ani6080046

Cited by 19 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Young chicks can make consecutive additions and subtractions (Rugani, Fontanari, Simoni, Regolin, & Vallortigara, 2009). Rats can evaluate quantities (Cox & Montrose, 2016), but until now, there is no information about their adding and subtracting capability. Many works have been done on monkeys.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subtraction-Like Effect in an Ant Faced with Numbers of Elements Including a Crossed One

Cammaerts¹,

Cammaerts²

2019

IJB

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When trained to a number of colored elements of which one was crossed, tested Myrmica sabuleti worker ants reacted essentially to that number of elements excluding the crossed one. They thus apparently subtracted the crossed element, moreover doing so better for fewer numbers of elements. When trained in the same way but tested in front of a number of uncrossed elements equal to the total number of crossed and uncrossed elements seen during training, and at the same time, to the same number of elements without the crossed one as well as to the crossed element only, the ants again reacted essentially to the number of elements minus the crossed one. Again, they did so better for smaller numbers. The ants reacted thus to the visual cue they best saw during training. They also somewhat reacted to the isolated crossed element and better when trained to lower numbers of elements. When trained to a number of uncrossed colored elements and at the same time, to a cue showing the same number of elements, but one crossed and the others uncolored, the tested ants reacted more to the initial total number of colored elements than to the same total number of colored elements minus the crossed one. This showed again that the ants did not really subtract, but reacted to what they the most distinctly saw during training. They also again better reacted in presence of fewer elements.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subtraction-Like Effect in an Ant Faced with Numbers of Elements Including a Crossed One

Cammaerts¹,

Cammaerts²

2019

IJB

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“…Many studies on nonhuman species exploit spontaneous choice tasks, in which subjects freely choose between alternatives. Often, the contrasted items are presented simultaneously and are actually present, visible or detectable, at the moment of choice, a method that has been successfully employed with a large number of species including mammals, birds and even amphibians (Hanus and Call 2007;Krusche et al 2010;Abramson et al 2011;Baker et al 2012;Garland et al 2012;Bogale et al 2014;Stancher et al 2015;Tornick et al 2015;Bánszegi et al 2016;Cox and Montrose 2016;Kelly 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantity discrimination in angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare) is maintained after a 30-s retention interval in the large but not in the small number range

Gómez‐Laplaza

Caicoya

2017

Anim Cogn

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The ability to discriminate between sets that differ in the number of elements can be useful in different contexts and may have survival and fitness consequences. As such, numerical/quantity discrimination has been demonstrated in a diversity of animal species. In the laboratory, this ability has been analyzed, for example, using binary choice tests. Furthermore, when the different number of items first presented to the subjects are subsequently obscured, i.e., are not visible at the moment of making a choice, the task requires memory for the size of the sets. In previous work, angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare) have been found to be able to discriminate shoals differing in the number of shoal members both in the small (less than 4) and the large (4 or more) number range, and they were able to perform well even when a short memory retention interval (2-15 s) was imposed. In the current study, we increased the retention interval to 30 s during which the shoals to choose between were obscured, and investigated whether angelfish could show preference for the larger shoal they saw before this interval. Subjects were faced with a discrimination between numerically small shoals (≤4 fish) and also between numerically large (≥4 fish) shoals of conspecifics. We found angelfish not to be able to remember the location of larger versus smaller shoals in the small number range, but to exhibit significant memory for the larger shoal in the large number range as long as the ratio between these shoals was at least 2:1. These results, together with prior findings, suggest the existence of two separate quantity estimation systems, the object file system for small number of items that does not work with the longer retention interval and the analogue magnitude system for larger number of items that does.

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“…Under this paradigm, subjects have to select between two visible, simultaneously presented, numerically different sets of food items, which generally remain in view at the time of choice. This spontaneous quantity discrimination has been employed in studies with mammals (Baker, Morath, Rodzon, & Jordan, 2012;Bánszegi, Urrutia, Szenczi, & Hudson, 2016;Beran, Evans, & Harris, 2008;Cox & Montrose, 2016;Hanus & Call, 2007;Miletto Petrazzini & Wynne, 2016;Parrish, Evans, & Beran, 2015) and birds (Bogale, Aoyama, & Sugita, 2014;Garland, Low, & Burns, 2012;, but it has also been utilized in other animal species such as amphibians (Krusche, Uller, & Dicke, 2010;Stancher, Rugani, Regolin, & Vallortigara, 2015;Uller, Jaeger, Guidry, & Martin, 2003) and reptiles (Miletto Petrazzini, Fraccaroli, Gariboldi, Agrillo, Bisazza, Bertolucci, & Foà, 2017).…”

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confidence: 99%

Quantity discrimination in angelfish, Pterophyllum scalare: a novel approach with food as the discriminant

Gómez‐Laplaza

Díaz-Sotelo

2018

Animal Behaviour

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The ability to distinguish between different quantities of items is fundamental in many ecological contexts, and it has been shown in different animal species. This ability may also be context specific. Quantity estimation in fish has mainly been analysed in the context of social behaviour, whereas a majority of studies conducted with species other than fish tested it in the context of foraging. Surprisingly, little is known about the capacity of fish to discriminate between food quantities, possibly because of difficulties in testing individual fish in a novel, and thus aversive, test environment. Here, we present a novel approach that allows us to test single angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare) while minimizing isolation related stress. In binary choice tests, sets composed of similarly-sized discrete food items differing in numerical size, were presented and the spontaneous (untrained) choice of angelfish was investigated. In all contrasts tested in three experiments, angelfish preferred the numerically larger to the smaller food set. The performance of the fish was ratio-dependent in the small but not in the large number range (> 4 food items, contrasts that were investigated for the first time in fishes), and there was no significant difference in the magnitude of preference in the small versus the large values. However, overall results indicated that the response was ratiodependent, with an increase in accuracy as the numerical ratio between the constrasts increased. Furthermore, the same numerical ratios that were successfully discriminated with small quantities were also similarly discriminated with large quantities. Altogether, our results thus imply that angelfish utilize the Approximate Number System of quantity representation for the entire numerical range tested, and that their response attempts to maximize foraging success.

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Quantity Discrimination in Domestic Rats, Rattus norvegicus

Cited by 19 publications

References 54 publications

Subtraction-Like Effect in an Ant Faced with Numbers of Elements Including a Crossed One

Subtraction-Like Effect in an Ant Faced with Numbers of Elements Including a Crossed One

Quantity discrimination in angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare) is maintained after a 30-s retention interval in the large but not in the small number range

Quantity discrimination in angelfish, Pterophyllum scalare: a novel approach with food as the discriminant

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