Affiliation:
1. Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
Abstract
The ability to identify and retain logical relations between stimuli and apply them to novel stimuli is known as relational concept learning. This has been demonstrated in a few animal species after extensive reinforcement training, and it reveals the brain’s ability to deal with abstract properties. Here we describe relational concept learning in newborn ducklings without reinforced training. Newly hatched domesticated mallards that were briefly exposed to a pair of objects that were either the same or different in shape or color later preferred to follow pairs of new objects exhibiting the imprinted relation. Thus, even in a seemingly rigid and very rapid form of learning such as filial imprinting, the brain operates with abstract conceptual reasoning, a faculty often assumed to be reserved to highly intelligent organisms.
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Cited by
112 articles.
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1. The Argument from Prepared Learning;The Building Blocks of Thought;2024-08-22
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