Numerosity representations in crows obey the Weber–Fechner law

Ditz, Helen M.; Nieder, Andreas

doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.0083

Cited by 103 publications

(122 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Robins (Garland & Low, 2014) as well as newborn chicks (Rugani, Vallortigara, Priftis, & Regolin, 2015) have shown the ability of adding, subtracting or at least counting, presenting then ethological and physiological characteristics analogous to those of humans. Indeed, experiments made on corvid songbirds revealed that, when learned to count, a precise part of their brain is activated, just like is activated a precise part of humans' brain while counting (Ditz & Nieder, 2015, 2016. The authors concluded that their results suggest that crows were judging numerosity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ants Fail to Add Numbers of Same Elements Seen Consecutively

Cammaerts¹,

Cammaerts²

2019

IJB

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The workers of the ant Myrmica sabuleti have been shown to be able to distinguish different numbers of elements and to be able to add them if seen side by side, at the same time. They have thus a concrete concept of numbers and of adding. It remained to know if they have an abstract mathematical concept of numbers and of their addition. For tempting answering this question, we presented, to M. sabuleti workers, two numbers of elements (circles) not placed side by side but making an angle, the ants having thus to move for seeing the one then the other of the numbers of elements. After 3, 6, 9 and 12 of such training days, the ants were tested in front of the two numbers of elements as well as of their correct sum and their sum plus one element. The ants responded essentially to the two numbers of elements they saw during training, and far less to their sum and sum plus one element. The ants have thus a basic, concrete concept of adding numbers of elements they see. Young human children (3 to 6 years old) have such a concrete concept of numbers and of adding, but they acquire in several months, through learning, an abstract mathematical concept of these notions and of related ones.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ants Fail to Add Numbers of Same Elements Seen Consecutively

Cammaerts¹,

Cammaerts²

2019

IJB

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“…This ratio-dependent pattern of success and failure has been documented in warmblooded vertebrates in a number of species (mammals, e.g., Cantlon and Brannon, 2007;Utrata, Virányi, Range, 2012;Vonk, Beran, 2012; birds: e.g., Rugani et al, 2009;Pepperberg, 2006;Ditz and Nieder, 2016;reviews in Vallortigara, 2014;2017). Less clear is the evidence for quantity discrimination in cold-blooded vertebrates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Continuous and discrete quantity discrimination in tortoises

Gazzola

Vallortígara

Pellitteri‐Rosa

2018

Preprint

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The study provide a new insight on numerical cognition in an ancient group of reptiles (chelonians), thus disclosing the early evolutionary acquisition of numerical ability in this group. Moreover, it is the second study conducted on reptiles, which are largely unexplored for numerical competence. AbstractThe ability to estimate quantity, which is crucially important in several aspects of animal behaviour (e.g., foraging), has been extensively investigated in most taxa, with the exception of reptiles. The few studies available, in lizards, report lack of spontaneous discrimination of quantity, which may suggest that reptiles could represent an exception in numerical abilities among vertebrates. We investigated the spontaneous ability of Hermann's tortoises (Testudo hermanni) to select the larger quantity of food items.Tortoises showed able to choose the larger food item when exposed with two options differing in size (0.25, 0.50, 0.67 and 0.75 ratio) and when presented with two groups differing in numerousness (1 versus 4, 2 versus 4, 2 versus 3 and 3 versus 4 items). The tortoises succeeded in both size and numerousness discrimination, and their performance appeared to depend on the ratio of items to be discriminated (thus following Weber's Law).These findings in chelonians provide evidence of an ancient system for the extrapolation of numerical magnitudes from given sets of elements, shared among vertebrates.

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“…Both crows discriminated motion direction in random‐dot displays proficiently (80 and 83%, on average), and showed performances similar to those in a delayed match‐to‐sample task with complex images (82 and 93%; Veit et al ., ) or numerosities (between 74 and 80%; Ditz & Nieder, , ) as discriminanda. Slight differences in the performance according to the motion direction of the sample stimulus were observed that were, however, not consistent between the crows and could not be related to training effects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Encoding of global visual motion in the nidopallium caudolaterale of behaving crows

Wagener

Nieder

2016

Eur J of Neuroscience

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Songbirds possess acute vision. How higher brain centres represent basic and parameterised visual stimuli to process sensory signals according to their behavioural importance has not been studied in a systematic way. We therefore examined how carrion crows (Corvus corone) and their nidopallial visual neurons process global visual motion information in dynamic random-dot displays during a delayed match-to-sample (DMS) task. The behavioural data show that moderately fast motion speeds (16° of visual angle/s) result in superior direction discrimination performance. To characterise how neurons encode and maintain task-relevant visual motion information, we recorded the single-unit activity in the telencephalic association area 'nidopallium caudolaterale' (NCL) of behaving crows. The NCL is considered to be the avian analogue of the mammalian prefrontal cortex. Almost a third (28%) of randomly selected NCL neurons responded selectively to the motion direction of the sample stimulus, mostly to downward motions. Only few NCL neurons (7.5%) responded consistently to specific motion directions during the delay period. In error trials, when the crows chose the wrong motion direction, the encoding of motion direction was significantly reduced. This indicates that sensory representations of NCL neurons are relevant to the birds' behaviour. These data suggest that the corvid NCL, even though operating at the apex of the telencephalic processing hierarchy, constitutes a telencephalic site for global motion integration.

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Numerosity representations in crows obey the Weber–Fechner law

Cited by 103 publications

References 67 publications

Ants Fail to Add Numbers of Same Elements Seen Consecutively

Ants Fail to Add Numbers of Same Elements Seen Consecutively

Continuous and discrete quantity discrimination in tortoises

Encoding of global visual motion in the nidopallium caudolaterale of behaving crows

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