Animal Learning

Comprehensively explains animal learning theories and current best practices in animal training within zoos This accessible, up-to-date book on animal training in a zoo/aquaria context provides a unified approach to zoo animal learning, bringing together the art and science of animal training. Written by experts in academia and working zoos, it incorporates the latest information from the scientific community along with current best practice, demystifying the complexities of training zoo animals. In doing so, it teaches readers how to effectively train animals and to fully understand the consequences of their actions. Zoo Animal Learning and Training starts with an overview of animal learning theory. It describes the main categories of animal learning styles; considers the diverse natural history of zoo animals; reviews the research undertaken which demonstrates ultimate benefits of learning; and highlights the advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches. It also shows how the direct application of learning theory can be integrated into zoo animal management; discusses how other factors might affect development; and investigates situations and activities from which animals learn. It also explores the theoretical basis that determines whether enrichments are successful. Provides an easily accessibly, jargon-free introduction to the subject Explores different training styles, providing theoretical background to animal learning theory as well as considerations for practical training programme – including how to set them up, manage people and animals within them and their consequences Includes effective skills and ‘rules of thumb’ from professional animal trainers Offers commentary on the ethical and welfare implications of training in zoos Features contributions from global experts in academia and the zoo profession Uniquely features both academic and professional perspectives Zoo Animal Learning and Training is an important book for students, academics and professionals. Suited to senior undergraduate students in zoo biology, veterinary science, and psychology, and for post-graduate students in animal management, behaviour and conservation, as well as zoo biology. It is also beneficial to those working professionally in zoos and aquaria at different levels.

Animal Learning and Cognition: An Introduction provides an up-to-date review of the principal findings from more than a century of research into animal intelligence. This new edition has been expanded to take account of the many exciting developments that have occurred over the last ten years. The book opens with a historical survey of the methods that have been used to study animal intelligence, and follows by summarizing the contribution made by learning processes to intelligent behavior. Topics include Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning, discrimination learning, and categorization. The remainder of the book focuses on animal cognition and covers such topics as memory, navigation, social learning, language and communication, and knowledge representation. Expanded areas include extinction (to which an entire chapter is now devoted), navigation in insects, episodic memory in birds, imitation in birds and primates, and the debate about whether primates are aware of mental states in themselves and others. Issues raised throughout the book are reviewed in a concluding chapter that examines how intelligence is distributed throughout the animal kingdom. The broad spectrum of topics covered in this book ensures that it will be of interest to students of psychology, biology, zoology, and neuroscience. Since very little background knowledge is required, the book will be of equal value to anyone simply interested in either animal intelligence, or the animal origins of human intelligence. This textbook is accompanied by online instructor resources which are free of charge to departments who adopt this book as their text. They include chapter-by-chapter lecture slides, an interactive chapter-by-chapter multiple-choice question test bank, and multiple-choice questions in paper and pen format.

This is a revision of An Introduction to Animal Cognition. The book reviews the main principles and experimental findings that have emerged from a century of research into animal intelligence. The book opens with an account of the various methods that have been used to study the intelligence of animals. The next four chapters then examine the contribution made by learning processes to intelligent behaviour. Topics covered include Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning, discrimination learning, categorisation, and an introduction to connectionist theories of learning. The second half of the book is concerned with animal cognition. There is a chapter on the representation of time, number and serial order. Additional chapters are devoted to memory, navigation, social learning, and language and communication. Issues raised throughout the book are reviewed in a concluding chapter that examines the way in which intelligence is distributed throughout the animal kingdom.

In this innovative analysis - the first comprehensive, single-author treatment of the subject in this century - Robert Fagen breaks new ground by adopting an evolutionary approach to behavioral development. Basing his research on the natural history of play in animals, as well as on recent advances in theoretical biology, he resolves an essential biological paradox: mammals, including humans, and birds, of every age and species, spend time and energy - even risk physical injury - performing the seemingly inconsequential activities referred to colloquially as play. Features of this unique book include a detailed review of the natural history of play in mammalian and avian species (supplemented by an extensive bibliography); sociobiological analysis of the shifting balance between selfishness and cooperation in animal social play; and discussion of the biological mechanisms underlying beneficial and hamrful effects of play behavior. Robert Fagen uses previously unexploited theory to investigate the phenomenon of play and to generate several novel or unusual insights and questions. His clear, literate style, enhanced by notes, appendices, and numerous lively illustrations, serves to communicate, entertain, and educate professionals and academics as well as general readers who are fascinated with the natural history, psychology, and behavior of animals.

How and why animals produce group behaviors Fish travel in schools, birds migrate in flocks, honeybees swarm, and ants build trails. How and why do these collective behaviors occur? Exploring how coordinated group patterns emerge from individual interactions, Collective Animal Behavior reveals why animals produce group behaviors and examines their evolution across a range of species. Providing a synthesis of mathematical modeling, theoretical biology, and experimental work, David Sumpter investigates how animals move and arrive together, how they transfer information, how they make decisions and synchronize their activities, and how they build collective structures. Sumpter constructs a unified appreciation of how different group-living species coordinate their behaviors and why natural selection has produced these groups. For the first time, the book combines traditional approaches to behavioral ecology with ideas about self-organization and complex systems from physics and mathematics. Sumpter offers a guide for working with key models in this area along with case studies of their application, and he shows how ideas about animal behavior can be applied to understanding human social behavior. Containing a wealth of accessible examples as well as qualitative and quantitative features, Collective Animal Behavior will interest behavioral ecologists and all scientists studying complex systems.

In this advanced text, the author, starting with the simple assumption that psychological associations are represented by the strength of synaptic connections, details several mechanistic descriptions of complex cognitive behaviors. Part I presents neural network theories of classical conditioning; Part II describes neural networks of operant conditioning, and animal communication; Part III discusses spatial and cognitive mapping, and finally, Part IV shows how neural network models permit one to simultaneously develop psychological theories and models of the brain. The book includes computer software that allows the computer simulation of classical conditioning and the effect of different brain lesions on many classical paradigms. All those people interested in neural networks, from psychologists, through neuroscientists to computer scientists working on artificial intelligence and robotics, will find this book an excellent advanced guide to the subject.

How do animals learn? By what means can animals be conditioned? This volume of the acclaimed Handbook of Perception and Cognition, Second Edition, reviews such basic models as Pavlovian conditioning as well as more modern models of animal memory and social cognition. Sure to represent a benchmark of a vast literature from diverse disciplines, this reference work is a useful addition to any library devoted to animal learning, conditioning behavior, and interaction.

Research on animal learning and cognition has so far mainly focused on a few prominent model species, including primates, corvids and dogs. For years, comparative psychologists and ethologists have been suggesting that more animal species should be considered in comparative cognitive science. The abundance and accessibility of livestock offer an opportunity, not merely to extend the comparative approach, but also to deepen our knowledge of the mental lives of farm animals. Such approaches also help to assess the needs of farm animals, in order to improve their welfare. In recent years, scientific interest in different aspects of farm animal psychology, including emotionality, personality and cognitive capacities, has been on the rise, proving that farm animals have sophisticated cognitive skills to comprehend and cope with their environment. As knowledge of how farm animals perceive and interact with their physical and social environments is crucial for animal welfare, the aim of this Research Topic is to promote investigations of farm animal cognitive capacities and their implications for animal welfare-related issues. We have therefore collected original research and review articles, as well as opinion and perspective papers that are distributed among the two hosting magazines, Frontiers in Veterinary Science (section Animal Behavior and Welfare) and Frontiers in Psychology (section Comparative Psychology). The published articles present state-of-the-art research on farm animal learning and cognition, highlight future perspectives in this research area and pinpoint shortcomings and limitations in interpreting current findings. They offer new cross-disciplinary frameworks (e.g. links between affective states and cognition) and discuss the applied implementation of these findings (e.g. cognitive enrichment). These contributions will increase our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms that enable farm animals to effectively interact with their environment and pave the way for future cross-disciplinary endeavors.

This book, based on the Flowerree Mardi Gras Symposium at Tulane University, juxtaposes contemporary research and theory from several areas of animal learning -- learning theory, comparative cognition, animal models of human behavior, and functional neurology. Investigators pursuing these different routes often work in isolation of progress being made in, what should be, related fields. This book will acquaint students and researchers with a variety of topics, ordinarily treated separately, in a way that will stimulate integrative thinking. Cognitive interpretations of animal learning are included, as well as recent developments in conditioning theory, physiological bases of learning, animal models of human behavior problems, and psychopharmacology.