A recent study on the diving behaviour of European shags (Gulosus aristotelis (L.)) foraging in kelp forests off rocky coasts of Norway suggests surface durations are related only to the duration of the preceding dive, and hence are being used for respiratory recovery. These results contrast with earlier reports concerning shags foraging in highly tidal estuarine waters off the coast of Lundy Island, SW England, where there was a stronger relationship between dive durations and preceding pre-dive surface durations, suggesting the use of preparatory variation in oxygen loading. These two datasets were collected using different methods, and statistically analysed in quite different ways, so the contrasting results here could be due to different methodologies rather than the ecological differences between the two foraging environments. Here, we re-analyse the two datasets using similar statistical methods, and we confirm the contrasting results produced by the two datasets. We, therefore, conclude that shag breathing strategies do differ between these two marine environments, presumably reflecting adaptive facultatively plastic responses to differences in predictability of foraging dive durations. Off the Norwegian coast, unpredictable variation in the depth and availability of pelagic prey in complex environments may require more responsive post-dive respiratory recovery on the surface after each dive. In the more uniform English near-shore environment, however, pre-dive preparatory oxygen loading customised to match predictable dive-to-dive variation in benthic prey depths and foraging durations, may be more time and energy efficient.

At high elevations, biodiversity is at elevated risk from extinctions due to rapid environmental changes. In the most of its range in Himalayas, the red panda, an endangered species, is struggling to survive in the wild, and a global captive breeding programme has been launched to conserve the species. Because captivity can have negative impacts on animals, reducing the chance of successful reintroduction, we investigated the predictors of stereotyped behaviour and behavioural diversity of red panda ( n = 26), and the effect of stereotypy on their behavioural diversity in three Indian zoos. Multivariate analysis showed that stereotypy increased with density of logs on the ground, age and higher among pandas in zoo 3 compared to zoo 2, but decreased with number of nests, sociality, tree density and tree height used. Similarly, behavioural diversity increased with log density, but decreased among pandas in zoo 2 compared to zoo 1, during summer compared to winter, and also with ambient temperature, stereotypy, tree density, and tree height used. The relationship between stereotypy and behavioural diversity was negative, but not significant. Provision of a greater density of trees was associated with higher levels of daytime inactivity. Findings from this study have global relevance, as the captive red panda experiences similar welfare issues around the world, and our data provide empirical support for some existing guidelines for red panda husbandry.

A number of different phenomena in pigeon visual cognition suggest that pigeons do not immediately recognize two identical objects in different locations as being "the same." To examine this question directly, pigeons were trained in an absolute go/no-go discrimination between arbitrary selections from sets of 16 images of paintings by Claude Monet. Of the eight positive stimuli, four always appeared in the same location, whereas the other four appeared equally often in each of two locations; the same was true of the negative stimuli. There was a consistent tendency for stimuli that appeared in a single position to be better discriminated than those that appeared in two positions, although by the end of training this effect was confined to negative stimuli. This result suggests that, for a pigeon, an image's location is one of the bundle of features that define it, and that pigeons need to learn to abstract from that feature rather than doing so automatically. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Everyday financial behaviour involves inter-temporal choices, between saving, spending, and debt. Consumers do not always take these decisions to their best advantage. Ainslie's analysis of the means to willpower as suppression, resolve, and habit is potentially applicable to understanding and improving the decisions that consumers make. Some relevant research on these topics exists, and it is briefly reviewed here.

Habitat characteristics and microhabitat of organisms pose a number of choices to foraging species, for example where and how to search for prey, which prey to select and what foraging technique to employ. Predators can enhance the profitability of foraging by adapting their strategies flexibly in relation to prey characteristics and environmental factors. To investigate the influence of rocky shore characteristics viz., condition of rock, position of limpet on the rock, stage of tide, and limpet opening technique of oystercatcher on the profitability of limpet foraging, a total of 193 attacks on limpets ( Patella spp.) by Eurasian oystercatchers ( Haematopus ostralegus ) were made on Lundy Island, UK, using focal animal sampling. Multiple regression revealed that profitability was influenced by the condition of the rock and the limpet opening technique employed by oystercatchers. The profitability of the limpet opening technique appears to be associated with the condition of the rock. Oystercatchers forage by adapting their foraging strategy in accordance with the nature of the rocks i.e. wetness on which they are foraging.

This paper aimed to explore and clarify the concept of behavioral flexibility. A selective literature review explored how the concept of behavioral flexibility has been used in ways that range from acknowledging the fact that animals' behavior is not always bounded by instinctual constraints, to describing the variation between species in their capacity for innovative foraging, a capacity that has repeatedly been linked to having a brain larger than would be predicted from body size. This wide range of usages of a single term has led to some conceptual confusion. We sought to find a more precise meaning for behavioral flexibility by representing it within a simple formal model of problem solving. The key to our model is to distinguish between an animal's state of knowledge about the world and its observable behavior, using a construct of response strength to represent that underlying knowledge. We modelled behavioral flexibility as a parameter in the function that transforms response strengths into observable response probabilities. We tested this model in simulations based on some recent experimental work on animal problem solving. Initial results showed that parametric manipulation can mimic some of the behavioral effects that have been attributed to flexibility.

Inhibitory control enables subjects to quickly react to unexpected changes in external demands. In humans, this kind of behavioral flexibility is often used as an indicator of an individual's executive functions, and more and more research has emerged to investigate this link in nonhuman animals as well. Here we explored the value of a recently developed continuous inhibitory-control task in assessing inhibitory-control capacities in animals. Pigeons completed a response-inhibition task that required them to adjust their movement in space in pursuit of a reward across changing target locations. Inhibition was measured in terms of movement trajectory (path taken toward the correct location for trials in which the target location did and did not change) and velocity (both before and after correcting the trajectory toward the changed location). Although the observed velocities did not follow any of our predictions in a clear way, the pigeons' movement trajectories did prove to be a good indicator of inhibitory control, showing that pigeons, though limited in their capacities relative to the sophisticated control strategies expressed by humans, are capable of exerting some forms of inhibitory control. These results strengthen the role of this paradigm as a valuable tool for evaluating inhibitory-control abilities across the animal kingdom.

This paper reviews psychological studies of real-life use of credit, debt, and overindebtedness, with the aim of making policy recommendations that could reduce the damage done by debt to both individuals and society. The overall level of debt in society is heavily influenced by the level of economic inequality and social insecurity, and no psychological factor can prevent debt if excessive socioeconomic disadvantage is not addressed. Within that constraint, psychological precursors to debt problems, psychological impacts of debt, and psychological strategies to help people get out of debt can be identified. Research results in these areas are used to formulate a series of recommendations that could help mitigate debt problems.

Inhibiting learned behaviours when they become unproductive and searching for an alternative solution to solve a familiar but different problem are two indicators of flexibility in problem solving. A wide range of animals show these tendencies spontaneously, but what kind of search process is at play behind their problem-solving success? Here, we investigated how Eastern grey squirrels, Sciurus carolinensis, solved a modified mechanical problem that required them to abandon their preferred and learned solution and search for alternative solutions to retrieve out-of-reach food rewards. Squirrels could solve the problem by engaging in either an exhaustive search (i.e., using trial-and-error to access the reward) or a 'backup' solution search (i.e., recalling a previously successful but non-preferred solution). We found that all squirrels successfully solved the modified problem on their first trial and showed solving durations comparable to their last experience of using their preferred solution. Their success and high efficiency could be explained by their high level of inhibitory control as the squirrels did not persistently emit the learned and preferred, but now ineffective, pushing behaviour. Although the squirrels had minimal experience in using the alternative (non-preferred) successful solution, they used it directly or after one or two failed attempts to achieve success. Thus, the squirrels were using the 'backup' solution search process. Such a process is likely a form of generalisation which involves retrieving related information of an experienced problem and applying previous successful experience during problem solving. Overall, our results provide information regarding the search process underlying the flexibility observable in problem-solving success.

In many cognitive tasks where humans are thought to rely on executive functioning, pigeons' behavior can be explained by associative processes. A key form of executive functioning is inhibiting prepotent responses, often investigated in humans by means of "Stop-Signal" or "Change-Signal" procedures. In these procedures, execution of a well-practiced ("Go") response to a stimulus is occasionally interrupted by a signal to withhold or alter the practiced response. Performance in such tasks is usually described by the "independent horse horse-race model." This model assumes that the processes that cause the Go and inhibitory responses occur independently; the process that finishes first determines the response observed. We further tested this model by training pigeons to track the circular movement of a colored patch around a touchscreen by pecking it; the spot occasionally deviated from its normal path (the Change signal). The pigeons had to inhibit the habitual movement of their heads to land a peck on the spot in its unexpected position. The key predictions of the independent horse-race model were confirmed in the pigeons' latency data. Thus, the independent race model can also successfully describe Stop-change performance of subjects that do not rely on executive control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

This chapter aims to sketch the kind of theory that most researchers in the area seem to hold, if only implicitly. It shows that this theory is not wholly satisfactory. To test theories of natural object discrimination, the chapter looks at the discrimination of less natural objects, or unnatural groupings of natural objects. It analyses some of the discriminations that pigeons either fail to learn, or learn very slowly. The most general way of characterizing the kinds of experiments that interest us is as multiple stimulus discrimination. Subjects are presented with many different stimuli and have relatively few possible kinds of response; in the limiting, and typical, case the only possibilities are to peck or not to peck. The chapter reviews some discriminations that either seem to be, or in fact were, tailor made for easy learning if the linear feature model is correct—but which prove difficult or impossible for pigeons to master.

Behavioural and cognitive processes play important roles in mediating an individual's interactions with its environment. Yet, while there is a vast literature on repeatable individual differences in behaviour, relatively little is known about the repeatability of cognitive performance. To further our understanding of the evolution of cognition, we gathered 44 studies on individual performance of 25 species across six animal classes and used meta-analysis to assess whether cognitive performance is repeatable. We compared repeatability (R) in performance (1) on the same task presented at different times (temporal repeatability), and (2) on different tasks that measured the same putative cognitive ability (contextual repeatability). We also addressed whether R estimates were influenced by seven extrinsic factors (moderators): type of cognitive performance measurement, type of cognitive task, delay between tests, origin of the subjects, experimental context, taxonomic class and publication status. We found support for both temporal and contextual repeatability of cognitive performance, with mean R estimates ranging between 0.15 and 0.28. Repeatability estimates were mostly influenced by the type of cognitive performance measures and publication status. Our findings highlight the widespread occurrence of consistent inter-individual variation in cognition across a range of taxa which, like behaviour, may be associated with fitness outcomes.This article is part of the theme issue 'Causes and consequences of individual differences in cognitive abilities'.

The great increase in the study of dog cognition in the current century has yielded insights into canine cognition in a variety of domains. In this review, we seek to place our enhanced understanding of canine cognition into context. We argue that in order to assess dog cognition, we need to regard dogs from three different perspectives: phylogenetically, as carnivoran and specifically a canid; ecologically, as social, cursorial hunters; and anthropogenically, as a domestic animal. A principled understanding of canine cognition should therefore involve comparing dogs’ cognition with that of other carnivorans, other social hunters, and other domestic animals. This paper contrasts dog cognition with what is known about cognition in species that fit into these three categories, with a particular emphasis on wolves, cats, spotted hyenas, chimpanzees, dolphins, horses, and pigeons. We cover sensory cognition, physical cognition, spatial cognition, social cognition, and self-awareness. Although the comparisons are incomplete, because of the limited range of studies of some of the other relevant species, we conclude that dog cognition is influenced by the membership of all three of these groups, and taking all three groups into account, dog cognition does not look exceptional.

Two experiments investigated what makes it more likely that pigeons' behavior will come under the control of multiple relevant visual stimulus dimensions. Experiment 1 investigated the effect of stimulus set structure, using a conditional discrimination between circles that differed in both hue and diameter. Two training conditions differed in whether hue and diameter were correlated in the same way within positive and negative stimulus sets as between sets. Transfer tests showed that all pigeons came under the control of both dimensions, regardless of stimulus set structure. Experiment 2 investigated the effect of the relative salience of the stimulus differences on three visual dimensions. Pigeons learned a multiple simultaneous discrimination between circular patches of sinusoidal gratings that differed in hue, orientation, and spatial frequency. In initial training, each stimulus only included one positive or negative feature, and the stimulus differences on the three dimensions were adjusted so that the rates of learning about the three dimensions were kept approximately equal. Transfer tests showed that all three dimensions acquired control over behavior, with no single dimension dominating consistently across pigeons. Subsequently the pigeons were trained in a polymorphous category discrimination using all three dimensions, and the level of control by the three dimensions tended to become more equal as polymorphous training continued. We conclude that the salience of the stimulus differences on different dimensions is an important factor in whether pigeons will come under the control of multiple dimensions of visual stimuli.

Behavioural flexibility has been argued to be an evolutionarily favourable trait that helps invasive species to establish themselves in non-native environments. Few studies, however, have compared the level of flexibility (whether considered as an outcome or as a process) in mammalian invaders and related native species. Here, we tested whether flexibility differs between groups of free-ranging invasive eastern grey squirrels, Sciurus carolinensis, and native Eurasian red squirrels, Sciurus vulgaris, in the U.K., using an easy and a difficult food extraction task. All individuals of both species showed flexibility, at the outcome level, in solving the easy task and solution time was comparable between species across a series of successes. A higher proportion of grey squirrels than red squirrels solved the difficult task. However, for those squirrels that did solve the task, solving efficiency was comparable between species on their first success, and a few red squirrels outperformed the grey squirrels in subsequent successes. Between-species analysis showed that instantaneous flexibility, flexibility at the process level that was measured as the rate of switching between tactics after a failed attempt, was higher in red squirrels than in grey squirrels. Within-species analysis also revealed that red squirrel problem solvers showed higher flexibility at the process level than their nonsolver counterparts. Nonsolvers also failed to make 'productive' switches (switching from ineffective to effective tactics). Together, the results suggest that problem-solving ability overlaps in the two species, but is less variable, and on average higher, in grey squirrels than in red squirrels. The superior behavioural flexibility of the grey squirrels, shown here by success at problem solving, may have facilitated their invasion success, but it may also have resulted from selective pressures during the invasion process. (c) 2018 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In human participants, 2 paradigms commonly assumed to measure the executive-control processes involved in response inhibition are the stop-signal and change-signal tasks. There is, however, also considerable evidence that performance in these tasks can be mediated by associative processes. To assess which components of inhibitory response control might be associative, we developed analogues of these tasks for pigeons. We trained pigeons to peck quickly at 1 of 2 keys of different colors to obtain a food reward. On some trials, the rewarded key was replaced (after a varying interval) by a signal of a different color. For some birds, this was a change signal: pecking the signal had no effect, but pecking the usually unrewarded alternative key led to a reward, so the response had to be changed. For other birds, the change in color was a stop signal: pecking the alternative key remained ineffective, but pecking the signal now led to a timeout instead of the usual reward, so responses had to be withheld. Pigeons succeeded in both tasks, but performance declined with increasing signal delay. The details of performance in both tasks were consistent with the independent horse-race model of inhibitory control often applied to studies of human participants. This outcome further suggests that stop-signal tasks of the kind used here might not necessarily be suitable for assessing top-down executive-control processes in humans. (PsycINFO Database Record

Abstract: A fundamental precept of the scientific method is reproducibility of methods and results, and there is growing concern over the failure to reproduce significant results. Family dogs have become a favoured species in comparative cognition research, but they may be subject to cognitive differences arising from genetic (breeding lines) or cultural differences (e.g. preferred training methods). Such variation is of concern as it affects the validity and generalisability of experimental results. Despite its importance, this problem has not been specifically addressed to date. Therefore, we aimed to test the influence of three factors on reproducibility: testing site (proximal environment), breed and sex (phenotype). The same experimenter tested cognitive performance by more than two hundred dogs in four experiments. Additionally, dogs' performance in an obedience task administered by the owner. Breed of dog and testing site were found to influence the level of performance only mildly, and only in the means-end experiment and in the obedience task. Our findings demonstrate that by applying the same test protocols on sufficiently large samples, the reported phenomenon in these cognitive tests can be reproduced, but slight differences in performance levels can

When animals encounter a task they have solved previously, or the same problem appears in a different apparatus, how does memory, alongside behavioural traits such as persistence, selectivity and flexibility, enhance problem-solving efficiency? We examined this question by first presenting grey squirrels with a puzzle 22 months after their last experience of it (the recall task). Squirrels were then given the same problem presented in a physically different apparatus (the generalisation task) to test whether they would apply the previously learnt tactics to solve the same problem but in a different apparatus. The mean latency to success in the first trial of the recall task was significantly different from the first exposure but not different from the last exposure of the original task, showing retention of the task. A neophobia test in the generalisation task suggested squirrels perceived the different apparatus as a different problem, but they quickly came to apply the same effective tactics as before to solve the task. Greater selectivity (the proportion of effective behaviours) and flexibility (the rate of switching between tactics) both enhanced efficiency in the recall task, but only selectivity enhanced efficiency in the generalisation task. These results support the interaction between memory and behavioural traits in problem-solving, in particular memory of task-specific tactics that could enhance efficiency. Squirrels remembered and emitted task-effective tactics more than ineffective tactics. As a result, they consistently changed from ineffective to effective behaviours after failed attempts at problem-solving.