A bottlenose dolphin discriminates visual stimuli differing in numerosity |
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Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">Annette?KilianEmail author Sevgi?Yaman Lorenzo?von?Fersen Onur?Güntürkün |
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Institution: | (1) Laboratoire de Biologie du Comportement, Université Pierre-Mendès-France, BP 47X, 38040 Grenoble cedex 9, France;(2) 15–17 rue Henri Ribière, 75019 Paris, France;(3) Earthtrust, 133-B N. Kailnalu Dr., Kailua, 96734, Hi, USA |
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Abstract: | A bottlenose dolphin was trained to discriminate two simultaneously presented stimuli differing in numerosity (defined by
the number of constituent elements). After responding correctly to stimuli consisting of three-dimensional objects, the dolphin
transferred to two-dimensional stimuli. Initially, a variety of stimulus parameters covaried with the numerosity feature.
By systematically controlling for these stimulus parameters, it was demonstrated that some of these attributes, such as element
configuration and overall brightness, affected the animal’s discrimination performance. However, after all the confounding
parameters were under control, the dolphin was able to discriminate the stimuli exclusively on the basis of the numerosity
feature. The animal then achieved a successful transfer to novel numerosities, both intervening numerosities and numerosities
outside the former range. These findings provide substantial evidence that the dolphin could base his behavior on the numerosity
of a set independently of its other attributes and that he represented ordinal relations among numerosities. |
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