Critical period for detour learning in developing chicks

Scholes, Norman W.; Wheaton, Laura

doi:10.1016/0024-3205(66)90280-3

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Whereas dogs and chimpanzees were usually successful, chickens had difficulties and often attempted to go directly for the food through the fence. But he also found individual variation within the species, and later studies have shown remarkable detour performances in chickens, even within few days after hatching (Regolin et al 1994 , 1995 ; Scholes 1965 ; Scholes and Wheaton 1966 ).…”

Section: Cognitive Mechanisms Investigated With the Detour Paradigmmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…In most detour studies, individuals have been tested repeatedly, and several studies have found improvements over trials (Beniuc 1938 ; Boogert et al 2011 ; Burghardt 1964 ; de Haan 1949 ; Fischel 1933 ; Lorenz 1932 ; Parker et al 2005 , 2012 ; Schiller 1949a , b ; Scholes 1965 ; Scholes and Wheaton 1966 ; Smith and Litchfield 2010 ; Spigel 1964 ; Thorndike 1911 ; Vernouillet et al 2016 ; Vlamings et al 2010 ; Wallis et al 2001 ; Wyrwicka 1959 ; however, see: Pongracz et al 2001 , 2008 ; Wells 1967 ; Zucca et al 2005 ). Similarly, many studies have found animals become faster over trials in reaching the goal around the barrier, indicating yet another learning effect (Beniuc 1938 ; Burghardt 1964 ; Lockman and Adams 2001 ; Parker et al 2005 ; Spigel 1964 ; Thorndike 1911 ; Wyrwicka 1959 ; but see Baragli et al 2011 for a lack of such effect).…”

Section: Cognitive Mechanisms Investigated With the Detour Paradigmmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Accordingly, detour tasks were employed to study various learning processes. For example, studies focusing on critical learning periods compared the rate of improvement on detour tasks across different age groups in early development to explore the peak learning period (chickens: Scholes 1965 , Scholes and Wheaton 1966 ). Other studies used detour tasks to explore learning and retention/disruption mechanisms (European green lizards: Fischel 1933 ; fish: Thorndike 1911 ; painted turtles: Spigel 1964 ).…”

Section: Cognitive Mechanisms Investigated With the Detour Paradigmmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The detour paradigm in animal cognition

2017

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In this paper, we review one of the oldest paradigms used in animal cognition: the detour paradigm. The paradigm presents the subject with a situation where a direct route to the goal is blocked and a detour must be made to reach it. Often being an ecologically valid and a versatile tool, the detour paradigm has been used to study diverse cognitive skills like insight, social learning, inhibitory control and route planning. Due to the relative ease of administrating detour tasks, the paradigm has lately been used in large-scale comparative studies in order to investigate the evolution of inhibitory control. Here we review the detour paradigm and some of its cognitive requirements, we identify various ecological and contextual factors that might affect detour performance, we also discuss developmental and neurological underpinnings of detour behaviors, and we suggest some methodological approaches to make species comparisons more robust.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s10071-017-1152-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Cognitive Mechanisms Investigated With the Detour Paradigmmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Cognitive Mechanisms Investigated With the Detour Paradigmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cognitive Mechanisms Investigated With the Detour Paradigmmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The detour paradigm in animal cognition

2017

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“…Improvement on detour tasks across trials is a common finding in many species, even in adults; indeed, detour problems have been used to study various learning processes ( Wyrwicka, 1959 ; Scholes and Wheaton, 1966 ; Boogert et al, 2011 ; Vernouillet et al, 2016 ). However, the results in this study likely do not reflect merely a task learning phenomenon decoupled from a developmental one.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Development of Motor Self-Regulation in Ravens

2017

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Inhibitory control refers to the ability to stop impulses in favor of more appropriate behavior, and it constitutes one of the underlying cognitive functions associated with cognitive flexibility. Much attention has been given to cross-species comparisons of inhibitory control; however, less is known about how and when these abilities develop. Mapping the ontogeny of inhibitory control in different species may therefore reveal foundational elements behind cognitive processes and their evolution. In this study, we tested the development of motor self-regulation in raven chicks (Corvus corax), using two detour tasks that required inhibition of motor impulses to directly reach for a visible reward behind a barrier. One task included a mesh barrier, which partly occluded the reward, and the other task used a completely transparent barrier, the cylinder task. The results suggest that the more visible a reward is, the more difficult it is to inhibit motor impulses toward it, and further, that this inhibitory challenge gradually decreases during development. The mesh barrier is reliably detoured before the animals pass the task with the wholly transparent cylinder. As the majority of the birds begun testing as nestlings, and as we provided them with experiences they normally would not receive in a nest, it is likely that they showed the earliest possible onset of these skills. A control subject, tested at a later age, showed that the mesh detours required no particular training, but that tasks including complete transparency likely require more specific experiences. Adult ravens without explicit training are highly proficient in inhibitory detour tasks, and, together with chimpanzees, they are the best performers of all tested species in the cylinder task. Our results suggest that their skills develop early in life, around their third month. Their developmental pattern of inhibitory skills for detours resembles that of children and rhesus macaques, albeit the pace of development is markedly faster in ravens. Investigating the development of cognition is crucial to understanding its foundations within and across species.

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“…However, this procedure has only become popular within the last decade and is far from the only published procedure to test detour performance. Many published detour tasks, especially those evaluating learning, have not employed an opaque training phase (Schiller 1949a;Spigel 1964;Scholes 1965;Scholes and Wheaton 1966;Santos et al 1999;Wynne and Leguet 2004;Vlamings et al 2010;Wilkinson et al 2010), which is included to shape the response of subjects to the transparent cylinder. The requirement of subjects to make no contact with the apparatus during successful trials was also not present in previous paradigms of the detour-reaching task (Diamond 1990;Santos et al 1999;Amici et al 2008;Vlamings et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactions between neuroanatomy, cognition, and ecology in Anolis lizards

Storks¹

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The interactions between an organism and its environment are mediated by cognition, the substrates of which are in the brain. Cognition is ubiquitous across vertebrates, yet we still know very little about the factors shaping its evolution, particularly outside of birds and mammals. In natural environments, cognition likely impacts organism fitness. Behavioral flexibility, which enables an animal to modulate its behavior to match its environment, may facilitate success in novel habitats, such as in dispersal to islands, biotic invasions, and urban adaptation. Cognitive specializations may also be associated with specific ecological traits, such as habitat complexity. Furthermore, our understanding of the neural substrates of cognition in the brain is primarily limited to studies of relative brain size. The first chapter provides a more in depth introduction to these topics. In this dissertation, I explore the interactions between cognition, neuroanatomy, and ecology in Anolis lizards. Anolis lizards exhibit a diversity of habitat specializations, which is the result of adaptive radiation in the West Indies. As mentioned above, cognitive mechanisms in anoles may play a role in adjusting to novel environments and exploiting new niches. In the second chapter, I modified a detour task to evaluate whether wild, free-living Anolis sagrei can solve a novel detour problem under natural conditions. In the second chapter, I compare the neuron and nonneuron number and density of Anolis cristatellus and Anolis evermanni to see whether differences in neuroanatomy reflect their differential performance on an extractive foraging task. I also explore how these data relate to published observations from other vertebrates. Finally, in the fourth chapter I expand upon two previous studies by evaluating whether neuron number follows the predictions of concerted or mosaic evolution in five species of Puerto Rican Anolis and whether habitat complexity explains differences in neuron density between species. I conclude in the final chapter by summarizing my results and outlining future directions. Taken together, the results presented in this dissertation demonstrate the potential for studying cognition and neuroanatomy in an evolutionary context. The methods applied in my second chapter can be used in the future to explore the connection between cognition and fitness in lizards, which are a tractable model for such studies under natural conditions. My third and fourth chapters took a novel approach by studying neuroanatomical differences between species in neuron number and density, and generated novel insights into brain evolution in Anolis. By studying cognition and the brain in lizards and other ectotherms, we can begin to finally understand factors shaping the evolution of cognition and neuroanatomy across vertebrates.

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Critical period for detour learning in developing chicks

Cited by 15 publications

References 5 publications

The detour paradigm in animal cognition

The detour paradigm in animal cognition

The Development of Motor Self-Regulation in Ravens

Interactions between neuroanatomy, cognition, and ecology in Anolis lizards

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