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Resurgence occurs when a worsening of conditions for an alternative response (e.g., extinction) increases a previously reinforced and subsequently extinguished target response. In contrast, renewal is an increase in a response previously eliminated by extinction following a contextual change. Moreover, arranging contextual changes during resurgence tests has enhanced relapse compared with the absence of contextual changes. Several laboratory studies evaluating resurgence in humans have included interruptions of operant tasks by presenting instructions or "blackouts" immediately prior to phase changes in which reinforcement contingencies change. Such interruptions could enhance relapse during testing similarly to changes in contextual stimuli. We tested this possibility in the present study with human participants recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk by interrupting the task across groups with 1-s blackouts every 12 s, 60 s, between phases, or by arranging no blackouts in a control group. We found that blackouts prior to phase changes increased resurgence effects relative to no blackouts, suggesting that blackouts between phases are a type of contextual manipulation serving to increase the salience of contingency changes.

The discounting paradigm has been challenged by an increasing number of studies presenting qualitative variations in the individual discount function. Particularly, the subjective value of a loss does not necessarily systematically decrease with delay to the outcome. Qualitative variation refers to variations in shape rather than steepness of the discount function, such as positive discounting, zero discounting, unsystematic discounting, and negative discounting. Data from three previous studies were analysed in terms of qualitative variations observed in delay discounting patterns. Attention was also given to methods used and to the relationship between the results from the various levels of investigation. We found qualitative differences between discounting of monetary gains and losses on an individual level. While discounting of gains mainly took the form of conventional positive discounting, discounting of losses often took the form of zero discounting or unsystematic discounting. Further, there were more qualitative variations in discounting of both gains and losses among adolescents compared to adults. By examining verbal reports and single choices, we identified some of the rules and consequences involved in these delay discounting patterns. The different rules and consequences observed for the gain and loss scenarios, support that discounting of gains and losses may involve different combinations of reinforcing contingencies. These results point towards a possible way to explain the influences of qualitative variations in delay discounting.

Dogs are highly sensitive to human behavior, and they evaluate us using both their direct experiences and from a third-party perspective. Dogs pay attention to various aspects of our actions and make judgments about, for example, social vs. selfish acts. However, it is unclear if dogs judge human competence. To investigate this issue, we showed dogs two experimenters manipulating a transparent container: one was good at removing the lid to take an object out of the container (Competent person), whereas the other was unsuccessful at this task (Incompetent person). After demonstrating their actions twice with different containers, both experimenters simultaneously tried to open a third container which contained food (Food condition; 30 dogs) or was empty (Empty condition; 30 dogs). Dogs in the Food condition looked at the Competent person longer than the Incompetent one, and female dogs in particular were more likely to approach the Competent person. In contrast, dogs in the Empty condition showed no preferences. This result suggests that dogs can recognize different competence levels in humans, and that this ability influences their behavior according to the first situation. Our data also indicate that more attention should be given to potential sex differences in dogs' social evaluation abilities.

The relational abilities index (RAI) has been shown to consistently correlate with standardized measures of intellectual aptitude, such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. However, the procedure has not been systematically studied and, when used with adults, it has problems in discriminating between medium and high-ability participants. Therefore, the aim of this experiment was to study participants' performance at different levels of analysis and under different trial durations. Sixty-two participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups (30 s or 20 s). We used a version of the RAI involving 55 syllogistic premises (trials), each associated with a YES/NO question. Trials were dived into four blocks, each testing a different relational frame. Results showed that total scores were lower when trials were shortened. However, this reduction was evident only for lower-ability participants. RAI scores in the 20 s group approximated a normal distribution and trial difficulty increased when trial duration decreased. Trial difficulty increased as a function of trial sequence within a block in only half of the blocks. Nodal distance was predictive of trial difficulty. Based on these results, a list of proposed changes to the procedure is provided and discussed.

Auditory patterns carry information in human speech at multiple levels, including the surface relationships between sounds within words in phonology and the abstract structures of syntax. The sequences of other animal vocalizations, such as birdsong, can also be described as auditory patterns, but few studies have probed how the sequences are perceived at multiple levels. Past work shows that a small parrot species, the budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus), exceeds other birds in sequence perception and is even sensitive to abstract structure. But it is not known what level of auditory analysis is dominant in perception or what limits might exist in sensitivity to abstract structure. Here, budgerigars were tested on their ability to discriminate changes in an auditory pattern, AAB, i.e. sound-same different, to ask how they attended to surface relationships among the sounds and the abstract relationships of same/different among the elements. The results show that the budgerigars primarily used surface transitions between the sounds when discriminating the sequences, but were able to use the abstract relationships to a limited extent, largely restricted to two elements. This study provides insight into how budgerigars extract information from conspecific vocalizations and how their capacities compare to human speech perception.

Changes in motivation have been observed following induction of diet-induced obesity. However, to date, results have been contradictory, some authors reporting an increase in motivation to obtain palatable food, but others observing a decrease. Observed differences might be associated with the length of both the evaluation period and exposure to the diet. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate changes in motivation during 20 weeks of exposure to a hypercaloric diet. Performance of the subjects in a progressive ratio schedule was evaluated before and during the exposure to a high-fat, high-sugar choice diet (HFHSc). A decrease in motivation was observed after 2 weeks of diet exposure, low levels of motivation remained throughout 20 weeks. A comparable decrease in motivation took longer (3 weeks) to develop using chow diet in the control group. Overall, our results suggest that, when changes in motivation are being evaluated, long periods of diet exposure made no further contribution, once motivation decreased, it remained low up to 18 weeks. Exposure to a HFHSc diet is a useful animal model of obesity, since it replicates some pathophysiological and psychological features of human obesity such as an increase in fasting glucose levels, body weight and the weight of adipose tissue.

Behavioral economics offers unique tools for assessing value and motivation associated with college drinking. Tasks that model changes in consumption as a function of price (operant demand) or the decline in an outcome’s subjective value as a function of time-to-occurrence (delay discounting) provide valuable information that may efficiently supplement clinical screening instruments when characterizing alcohol use severity. The first aim of this investigation was to examine the extent to which at-risk drinking, operant demand for alcohol, and single- and cross-commodity discounting of money and alcohol predict adverse consequences of past-month drinking in underage college women (N = 72). The second aim was to determine whether these clinical and behavioral economic measures could significantly predict the odds of past-month drunk driving, a serious public health concern due to the increasing prevalence of heavy episodic drinking among women in their first 1 – 2 years of college. Results showed that higher scores on the consumption factor of the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT-C), greater Persistence (consumption amidst constraint) and Amplitude (maximum consumption) of demand, as well as lower rates of discounting for choices between receiving alcohol now or double the amount after a delay (choosing the larger amount of alcohol even when it is delayed) significantly predicted adverse consequences of past-month drinking. Moreover, scores on the AUDIT-C, Amplitude of demand, and higher rates of discounting for choices between receiving alcohol now and money later (choosing immediately available alcohol at the expense of double the equivalent in delayed money) significantly predicted past-month drunk driving. We contend that operant demand along with single- and cross-commodity discounting can be viewed as intersecting measures of reinforcer value with clinical relevance to college women.

The daily activity pattern in ruminants consists mainly of alternating foraging with bouts of resting, while other behaviors usually play a minor role in the daily activity budgets of ungulates most of the year. Interactions of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors force animals to adopt compromises to form optimal time proportions for foraging and resting to satisfy their daily energy demands. This paper considers the impact of ambient temperature, pasture conditions, body-size, and the effects of lactation and animal growth on the daily activities of goitered gazelles (Gazella subgutturosa). My study found: 1) temperature was the most significant factor leading to the greatest daily hour-to-hour variations in activity, as well as significant monthly changes in activity fluctuations; 2) seasonal improvement of forage conditions did not have a distinctive effect on daily activity; 3) the effect of body size, lactation and fawn growth also did not noticeably change activity fluctuations; but 4) factors related to hiding behavior had a significant impact on goitered gazelle activity. Though goitered gazelles are a sexually dimorphic species, they did not demonstrate any significant deviation between males and females in their daily activities in contrast to typical dimorphic ruminants. The goitered gazelles' hiding behavior may provide a possible explanation for this distinction, as other previously observed dimorphic ungulates were mainly species where fawns followed their mothers from birth. Among other influences, ambient temperature and features of their hiding behavior were the most significant factors influencing diurnal activity of goitered gazelles, while age and sex had a weaker impact on daily behaviors.

The majority of cetacean research suggests a right side/left cerebral hemisphere bias for processing visuospatial information and a left side/right cerebral hemisphere bias for processing social information. Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) socio-sexual behavior involves motor skills coordination and is also hypothesized to serve a social function. The present study assessed whether 14 belugas in managed care displayed side bias in their lateral socio-sexual presentation behavior. No species-level bias was found, the majority of individuals did not display a side bias, and side use was not dependent on sex of the recipient, although some influence of swim direction was found. Only males had a statistically significant but small left side preference. Furthermore, there was a linear correlation with the left side being used increasingly more over Years 1-6 of life. This study suggests that belugas do not display consistent laterality of socio-sexual presentation behavior, which is in contrast to the laterality of mother-calf positions for belugas and the high levels of laterality that are reported for some behaviors of other cetacean species. Thus, it seems that beluga socio-sexual presentation behavior is flexible and may serve both motor skills practice and social functions, which likely involve both cerebral hemispheres as a cognitively engaging behavior.

Orb-webs show diversity in several traits, including silk types, architecture, physical properties, locale, and period of exposition. The investigation of how they determine the identity of intercepted prey is important to functional ecology and to the evaluation of trophic niche partitioning within communities. However, the influence of several of these variables on the composition of intercepted insects remains to be determined. In this study, we evaluated the effects of web architectural traits, height, and daily periods of exposition on the interception of different insects in terms of sizes, masses, and taxa. We conducted observations of prey intercepted by the orb webs of 16 sympatric spider species and artificial webs. We found that all orb webs mainly intercepted small and light insects, sharing the most abundant insect families found in the study area. However, spiders that show nocturnal activity, more radii in their webs, large and high webs captured heavier insects. Other orb-web traits, such as the density of capture threads did not influence the kind of intercepted insects. We discuss why some variables affected prey interceptions in terms of mass. Finally, we discuss the implications of these influential variables to functional ecology, niche differentiation, and how behavioral assessments can complete this investigation in future studies.

Humans show distinct social behaviours when we evaluate an individual as being a member of the same group and recognize social similarity to the individual. One example is more accurate identification of emotion in that individual. Our previous studies proposed that rats recognize social similarity to certain strains of unfamiliar rats. It is therefore possible that the strain of unfamiliar conspecifics affects stress identification in rats. Wistar subject rats were allowed to explore a pair of unfamiliar Wistar, Sprague-Dawley (SD), Long-Evans (LE), or Fischer344 (F344) stimulus rats. To induce differences in stress, one of the stimulus rats had received foot shocks immediately before the test. It was found that the subjects showed biased interaction towards the shocked Wistar and SD stimulus rats, but not toward the shocked LE or F344 stimulus rats. Subsequent experiments confirmed that the biased interaction towards the shocked Wistar and SD stimulus rats was driven by stress in these stimulus rats. In addition, the lack of biased interaction towards the shocked LE and F344 stimulus rats did not appear to be due to procedural reasons. The experiment using LE subject rats further confirmed that the shocked LE stimulus rats emitted distress signals. These results suggested that Wistar rats could identify stress in unfamiliar Wistar and SD rats, but not in unfamiliar LE or F344 rats. Therefore, rats appear to recognize social similarity to certain unfamiliar strains of rats.

Human-directed fear in extensively reared sheep is often high due to the aversive nature of common husbandry procedures and infrequent interactions with humans. This study investigated whether additional human exposure provided to weaned lambs reduced human-directed fear and behavioural reactivity. Ninety Merino lambs were either exposed to low or moderately stressful human exposure sessions, or had no additional human contact, and their fear responses and behavioural reactivity to humans, a startle stimulus and confinement were tested. Overall, the imposed interventions did not reduce behavioural reactivity during these tests, suggesting fear towards humans had not been altered.

Many cats show signs of fear and stress during veterinary examinations and procedures, with environmental stimuli such as noise contributing to these responses. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of background noise commonly heard in veterinary clinics (people talking, kennel doors shutting, dogs barking) on behavioural and physiological responses in companion cats. In Experiment 1, owned cats underwent a mock physical examination in a veterinary clinic with (n = 16) or without (n = 16) a pre-recorded noise track. A second experiment was conducted to assess cat responses to noise outside of handling and a clinic environment. In Experiment 2, shelter cats were either exposed (n = 15) or not exposed (n = 15) to the same noise track while allowed free movement in a small enclosure. Physiological and behavioural responses previously validated as negative responses in cats (e.g., indicative of fear, stress and aversion) were recorded, and outcome variables were compared between treatments. For both experiments, cats exposed to the noise track showed higher heart and respiratory rates. Noise was not associated with behavioural changes during the physical examination; however, cats who were freely moving showed more behavioural signs of fear and/or stress during noise exposure compared to the no noise conditions. These results show that high levels of background noise elicit physiological stress responses in cats, while ceiling effects of the examination and exposure to the clinic environment likely prevented treatment-related behavioral differences from being detected during the physical examination. It is recommended that those working with cats in environments with high levels of background noise limit cat exposure to these noises to reduce cat fear and stress.

Men and women differ in their ability to evaluate options that vary in their rewards and the risks that are associated with these outcomes. Most studies have shown that women are more risk averse than men and that gonadal hormones significantly contribute to this sex difference. Gonadal hormones can influence risk-based decision making (i.e., risk taking) by modulating the neurobiological substrates underlying this cognitive process. Indeed, estradiol, progesterone and testosterone modulate activity in the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and nucleus accumbens associated with reward and risk-related information. The use of animal models of decision making has advanced our understanding of the intersection between the behavioral, neural and hormonal mechanisms underlying sex differences in risk taking. This review will outline the current state of this literature, identify the current gaps in knowledge and suggest the neurobiological mechanisms by which hormones regulate risky decision making. Collectively, this knowledge can be used to understand the potential consequences of significant hormonal changes, whether endogenously or exogenously induced, on risk-based decision making as well as the neuroendocrinological basis of neuropsychiatric diseases that are characterized by impaired risk taking, such as substance use disorder and schizophrenia.

Although there is evidence to suggest that animal domestication acts as a modulator of spatial orientation, little is known on how domesticated animals, compared to their wild counterparts, orientate themselves when confronted to different environmental cues. Here, using domesticated White Leghorn chicks, and their ancestor, the Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus), our main objective was to investigate how bird domestication influences the use of distal and local cues, during an orientation task. We also investigated the memory retention of these cues over time, and how persistent/flexible individuals from both breeds were at pecking at unreachable mealworms. Our results showed that the breeds did not differ in their use of distal or local cues, with both showing a marked preference for the use of local cues over distal ones. Over time, individual performance declined, but this was not influenced by the type of cue present during the tests, nor by the breed. Domesticated chicks showed greater signs of persistency compared to their wild conspecifics. In conclusion, domestication did not seem to alter how birds orientate spatially, but may have caused more subtle changes, such as an increase in behavioral persistency, a feature that may be adaptative in human-controlled and homogenous environments. Funding Agencies|Swedish Research Council; (det, Sweden) [2019-04869]

Delay discounting occurs when the present, subjective value of a reward decreases as a function of delay. Delay discounting is steeper when individuals must wait during the delay, and delay discounting rates for decisions about waiting are not strongly correlated with those for decisions about postponing without waiting. We examined whether changes in delay discounting in choices about waiting are linked to changes in subjective time perception. In Experiment 1, participants completed an experiential waiting task twice. We established that delay discounting was steeper later in the session. In Experiment 2 participants again completed the delay discounting task twice, and we also tracked time perception across the session using the temporal bisection task. Once again, participants demonstrated steeper discounting during the second discounting task, but time perception did not differ significantly. Additionally, discounting rates were not correlated with subjective time perception. Changes in delay discounting across the session might be understood in terms of context or reference effects.

Birdsong exhibits syntactical patterns, wherein singers from a variety of species perform vocal sequences that follow set rules with respect to the order of vocal units (e.g., song types or syllables). However, little is known with certainty regarding the degree to which such patterns contribute to the two main functions of birdsong, mate attraction and territorial defense. The present study investigates the role of syntactical patterns in the songs of the hermit Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus), which delivers its song types in a semi-predictable order that cycles up and down the frequency spectrum. A within-subjects playback experiment was conducted to assess the strength of territorial response among males exposed to conspecific song stimuli with and without species-typical patterns. The magnitude of territorial response did not differ with between the two stimulus types, suggesting that the syntactical patterns within Hermit Thrush song do not contribute to territorial defense and aggression. Implications for overall understanding of birdsong syntax, as well as future studies with this species, are discussed.

The capacity to be self-aware is regarded as a fundamental difference between humans and other species. However, growing evidence challenges this notion, indicating that many animals show complex signs and behaviors that are consonant with self-awareness. In this review, we suggest that many animals are indeed selfaware, but that the complexity of this process differs among species. We discuss this topic by addressing several different questions regarding self-awareness: what is selfawareness, how has self-awareness been studied experimentally, which species may be self-aware, what are its potential adaptive advantages. We conclude by proposing alternative models for the emergence of self-awareness in relation to species evolutionary paths, indicating future research questions to advance this field further.

Two experiments were conducted to test the effect of experiencing associative interference on later learning. A predictive learning task was used in which human participants had to evaluate whether plants would grow or not (Outcome) after being watered with different fertilizers (Cues). Experiment 1 found that the increase in the prediction error produced by following a pre-exposed nontarget cue by the outcome, facilitated subsequent acquisition of the relationship between the pre-exposed target cue and the outcome. Experiment 2 compared whether learning about the target cue was differentially affected by experiencing two types of associative interference with the nontarget cue: Pairing the pre-exposed cue with the outcome and presenting the cue without outcome after being paired with it. The experience of associative interference with nontarget cues similarly facilitated subsequent learning about the target cue, regardless of the direction of the change in the nontarget cue-outcome relationship. It is suggested that the increase in prediction error produced by the experience of associative interference may lead to a general increase in attention that facilitates subsequent learning.

Many animals live in groups yet grouping tendencies and preferences for groups of different sizes vary considerably between individuals. This variation reflects, at least in part, differences in how individuals evaluate and perceive their physical surroundings and their social environment. While such differences are likely related to individual variation in cognition, there have been few studies that have directly investigated how cognitive abilities are linked to individual grouping decisions. Therefore, in this study we assessed whether performance on a foraging-based reversal learning task is related to grouping preferences (a group of three fish versus a single fish) in a group-living cichlid fish, Neolamprologus pulcher. While most fish preferred to associate with the group over a single fish, individuals that completed the reversal learning task the quickest were the least interested in the group under elevated predation risk. In addition, fish that quickly completed the reversal learning task also adjusted their grouping preferences the most when predation risk increased. This result suggests that the observed relationship between learning performance and grouping decisions may be linked to individual differences in behavioural flexibility. Overall, our results offer valuable insight into the potential factors that underlie inter-individual variation in grouping decisions.

The context specificity of habituation has been demonstrated in earthworms. After the habituation of the retraction response to a light, a recovery of the response was observed when subjects are re-habituated in a different context. Some theories assume that an association between the context and the unconditioned stimulus could underlie this result. A series of experiments were conducted in order to test this issue. We assessed the potential disruptive effects of post-exposure (extinction effect) and pre-exposure of the context (latent inhibition effect) on the establishment of a context-US association. A recovery of response during subsequent rehabituation test was expected. The results of Experiment 1 showed that the extinction was effective, the post-exposure of the context after habituation produced a recovery of the retraction response. This result was replicated in Experiment 2 where the post-exposure condition was compared with a pre-exposure one. However, the pre-exposure to the context did not result in a recovery of the response in the rehabituation test, but also produced a general decrement on the response during the habituation training, that it has been interpreted as decrement in context’s salience. In summary, these results suggest the involvement of associative and nonassociative processes in habituation learning.

Dogs are particularly skillful in communicating with humans, and growing evidence points towards the importance of both species intertwined evolutionary history and intense daily partnership. Gaze alternation is a communicative behavior used by dogs from a very young age and is affected by factors such as aging and experience. We analyzed how different degrees of daily human interaction affect dogs’ gazing behavior in the unsolvable task, where a desired food becomes inaccessible. Three groups with different degrees of daily exposure to humans were compared: pet dogs that live inside the house, pet dogs that live outside the house, and shelter dogs. We found no difference in latency to the first gaze, but pet dogs did show a higher proportion of individuals engaging in gaze alternation, a higher number of gaze alternations, and a longer duration of gaze than shelter dogs. Additionally, dogs living inside the house gazed more at the experimenter than dogs living outside. Overall, our results indicate a strong influence of experience over the development and use of these communicative behaviors in dogs, with groups that are closer to people in their daily lives being more willing to communicate with humans as a strategy to obtain a desired goal.

Proximity to humans is a primary stressor for wildlife, especially in urban habitats where frequent disturbance may occur. Several bat species often roost in buildings but while the effects of disturbance inside the roost are well documented, little is known about those occurring in the proximity of roosts. We tested the effects of anthropogenic stressors on bats by monitoring reactions to disturbance in a colony of greater horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum). We assessed disturbance by recording and quantifying the presence of people, domestic cats and noise sources near the roost. Disturbance outside the roost caused the disruption of roosting clusters; when cats entered the roost, bats decreased indoor flight activity. Emergence timing was delayed when people were close to the roost exit, and the delay increased along with the number of people. The occurrence of a cat increased the degree of group clustering during emergence. Cats entered the roost especially when young bats were present, and bat remains occurred in 30% of the cat scats we examined. We show that the occurence of human activities near roosts and free-ranging domestic cats are important albeit overlooked sources of disturbance.

Two experiments used eye tracking to examine visual searching for expected outcomes in humans during an associative-learning task. In both, participants learned to press keys on a keyboard to activate weapons to repel invading spaceships in the presence of predictive “sensors.” In both experiments, eye tracking showed that participants came to direct their overt visual attention to the portions of the screen where the spaceship would arrive during the presentation of the sensor in a cue-specific manner. Participants also directed attention to the weapon that was used to repel the spaceship. The same results were observed regardless of whether participants were responding on the keyboard, or not (Experiment 2). Pupil dilations occurred to the appearance of the spaceship from the first trial and occurred to the predictive sensor stimuli on later trials in both experiments, suggesting that they might be conditioned responses. In Experiment 2 participants again looked for the expected outcome, but dilations to the predictive stimuli were shown to be an artifact of responding and not due to conditioning. The discussion involves the implications for investigating attention to predictive stimuli using eye trackers, roles of context in behavior, and the utility of outcome searching and pupil dilations as indexes of learning.

This work was supported with funds from Pacific University and the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust (to C.N.T.) and a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (DDIG) provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF), a Student Research Grant provided by the Animal Behavior Society, a Research Grant provided by the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS), and funds from the University of Miami (to K.D.R.C.). Avian song learning has a rich history of study and has become the preeminent system for understanding the ontogeny of vocal communication in animals. Song learning in birds has many parallels with human language learning, ranging from the neural mechanisms involved to the importance of social factors in shaping signal acquisition. While much has been learned about the process of song learning, virtually all of the research done to date has focused on temperate species, where often only one sex (the male) sings. Duetting species, in which both males and females learn to sing and learn to combine their songs into temporally coordinated joint displays, could provide many insights into the processes by which vocal learning takes place. Here we highlight three key features of song learning—neuroendocrine control mechanisms, timing and life history stages of song acquisition, and the role of social factors in song selection and use—that have been elucidated from species where only males sing, and compare these with duetting species. We summarize what is known about song learning in duetting species and then provide several suggestions for fruitful directions for future research. We suggest that focusing research efforts on duetting species could significantly advance our understanding of vocal learning in birds and further cement the importance of avian species as models for understanding human conversations and the processes of vocal learning more broadly. Postprint

This article reviews studies investigating the effect of economy type on reinforcer value. In a closed economy, consumption of the reinforcer depends entirely on the subject’s behavior, whereas in an open economy it does not, due, for example, to the provision of free reinforcers after the session. In theory, reinforcers should have higher value in a closed economy than in an open economy. Experimental results relevant to this prediction and methods used to test economy type effects are summarized and discussed here. Studies have tested the effect of economy type on the value of a variety of reinforcers, including food, water, saccharin, various drugs, and video games. Subjects used have varied also and include humans, monkeys, rats, and mice. Whether economy type had an effect on reinforcer value appears to depend on the particular reinforcer studied and on the species used. In general, where there was a difference in reinforcer value across economies, the effect was consistent with the prediction that value should be lower in the open economy. In some studies, however, satiation across economy types may have been responsible for the difference, or at least contributed to it. Potential explanations for the economy type effect, including substitution of future reinforcers for current reinforcers, contingency degradation, anticipatory contrast, and optimal foraging, are discussed.

Disequilibrium theory is an approach to reinforcement that reconsiders the putative response strengthening prowess of stimuli. This disequilibrium approach-the pinnacle of the response deprivation hypothesis-reliably predicts changes in behavior without reference to a response strengthening process. While the strengthening model of reinforcement has received renewed and critical appraisal in behavior analysis, its appraisers have not fully considered the role that a disequilibrium conceptualization might play in their respective theories of reinforcement. In this essay we celebrate William Timberlake's legacy by elucidating the assumptions of disequilibrium theory and by exploring its predictions and implications within behavior analysis. We treat the disequilibrium approach to reinforcement as the theory of reinforcement in behavior analysis, and in doing so, we distinguish disequilibrium conditions from motivating operations and explore future directions regarding the potential to predict generalization and maintenance outcomes. The disequilibrium approach to reinforcement is not a mere deprivation operation used for the purposes of establishing a stimulus as a "reinforcer," as it is a general theory of behavior.

Distributed cognition generally refers to situations in which task requirements are shared among multiple agents or, potentially, off-loaded onto the environment. With few exceptions, socially distributed cognition has largely been discussed in terms of intraspecific interactions. This conception fails to capture some forms of group-level cognition among human and non-human animals that are not readily measured or explained in mentalistic or verbal terms. In response to these limitations, we argue for a more stringent set of empirically-verifiable criteria for assessing whether a system is an instance of distributed cognition: interaction-dominant dynamics, agency, and shared task orientation. We apply this framework to humans and working dogs, and contrast the human-dog socially distributed cognitive system with humans using non-biological tools and human interaction with draft animals. The human-dog system illustrates three operationalizable factors for classifying phenomena as socially distributed cognition and extends the framework to interspecies distributed cognition.

Experimental evidence suggests that the return of fear may be prevented by post-retrieval extinction (PRE), a procedure consisting of extinction training after the presentation of a retrieval cue. However, attempts to replicate these findings have yielded mixed results, with some studies showing diminished fear responses after PRE, whereas others show no effect on the return of fear following this procedure. The discrepancies across studies have been interpreted as evidence that there might be conditions under which PRE is not effective (boundary conditions), but these variables have yet to be fully described. We aimed to provide an overview of PRE in humans. We briefly present the theory and research that originated post-retrieval procedures with a focus on the experimental setup used in human studies. We continue with a compilation of possible experimental boundary conditions along with some questions for future research.

Urban and rural habitats provide different conditions to wintering birds mainly due to different access to bird feeders. Returning to the food sources, even under the stress related to trapping, could play an important role in the energetic budget of wintering birds. We studied the duration of period between the first and the second capture of the Great Tits (Parus major) caught and ringed at bird feeders. We expected that recapturing of birds, which could be connected with their experience, would depend on their sex, age and on the size of human settlements (urban vs. rural areas), which could modify the behavior of wintering birds. We found that the length of the period was the shortest for immature females and the longest for adult males (the difference being 3.8 days in average). In contrast to more experienced adults, more frequent visits in case of immature tits, which increased probability of being trapped, could be affected by their weaker condition and smaller size, which resulted in feeding whenever it was possible. At the same time we did not find any differences between urban (duration of 29.5 days in average) and rural (28.5 days) areas. Differentiation in bird densities, access to feeders and various environmental factors seems to be the reason why this issue awaits further, more detailed studies including influence of weather on the behavior of birds.

In the evolution of cognition and behavior, a recurrent question concerns the degree to which any given aspect of the phenotype has been "selected for" or "specified," as opposed to arising as a byproduct of some other process. In some sense this is the key question for evolutionary theories of development that seek to connect ultimate evolutionary accounts to proximate developmental accounts of ontogeny. A popular solution to the specification problem is to invoke "emergence," in which phenotypes are co-constructed by many causes and cannot be reduced to any one of them. However, the concept of emergence, while appealing, can obscure sources of ultimate causation by leaving them unspecified. Here I explore the idea of selected emergence, in which phenotypic outcomes do emerge from a confluence of factors, some haphazard, but which include in part a history of selection, genetic and / or cultural, to produce phenotypic outcomes of that type. I discuss potential case studies of selected emergence, explore its empirical implications and provide suggestions for future research on the evolution of emergent outcomes.

This essay is a critical reappraisal of the idea of ontogenetic selection by reinforcement, according to which learning, specifically conditioning, in the individual animal is deeply analogous to phylogenetic evolution by natural selection. I focus on two general versions of this idea. The traditional Skinnerian version restricts the idea to operant conditioning and excludes Pavlovian conditioning, based on a sharp dichotomy between the two types of conditioning. The other version extends the idea to Pavlovian conditioning, based on a unified principle of reinforcement that applies to both types of conditioning, and linked to a neural-network model. I criticize both versions on the same grounds, for being: 1) unable to capture Pavlovian conditioning; 2) unnecessary to formulate said model and use it for explanation and prediction (its combination with a genetic algorithm allows for a substantive contact with the theory of evolution by selection, without the idea of selection by reinforcement), and 3) metaphysically unsound. Non-selectionist accounts of conditioning are not only possible but also more intelligible, explanatory, and heuristic.

Many readers of this journal have been schooled in both Darwinian evolution and Skinnerian psychology, which have in common the vision of powerful control of their subjects by their sequalae. Individuals of species that generate more successful offspring come to dominate their habitat; responses of those individuals that generate more reinforcers come to dominate the repertoire of the individual in that context. This is unarguable. What is questionable is how large a role these forces of selection play in the larger landscape of existing organisms and the repertoires of their individuals. Here it is argued that non-Darwinian and non-Skinnerian selection play much larger roles in both than the reader may appreciate. The argument is based on the history of, and recent advances in, microbiology. Lessons from that history re-illuminate the three putative domains of selection by consequences: The evolution of species, response repertoires, and cultures. It is argued that before, beneath, and after the cosmically brief but crucial epoch of Darwinian evolution that shaped creatures such as ourselves, non-Darwinian forces pervade all three domains.

The behavioral phenotype of an organism results from selective processes acting on variation in behavioral traits during ontogeny (during life span) and phylogeny (across generations). Different adaptive processes can be categorized as environment-phenotype feedback loops. In this cross-disciplinary approach, we discuss the interaction of ontogenetic selective processes, traditionally studied by behavior analysts, and phylogenetic selection processes, traditionally studied by biologists. We elaborate upon the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis by addressing the connection between selection as a domain-general process and phenomena such as classical and operant conditioning, imprinting, adjunctive behavior, and gene-culture coevolution. Selection is in this context understood as a dynamic iterative feedback loop producing a phenotype beyond the strict morphotype. The extended phenotype is related to the concept of niche construction in which the behavior of organisms shapes their environment, which again selects the behavior of the organisms in an iterative process. A discussion of interacting environmental factors selecting human food choice both during phylogeny and ontogeny exemplifies the generality of selection processes acting on behavior.

Evolutionary anthropologists have been remarkably successful in developing ‘dual inheritance’ theories of gene/culture coevolution that analyze the interaction of each of these factors without reducing either one to the other’s terms. However, efforts to extend this type of analysis to encompass complex, class-divided hierarchical societies, grounded in formal laws, political institutions, and trajectories of sustained economic development have scarcely begun. This article proposes a provisional framework for advancing such a multi-level co-evolutionary analysis that can encompass multiple forms of social organization from simple hunting/foraging groups to agrarian states and empires, up through the global capitalist system of our own day. The article formulates tools to conceptualize some of the ways in which ‘selection’ and ‘adaptation’ operate at every level to bring genes, cultures, states, and market exchange into provisional alignment with one another. It considers some of the ways in which modes of production’, ‘modes of coercion’ and ‘modes of persuasion’ interact complexly, at different societal levels.

Contains fulltext : 201963.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) This article focuses on the division of labor between evolution and development in solving sequential, state-dependent decision problems. Currently, behavioral ecologists tend to use dynamic programming methods to study such problems. These methods are successful at predicting animal behavior in a variety of contexts. However, they depend on a distinct set of assumptions. Here, we argue that behavioral ecology will benefit from drawing more than it currently does on a complementary collection of tools, called reinforcement learning methods. These methods allow for the study of behavior in highly complex environments, which conventional dynamic programming methods do not feasibly address. In addition, reinforcement learning methods are well-suited to studying how biological mechanisms solve developmental and learning problems. For instance, we can use them to study simple rules that perform well in complex environments. Or to investigate under what conditions natural selection favors fixed, non-plastic traits (which do not vary across individuals), cue-driven-switch plasticity (innate instructions for adaptive behavioral development based on experience), or developmental selection (the incremental acquisition of adaptive behavior based on experience). If natural selection favors developmental selection, which includes learning from environmental feedback, we can also make predictions about the design of reward systems. Our paper is written in an accessible manner and for a broad audience, though we believe some novel insights can be drawn from our discussion. We hope our paper will help advance the emerging bridge connecting the fields of behavioral ecology and reinforcement learning. 7 p.

Despite a shared recognition that the design of the human mind and the design of human culture are tightly linked, researchers in the evolutionary social sciences tend to specialize in understanding one at the expense of the other. The disciplinary boundaries roughly correspond to research traditions that focus more on natural selection and those that focus more on cultural evolution. In this paper, we articulate how two research traditions within the evolutionary social sciences-evolutionary psychology and cultural evolution-approach the study of design. We focus our analysis on the design of cognitive mechanisms that are the result of the interplay of genetic and cultural evolution. We aim to show how the approaches of these two research traditions can complement each other, and provide a framework for developing a wider range of testable hypotheses about cognitive design. To do so, we provide concrete illustrations of how this integrated approach can be used to interrogate cognitive design using examples from our own work on plant and symbolic group boundary cognition. We hope this recognition of different pathways to design will broaden the hypothesis space in the evolutionary social sciences and encourage methodological pluralism in the investigation of the mind.

Beginning in the 1950s, B.F. Skinner made increasing reference to an analogy between operant conditioning and natural selection. This analogy is the basis of an argument that, in contrast to Skinner's other critiques of cognitive science, is neither epistemological nor pragmatic. Instead, it is based on the claim that ontogenetic adaptation is due to a special mode of causation he called "selection by consequences." He argued that this mode of causation conflicts with explanations that attribute action to an autonomous agent with reasons for acting. This argument dismisses ordinary explanations of action, and has implications not only for cognitive science but also for morals. Skinner cited the latter implications to counter objections to the application of behavior analysis to the reform of society and its institutions. Skinner's critique, however, rests upon empirical assumptions that have been criticized by other behavior analysts. Although for Skinner the major role of the analogy was to propose an empirical thesis, it also can play a metaphysical role-namely, to demonstrate the possibility of ontogenetic adaptation without reference to agents who have reasons for acting. These two roles, empirical and metaphysical, are the mirror image of the empirical and metaphysical roles of the computer analogy for cognitive science. That analogy also can be (and has been) interpreted as an empirical thesis. Its empirical implications, however, have been difficult to confirm. It also, however, has played a metaphysical role-namely, to demonstrate the possibility that a physical process could perform logical operations on states having propositional content. Neither analogy provides a well-confirmed, general answer to the question of how to explain the process of ontogenetic adaptation. But together they show there are two metaphysically coherent, but conflicting, answers to this question. Depending upon one's epistemology, the analogy with natural selection may provide a useful point of departure for a strategy of research. Such a pragmatic grounding for a research strategy does not, however, provide sufficient reason to abandon for purposes of ethics the concept of persons as autonomous agents.

We deploy the most up-to-date evidence available in various behavioral fields in support of the following hypothesis: The emergence of bipedalism and cooperative breeding in the hominin line, together with environmental developments that made a diet of meat from large animals adaptive, as well as cultural innovations in the form of fire, cooking, and lethal weapons, created a niche for hominins in which there was a significant advantage to individuals with the ability to communicate and persuade in a moral context. These forces added a unique political dimension to human social life which, through gene-culture coevolution, became Homo ludens-Man, the game player-with the power to conserve and transform the social order. Homo sapiens became, in the words of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, a zoon politikon.