Matching based on biological categories in Orangutans (<i>Pongo abelii</i>) and a Gorilla (<i>Gorilla gorilla gorilla</i>)

Vonk, Jennifer

doi:10.7717/peerj.158

Cited by 19 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Vonk & Beran, 2012;. We have had similar success with another bear (e.g., Johnson-Ulrich et al, 2016) and with various apes (Vonk, 2002(Vonk, , 2003(Vonk, , 2013(Vonk, , 2014Vonk et al, 2002Vonk et al, , 2004) that also participated in multiple tasks within a session. However, this strategy may have compounded challenges in selecting ideal test stimuli that did not share features with previously presented and/or reinforced stimuli.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

“…Previous studies in our lab used a delayed MTS procedure in which the sample disappeared once selected, and was not present when the subject chose between the comparison images (Vonk, 2002(Vonk, , 2003(Vonk, , 2013(Vonk, , 2014). In the current study, the sample appeared on the screen along with the comparison images at the time of choice.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, only one bear was tested sufficiently often in the task (approximately 80 24-trial sessions) in order to qualify as a "failure to learn." Notably, we have also experienced difficulty in obtaining above chance performance on the same MTS task working with adult chimpanzees and gorillas (unpublished data), although we had previous success training a young gorilla and several orangutans using categorical, rather than identity, MTS tasks (Vonk, 2002(Vonk, , 2003(Vonk, , 2013(Vonk, , 2014.…”

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confidence: 99%

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

Vonk¹,

Jett²

2018

AB&C

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-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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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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

Vonk¹,

Jett²

2018

AB&C

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“…As adult male gorillas, their primary interest is in establishing dominance and, therefore, it may be that younger or female individuals, or even males in a traditional gorilla group with a harem of females rather than male competitors, would be more motivated to engage in this task than these males were. A young female gorilla also housed in a zoo setting, for example, performed quite well at complex matching-to-sample (Vonk, 2002(Vonk, , 2003(Vonk, , 2013Vonk & Hamilton, 2014) and abstract natural categorization tasks (Vonk & MacDonald, 2002). It is unlikely that there are sex differences in cognition or motivation, rather than situations (such as shifting dominance hierarchies) that influence a gorilla's motivation to respond accurately rather than to merely participate in a cognitive task.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) fail to learn abstract cues of differential outcomes in a novel cognitive bias test

McGuire¹,

Vonk²

2018

AB&C

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Citation - McGuire, M.C., & Vonk, J. (2018). Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) fail to learn abstract cues of differential outcomes in a novel cognitive bias test. Animal Behavior and Cognition, 5(1) Abstract -In order to assess mood state in three male western lowland gorillas housed in a bachelor group, we developed a novel version of a cognitive bias task. The background color of a touchscreen presented a conditional 'if, then…" rule relating to outcomes involving differential amounts of food rewards. The gorillas struggled to reach a criterion of 80% responding required for testing. In follow-up experiments, we assessed whether the gorillas did in fact prefer three pieces of food to one piece of food when presented with images of food quantities and actual food quantities. Gorillas did not learn to select the stimulus that indicated three food items over one food item when we used images of actual quantities of the rewarded food but they did prefer three actual pieces of food. Thus, like other primates, gorillas may respond differently to quantities of edible and inedible items. In addition, they may struggle with learning conditional discriminations when cues to differential responses and outcomes are arbitrary rather than intuitively connected. These studies highlight the importance of methodology when devising tests to assess cognition or affect in nonhuman primates.

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“…Herrnstein et al, 1976;Sigala, 2009;Vonk, 2013) nevertheless tested only one or two stimuli at a time. Others have required that subjects match a stimulus to one of four categories (Bhatt et al, 1988;Lazareva et al, 2004).…”

Section: Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two perils of binary categorization: Why the study of concepts can’t afford true/false testing

Jensen

2015

Preprint

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In this opinion piece, we outline two shortcomings in experimental design that limit the claims that can be made about concept learning in animals. On the one hand, most studies of concept learning train too few concepts in parallel to support general claims about their capacity of subsequent abstraction. On the other hand, even studies that train many categories of stimulus in parallel only test one or two stimuli at a time, allowing even a simplistic learning rule to succeed by making informed guesses. To demonstrate these shortcomings, we include simulations performed using an off-the-shelf image classifier.These simulations demonstrate that, when either training or testing are overly simplistic, a classification algorithm that is incapable of abstraction nevertheless yields levels of performance that have been described in the literature as proof of concept learning in animals.PeerJ PrePrints | http://dx.doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.688v2 | CC-BY 4.0 Open Access | rec: 4

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Matching based on biological categories in Orangutans (Pongo abelii) and a Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)

Cited by 19 publications

References 53 publications

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

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

Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) fail to learn abstract cues of differential outcomes in a novel cognitive bias test

Two perils of binary categorization: Why the study of concepts can’t afford true/false testing

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