Affiliation:
1. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 7347633564, USA
Abstract
Concept formation requires animals to learn and use abstract rules that transcend the characteristics of specific stimuli. Abstract concepts are often associated with high levels of cognitive sophistication, so there has been much interest in which species can form and use concepts. A key abstract concept is that of sameness and difference, where stimuli are classified as either
the same as
or
different than
an original stimulus. Here, we used a simultaneous two-item same-different task to test whether paper wasps (
Polistes fuscatus)
can learn and apply a same-different concept. We trained wasps by simultaneously presenting pairs of
same
or
different
stimuli (e.g. colours). Then, we tested whether wasps could apply the concept to new stimuli of the same type (e.g. new colours) and to new stimulus types (e.g. odours). We show that wasps learned a general concept of
sameness
or
difference
and applied it to new samples and types of stimuli. Notably, wasps were able to transfer the learned rules to new stimuli in a different sensory modality. Therefore,
P. fuscatus
can classify stimuli based on their relationships and apply abstract concepts to novel stimulus types. These results indicate that abstract concept learning may be more widespread than previously thought.
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Environmental Science,General Immunology and Microbiology,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine
Cited by
7 articles.
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