Attractiveness to highly informative flowers and absence of conditioning in the southern monarch butterfly.

Flower cues serve as information that improves foraging by flower visitors. These cues may act in a synergic, redundant or complementary way. We examined how the integration of visual cues affects foraging in the southern monarch butterfly, and whether these combined cues can be learned. Artificial flowers having two flower cues, colouration pattern (uniform or radial) and dimension (2D or 3D), were employed in laboratory experiments. We assumed that uniform flowers are less informative than radial ones, and that bi-dimensionality is less informative than tri-dimensionality. These cues resulted in four floral types (uniform 2D, radial 2D, uniform 3D and radial 3D). Two- and multiple choice tests were run to investigate whether butterflies show more attraction to more informative flowers than less informative ones. Flower cues acted in a complementary way, as more informative flowers were preferred by southern monarchs than less informative ones. In a multiple-choice scenario, uniform 2D flowers received less visits than radial flowers of both dimensions. In a second experiment, butterflies were conditioned to the four flower types. No conditioning occurred, as radial flowers were visited consistently more than uniform flowers. Our results show that southern monarchs take integrated flower information into account for foraging decisions, and that learning does not occur when highly informative flowers are present.

Reconhecimento de cores de objetos e de alimentos de cromaticidades opostas por pintos de corte / Recognition of colors of objects and food opposite chromaticities by broiler chicks

Objetivou-se com esta pesquisa avaliar, por meio de testes de preferência, a capacidade de percepção de pintos de corte no reconhecimento de objetos e alimentos de diferentes cores. A pesquisa foi realizada no Brasil e consistiu no condicionamento de 60 pintos de um dia sexados, sendo 30 pintos machos e 30 pintos fêmeas, durante três dias, com esferas azuis e alimento vermelho, cores escolhidas por terem cromaticidades opostas. Após a fase de condicionamento, foi realizado um teste de preferência, no qual os animais eram colocados individualmente no centro de uma arena de teste com quatro opções, sendo elas: alimento vermelho; alimento azul; esferas vermelhas; esferas azuis. Cada ave foi avaliada durante 10 minutos. Foram registrados: o período de latência para a primeira bicada; o número de bicadas; a quantidade de bicadas sequenciais em cada tipo de objeto ou alimento; o tempo total da ave em cada compartimento ocupado e o primeiro compartimento ocupado. De acordo com os resultados, pintos fêmeas são menos inibidas quando em contato com uma nova situação em relação aos machos. Entretanto, os machos foram capazes de estabelecer um padrão de ambiente na fase de condicionamento e optaram pelo compartimento que estava mais próximo daquela situação associando, da maneira correta, a cor azul à esfera e a cor vermelha ao alimento. No geral, entre os tipos de cores de objetos e entre os tipos de cores de alimentos, as aves demoraram menos tempo para a decisão da escolha do alimento e da esfera azul, evidenciando-se maior atração, em um primeiro momento, por objetos ou alimentos dessa cor. Entre as duas cores de esferas, menor período de latência, maior número de interações, bem como maior tempo de permanência no local estiveram relacionados à esfera azul, verificando-se total preferência por esse objeto. Ao avaliar os tipos de cores de alimentos, foi possível observar que as maiores médias relacionadas ao número de bicadas e de bicadas sequenciais [...](AU)

The aim of this research was to evaluate, by preference tests, the ability of perception of broiler chicks in the recognition of objects and foods of different colors. The survey was conducted in Brazil and consisted in the conditioning of 60 sexed one-day-old chicks using 30 male chicks and 30 female chicks for three days with blue balls and red food colors chosen for having opposed chromaticities. After the conditioning phase, a preference test was performed, in which the animals were placed individually in the center of an arena test with four options: red food, blue food, red balls and blue balls. Each bird was measured for 10 minutes. Latency to the first peck and the number of pecks, the number of sequential pecks at each object type or food, the total time the bird in each occupied compartment and the first occupied slot were recorded. According to the results, female chicks are less inhibited when in contact with a new situation when compared with males. However, males were able to establish a standard environment in the conditioning phase and opted for the compartment which was closer to that situation, associating the blue color to the ball and red color to the food. Overall, among the types of object colors and between types of food colors, the birds took less time for the decision on the choice of blue food and blue ball, showing a greater attraction, at first, to this color. Between the two ball colors, shorter latency period, greater number of interactions as well as more time spent on site were related to the blue sphere, verifying greater preference for this object. When evaluating the types of food colors, it was observed that the highest averages related to the number of pecks, and sequential pecks occurred with red food. Therefore, it is concluded that the birds recognized the red and blue food object, with the blue color having greater attractiveness for broiler chicks when compared to red(AU)

Reconhecimento de cores de objetos e de alimentos de cromaticidades opostas por pintos de corte / Recognition of colors of objects and food opposite chromaticities by broiler chicks

Objetivou-se com esta pesquisa avaliar, por meio de testes de preferência, a capacidade de percepção de pintos de corte no reconhecimento de objetos e alimentos de diferentes cores. A pesquisa foi realizada no Brasil e consistiu no condicionamento de 60 pintos de um dia sexados, sendo 30 pintos machos e 30 pintos fêmeas, durante três dias, com esferas azuis e alimento vermelho, cores escolhidas por terem cromaticidades opostas. Após a fase de condicionamento, foi realizado um teste de preferência, no qual os animais eram colocados individualmente no centro de uma arena de teste com quatro opções, sendo elas: alimento vermelho; alimento azul; esferas vermelhas; esferas azuis. Cada ave foi avaliada durante 10 minutos...

The aim of this research was to evaluate, by preference tests, the ability of perception of broiler chicks in the recognition of objects and foods of different colors. The survey was conducted in Brazil and consisted in the conditioning of 60 sexed one-day-old chicks using 30 male chicks and 30 female chicks for three days with blue balls and red food colors chosen for having opposed chromaticities. After the conditioning phase, a preference test was performed, in which the animals were placed individually in the center of an arena test with four options: red food, blue food, red balls and blue balls. Each bird was measured for 10 minutes...

Objects and food color recognition by chicks / Reconhecimento de cores de objetos e de alimento por pintos

The study of cognitive abilities of newborn broiler chicks using different colors of objects and foods allows to check the level of perception of the animal related to the environment in which the animal finds himself, to understand its ability to retain memory and learning, contributing for the recognition of objects that are around the animal. The objective of this research was to evaluate by preference tests, the ability of perception of broiler chicks in the recognition of objects and foods of different colors. The survey consisted in conditioning of 60 sexed broiler (30 males and 30 females chicks) one-day-old for three days with blue balls and red food colors chosen for having opposed chromaticities. After the conditioning phase, a preference test was performed, in which the animals were placed individually in the center of an arena test with four options: red food, blue food, red balls and blue balls. Latency to the first peck and the number of pecks, the number of sequential pecks the total time the bird in each compartment occupied and the first occupied slot were recorded. According to this study, it was observed that females had a shorter latency period to choose the first compartment to be occupied, remained for a longer period inside the compartments and interacted more with the food or object preference compared to males (Table 1). Chicks took less time for decisi

O artigo não apresenta resumo em português.

Objects and food color recognition by chicks / Reconhecimento de cores de objetos e de alimento por pintos

The study of cognitive abilities of newborn broiler chicks using different colors of objects and foods allows to check the level of perception of the animal related to the environment in which the animal finds himself, to understand its ability to retain memory and learning, contributing for the recognition of objects that are around the animal. The objective of this research was to evaluate by preference tests, the ability of perception of broiler chicks in the recognition of objects and foods of different colors. The survey consisted in conditioning of 60 sexed broiler (30 males and 30 females chicks) one-day-old for three days with blue balls and red food colors chosen for having opposed chromaticities. After the conditioning phase, a preference test was performed, in which the animals were placed individually in the center of an arena test with four options: red food, blue food, red balls and blue balls. Latency to the first peck and the number of pecks, the number of sequential pecks the total time the bird in each compartment occupied and the first occupied slot were recorded. According to this study, it was observed that females had a shorter latency period to choose the first compartment to be occupied, remained for a longer period inside the compartments and interacted more with the food or object preference compared to males (Table 1). Chicks took less time for decisi

O artigo não apresenta resumo em português.

Why Humans Are Unique: Three Theories.

Three recent papers reject Darwin's claim that there is no fundamental difference between humans and animals. Each offers a unique theory of the difference. The first theory holds that although animals can perceive perceptual relations, humans alone can reinterpret the higher order relations between these relations. The theory offers analogical reasoning as an example of the uniquely human ability to deal with higher order relations between relations. However, chimpanzees are capable of analogical reasoning if the analogies are conceptually simple. The second theory proposes that human intelligence has far better developed social than physical competence-a claim that ignores, and is contradicted by 20 years of infant research showing that the infant's social and physical modules are almost equally developed. The third theory finds that whereas animal abilities are limited adaptations restricted to a single goal, human abilities are domain general and serve indeterminately many goals. This article rejects the first two theories and explains the unique character of domain-general human competence in terms of the interweaving of evolutionarily independent abilities-an interweaving found in humans only.