“Bear-ly” learning: Limits of abstraction in black bear cognition

Abstract

-We presented two American black bears (Ursus americanus) with a serial list learning memory task, and one of the bears with a matching-to-sample task. After extended training, both bears demonstrated some success with the memory task but failed to generalize the overarching rule of the task to novel stimuli. Matching to sample proved even more difficult for our bear to learn. We conclude that, despite previous success in training bears to respond to natural categories, quantity discriminations, and other related tasks, that bears may possess a cognitive limitation with regards to learning abstract rules. Future tests using different procedures are necessary to determine whether this is a limit of bears' cognitive capacities, or a limitation of the current tasks as presented. Future tests should present a larger number of varying stimuli. Ideally, bears of various species should be tested on these tasks to demonstrate species as well as individual differences.Keywords -Bear, Serial list memory, Matching-to-sample, Conceptual, Cognition Many animals are able to categorize objects and events in their surroundings and can demonstrate this ability in experimental tests. Carnivores are no exception, demonstrating skill in categorization tasks ranging from simple quantity and shape discriminations to more abstract abilities, such as oddity learning (for a recent review see Vonk & Leete, 2017). However, as summarized by Vonk and Leete, members of the order Carnivora have rarely been tested for more complex cognitive abilities. Most of the tasks, with the possible exception of those presented to canines, have involved discriminations where animals can attend to observable perceptual cues associated with reinforcement (or the lack thereof). Carnivores are of interest, because, unlike most species assessed for sophisticated cognitive abilities, they exhibit variability in their social structure and in their foraging strategies. Bears and felines are relatively asocial (with the exception of lions, Panthera leo) in that they do not live in stable groups beyond the mother-cub relationship in the first one-two years of life. Further, they show diversity in diet that might predict different levels of cognitive skill across species (Byrne, 1997;Vonk, 2016). This is particularly true of bears, which range from obligate carnivores to obligate herbivores, with some bears, such as black bears, exhibiting a generalist diet (Gittleman, 1986).Bears, in particular, have only recently been tested on an extensive range of cognitive tests, and the bulk of the research has been done with

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