Chimpanzees are more skilful in competitive than in cooperative cognitive tasks
In a series of four experiments, chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, were given two cognitive tasks, an object choice task and a discrimination task (based on location), each in the context of either cooperation or competition. In both tasks chimpanzees performed more skilfully when competing than when cooperating, with some evidence that competition with conspecifics was especially […]
Training and long-term memory of a novel food acquisition task in a turtle (Pseudemys nelsoni)
We developed a shaping procedure for training Florida red-bellied cooters, Pseudemys nelsoni, to dislodge clear plastic bottles to obtain food pellets. The animals were then trained in a 2-choice problem to choose only the bottle containing pellets. All nine turtles learned the task of knocking over bottles for food. For the discrimination task, turtles chose […]
Juvenile pigs use simple geometric 2D shapes but not portrait photographs of conspecifics as visual discriminative stimuli
Several animals living in social groups, such as monkeys, cows and sheep, have been shown to use facial discrimination for social recognition. Whether pigs can discriminate between faces of conspecifics purely based on visual stimuli provided by 2D portrait photographs, has not yet been investigated. Therefore, in this study piglets with a large birth weight […]