Glossary

Addition. Ability to summate quantities that follows from the acquisition of the number concept. Allocentric orientation. Orientation in space that depends on external markers, such as landmarks. Anticipatory goal responses. Responses similar to those exhibited in the goal area when in contact with the reinforcer, but occurring in advance. Such a response could also be interpreted as an expectancy of the reinforcer if the responses are conceptualized as internal.

Anthropomorphism. Tendency to interpret the mental correlates of an animal’s behavior by extrapolating from personal experience in similar situations.

Aposematic coloration. Presence of bright colors and clear patterns of stripes in the body of certain animals.

Batesian mimicry. Convergence in coloration of mimic, edible species with their unpalatable, toxic models.

Beacons.Cues proximal to a particular spatial location.

Categorization. The sorting and grouping of stimuli based on some common feature.

Causality. An abstract concept that allows reaching solutions to problems of the form Object^-^ Cause "^Effect.

Cognition. The ability to know. As an area of psychology, cognition is traditionally involved with the processes of perception, learning, memorizing, thinking, and judging. Applied to animal behavior, cognition has been linked to problem-solving skills in this book.

Cognitive map. An internal representation of the spatial features of a particular environment that allows the animal efficient movement across locations.

Communication. The release of a message encoded in a medium that a recipient (usually a conspecific) is able to decode and interpret. Messages may involve scents, vocalizations, visual signals, etc.

Concept. A category of related exemplars.

Conditional discriminations. Discriminations in which one stimulus signals that one response is correct and another response is incorrect, whereas another stimulus signals the opposite arrangement.

Contextual variables. In cognitive accounts of behavior, any factors other than cognitive processes, including sensory, motivational, motor, and associative factors.

Counting. Ability to assign a numerical tag to a set of objects, to use the same tags independently of the objects being counted, and to assign ordinal properties to those tags.

Crypticity. Ability to match external appearance with the background.

Differential-outcomes effect. In conditional discriminations, a condition in which each correct stimulus-response link is reinforced with a different outcome.

Egocentric orientation. Orientation in space that takes the organisms own location as a point of reference.

Emergent property. A behavior that arises without explicit training because of the connection between separately trained precursors.

Episodic-like memory. Memory in a nonhuman animal resembling human episodic memory Demonstrations of episodic-like memory about a past event require evidence that the organism remembers what happened, where it happened, and when it happened.

Expectancy. An anticipatory internal state that represents an expected event and that results from classical conditioning.

Generalization. A tendency to respond in like manner to similar stimuli. Response strength tends to decrease as the test stimuli differ from the training stimulus, giving rise to a generalization gradient.

Landmarks. Cues distal with respect to a particular location.

Language comprehension and production. Language comprehension refers to the ability to correctly follow commands presented in a symbolic format, whereas language production involves the creation of syntactically appropriate strings of symbols.

Latent learning. Exploratory behavior that results in the acquisition of knowledge about the spatial features of the environment that is not immediately used, but becomes relevant after a change in the environment (e.g., when food becomes available).

Learning set. The successive acquisition of two-choice discriminations that may, in some cases, lead to the development of a rule known as win-stay/lose-shift.

Lexigrams. A system of symbols used for language training with chimpanzees and bonobos.

Mental continuity. Psychological or behavioral properties shared by humans and other animals. Although not explicitly stated, mental continuity generally assumes homology of underlying mechanisms.

Mullerian mimicry. Convergence in coloration across unpalatable, toxic species.

Number concept. An abstract concept allowing an organism to qualify a particular set of objects in terms of its quantitative properties. Acquisition of the number concept should also give rise to the ability to perform mathematical operations based on those numbers (e.g., addition).

Numerosity. Using a perceptual correlate for a number instead of the concept of number.

Path integration. A way of calculating a shortcut to a destination by averaging two directions.

Planning. In the context of tool used, planning involves selecting a specific tool for a task that will be performed in the future. Importantly, picking up a given tool provides no immediate advantage or reward.

Referential calls. Vocalizations that have specific referents, such as particular predators.

Representation-mediated learning. The ability to associate a current stimulus with the representation of another stimulus that is absent, but is being predicted by the current stimulus.

Same-different concept. Training to discriminate pairs of perceptually identical stimuli from pairs of perceptually dissimilar stimuli may endow the animal with the conceptual ability to extrapolate this notion to novel exemplars.

Secondary generalization. Generalization among sets of associations based on common responses.

Self-recognition. The ability to identify self from others.

Sensory preconditioning. The pairing of two neutral stimuli (e.g., Light^Tone), followed by classical conditioning of the second stimulus (e.g., Tone"^Food), endows the first stimulus with the ability to evoke the CR.

S^R and S^S associations. Associations connecting internal representations between a stimulus and a response, or between stimuli.

Successive negative contrast. Animals exposed to a large reward reject a smaller reward relative to animals exposed only to the small reward.

Syntax or grammar. Rules for the sequential organization of human language.

Tactical deception. Providing incorrect information about the availability of food or other resources to a potential competitor. Deception implies intentionality, a difficult issue to resolve in animal behavior research.

Theory of mind. The capacity to understand the mental states of others.

Tool kit. A set of tools characteristic of a particular species.

Tool use and making. Many animals use a variety of objects as mediators to achieve a particular goal (e.g., reach a food item, protection from conspecifics, etc.). In some cases, the object is selected and modified in a specific manner to achieve the goal. These objects are called tools.

Visual perspective taking. Understanding what another organism sees.