Minding the gap: spatial perseveration error in dogs

Osthaus, Britta; Marlow, Donna; Ducat, Pippa

doi:10.1007/s10071-010-0331-z

Cited by 35 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…While the mean of correct choices was 83 %, the median was 100 %, indicating that the majority of dogs performed perfectly. Our results differ from a past study that, using different methods, reported 29 of 30 dogs made perseveration errors in a detour task (Osthaus et al 2010). Despite the fact that Topál et al (2009) more explicitly removed the human cues in their nonsocial condition (the experimenter was invisible to the dog in their version but not in ours), our results were the same: In both cases, dogs made the error in only 17 % of all trials.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…Second, the error could be due to a perseverative search strategy, and thus, evidence for an inhibitory control problem in that some dogs may have been unable to inhibit a habit of searching at the nearest location. This possibility is supported by other studies showing that dogs are highly susceptible to inflexible search patterns once a habitual response has been established (Kaminski et al 2008; Osthaus et al 2010). …”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

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Context specificity of inhibitory control in dogs

2013

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Across three experiments, we explored whether a dog's capacity for inhibitory control is stable or variable across decision-making contexts. In the social task, dogs were first exposed to the reputations of a stingy experimenter that never shared food and a generous experimenter who always shared food. In subsequent test trials, dogs were required to avoid approaching the stingy experimenter when this individual offered (but withheld) a higher-value reward than the generous experimenter did. In the A-not-B task, dogs were required to inhibit searching for food in a previously rewarded location after witnessing the food being moved from this location to a novel hiding place. In the cylinder task, dogs were required to resist approaching visible food directly (because it was behind a transparent barrier), in favor of a detour reaching response. Overall, dogs exhibited inhibitory control in all three tasks. However, individual scores were not correlated between tasks, suggesting that context has a large effect on dogs' behavior. This result mirrors studies of humans, which have highlighted intra-individual variation in inhibitory control as a function of the decision-making context. Lastly, we observed a correlation between a subject's age and performance on the cylinder task, corroborating previous observations of age-related decline in dogs' executive function.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

Context specificity of inhibitory control in dogs

2013

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“…The term “transparent barrier” is commonly used in the literature also in case of barriers that are made from bars, grids or latticed screens [1,34,35,52]. These barriers are comparable to our semitransparent barrier that constituted the easiest task in contrast to the truly transparent barrier that constituted the most difficult task.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detour Behavior of Mice Trained with Transparent, Semitransparent and Opaque Barriers

Juszczak

Miller

2016

PLoS ONE

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Detour tasks are commonly used to study problem solving skills and inhibitory control in canids and primates. However, there is no comparable detour test designed for rodents despite its significance for studying the development of executive skills. Furthermore, mice offer research opportunities that are not currently possible to achieve when primates are used. Therefore, the aim of the study was to translate the classic detour task to mice and to compare obtained data with key findings obtained previously in other mammals. The experiment was performed with V-shaped barriers and was based on the water escape paradigm. The study showed that an apparently simple task requiring mice to move around a small barrier constituted in fact a challenge that was strongly affected by the visibility of the target. The most difficult task involved a completely transparent barrier, which forced the mice to resolve a conflict between vision and tactile perception. The performance depended both on the inhibitory skills and on previous experiences. Additionally, all mice displayed a preference for one side of the barrier and most of them relied on the egocentric strategy. Obtained results show for the first time that the behavior of mice subjected to the detour task is comparable to the behavior of other mammals tested previously with free-standing barriers. This detailed characterization of the detour behavior of mice constitutes the first step toward the substitution of rodents for primates in laboratory experiments employing the detour task.

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“…This kind of perseveration is certainly not unique to string pulling problems. There is a long history in comparative psychology of instances in which incorrect responding perseverates in the face of contingencies that should encourage change (e. g., detour problems in dogs, Osthaus et al, 2010; object discrimination in Japanese monkeys, Itoh et al, 2001; A-not-B type choice problems in human infants, Diedrich et al, 2000; maze learning, Carr & Watson, 1908). In the present case this perseveration was most evident precisely for those problems in which successful performance would have provided the clearest evidence for the presence of a flexible understanding of physical causality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance on patterned string problems by common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus)

et al. 2012

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This experiment examined the performance of common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) on a series of patterned string problems to assess the marmosets’ understanding of means-ends relationships. One marmoset, Jet, was exposed to a series of problems that were ordered in terms of perceived difficulty during two testings that were separated by one year. In the second testing Jet received problems that had been used during the first testing along with three new problems. Each of the new problems was designed to be an exemplar of the type of problem that Jet had experienced difficulty with in the first testing. A second marmoset, Peaches, was tested on the same set of problems given to Jet in the second testing. Results indicated that the marmosets’ performance on these problems fell into three categories. In one category, some problems were solved without evidence of trial and error learning. In a second category, there were problems in which the marmosets responded at chance levels initially but evidenced improvement as a function of extended testing. In a third category, some problems appeared to be virtually unsolvable even with extended testing. Taken together, these results indicate that the marmosets were able to learn the means-ends connection between pulling a string and obtaining food. This learning was best characterized as a trial and error process for some problem forms, while for others there appeared to be rapid learning that did not require extensive practice. The instances of rapid learning may be the result of the application of a simple spatial proximity rule in which the marmosets chose the string that was closest to an imaginary line drawn between the marmoset and the reinforcer.

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Minding the gap: spatial perseveration error in dogs

Cited by 35 publications

References 8 publications

Context specificity of inhibitory control in dogs

Context specificity of inhibitory control in dogs

Detour Behavior of Mice Trained with Transparent, Semitransparent and Opaque Barriers

Performance on patterned string problems by common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus)

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