- Email: [email protected]
Reversal learning in a social communication task: is there an effect of cue?
Abstracts
85
scale (i.e., aggressiveness, sociability, neuroticism, curiosity, and trainability) as reported by their owners. We predicted that left-handedness would correlate with (a) low sociability and (b) high neuroticism. The results indicated statistically significant support for prediction (a) but only partial support for (b). Key words: laterality; personality; paw preference; emotion; valence hypothesis
Key words: cognitive flexibility; interspecific communication; reversal learning; object choice; dog
REVERSAL LEARNING IN A SOCIAL COMMUNICATION TASK: IS THERE AN EFFECT OF CUE? Lisa Wallis1,2,*, Friederike Range1,2, Corsin M€ uller1,2, 1,2 Zs ofia Vir anyi 1 Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria 2 Clever Dog Lab, Nussgasse 4/3, 1090 Vienna, Austria *Corresponding author: [email protected]; Phone: 143 1 4277 76144
REGIONAL OCCURRENCE, HIGH FREQUENCY, BUT LOW DIVERSITY OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA HAPLOGROUP D1 SUGGESTS A RECENT DOG-WOLF HYBRIDIZATION IN SCANDINAVIA C.F.C. Kl€ utsch*, Peter Savolainen* KTH-Royal Institute of Technology, Gene Technology, Stockholm, Sweden *Corresponding author: [email protected]
Relative to other animals, domestic dogs possess exceptional social skills, particularly in cooperation and communication with humans. For example dogs are highly successful at following human cues in object choice tasks (e.g., Br€auer et al., 2006). However, the effect of cue type on dogs’ learning speed and inhibitory control in communication tasks has yet to be investigated. We evaluated the use of two different human communicative cues in a well established comparative test of behavioral flexibility and inhibitory control: the reversal learning task. We compared a simple human-given cue with strong local enhancement (touching) with a more subtle communicative cue (momentary distal pointing). An equal number of individuals were assigned to either the touching or the pointing condition in a between subjects design. In the reversal learning test, subjects were given a choice between two containers, one of which was rewarded, and the other not. In the first phase the experimenter gave the communicative cue to indicate the rewarded container; then the dog was released to make its choice. Once the subject reliably followed the cue, the rule was reversed, so that the experimenter now touched/pointed to the empty container. We compared the average number of trials to reach criterion between conditions in acquisition and reversal learning phases. Cue type affected how quickly individuals learnt the stimulus-reward association, and to what extent they were able to reverse the association. Dogs in the pointing treatment took significantly longer to reach criterion than dogs in the touching treatment. Only four dogs passed the reversal criterion, all of which were in the pointing treatment. The results suggest that the stronger local enhancement effect of the touching cue allowed the dogs to learn the cue more quickly than the more subtle pointing cue, but in the reversal the strength of the cue made it more difficult for the dogs to inhibit their previously learned response.
Reference Br€auer, J., Kaminski, J., Riedel, J., Call, J., Tomasello, M., 2006. Making inferences about the location of hidden food: social dog, causal ape J. Comp. Psychol. 120, 38–47.
The domestic dog mtDNA-gene pool consists of a homogenous mix of haplogroups shared among all populations worldwide, indicating that the dog originated at a single time and place. However, one small haplogroup, subclade d1, found among North Scandinavian/Finnish spitz breeds at frequencies above 30%, has a clearly separate origin. We studied the genetic and geographical diversity for this phylogenetic group, to investigate where and when it originated, and whether through independent domestication of wolf or dog-wolf crossbreeding. 582 bp of the mtDNA control region was analyzed for 514 dogs of breeds earlier shown to harbor d1 and possibly related northern spitz breeds. Subclade d1 occurred almost exclusively among Swedish/Finnish Sami reindeer-herding spitzes, and some Swedish/Norwegian hunting spitzes, at a frequency of mostly 60-100%. Genetic diversity was low, with only four haplotypes: a central, most frequent, one surrounded by two haplotypes differing by an indel and one differing by a substitution. The substitution was found in a single lineage, as a heteroplasmic mix with the central haplotype. The data indicates that subclade d1 originated in northern Scandinavia, at most 480-3,000 years ago and therefore through dog-wolf crossbreeding rather than a separate domestication event. The high frequency of d1 suggests that the dog-wolf hybrid phenotype had a selection advantage (Kl€utsch et al., 2010). Key words: mitochondrial DNA; dog-wolf crossbreeding; Spitz-type breeds
Reference ˚ ., Kl€utsch, C.F.C., Sepp€al€a, E.H., Lohi, H., Fall, T., Hedhammar, A Uhlen, M., Savolainen, P., 2010. Regional occurrence, high frequency but low diversity of mitochondrial DNA haplogroup d1 suggests a recent dog-wolf hybridization in Scandinavia Animal Genetics. [E-pub ahead of print]
85
scale (i.e., aggressiveness, sociability, neuroticism, curiosity, and trainability) as reported by their owners. We predicted that left-handedness would correlate with (a) low sociability and (b) high neuroticism. The results indicated statistically significant support for prediction (a) but only partial support for (b). Key words: laterality; personality; paw preference; emotion; valence hypothesis
Key words: cognitive flexibility; interspecific communication; reversal learning; object choice; dog
REVERSAL LEARNING IN A SOCIAL COMMUNICATION TASK: IS THERE AN EFFECT OF CUE? Lisa Wallis1,2,*, Friederike Range1,2, Corsin M€ uller1,2, 1,2 Zs ofia Vir anyi 1 Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria 2 Clever Dog Lab, Nussgasse 4/3, 1090 Vienna, Austria *Corresponding author: [email protected]; Phone: 143 1 4277 76144
REGIONAL OCCURRENCE, HIGH FREQUENCY, BUT LOW DIVERSITY OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA HAPLOGROUP D1 SUGGESTS A RECENT DOG-WOLF HYBRIDIZATION IN SCANDINAVIA C.F.C. Kl€ utsch*, Peter Savolainen* KTH-Royal Institute of Technology, Gene Technology, Stockholm, Sweden *Corresponding author: [email protected]
Relative to other animals, domestic dogs possess exceptional social skills, particularly in cooperation and communication with humans. For example dogs are highly successful at following human cues in object choice tasks (e.g., Br€auer et al., 2006). However, the effect of cue type on dogs’ learning speed and inhibitory control in communication tasks has yet to be investigated. We evaluated the use of two different human communicative cues in a well established comparative test of behavioral flexibility and inhibitory control: the reversal learning task. We compared a simple human-given cue with strong local enhancement (touching) with a more subtle communicative cue (momentary distal pointing). An equal number of individuals were assigned to either the touching or the pointing condition in a between subjects design. In the reversal learning test, subjects were given a choice between two containers, one of which was rewarded, and the other not. In the first phase the experimenter gave the communicative cue to indicate the rewarded container; then the dog was released to make its choice. Once the subject reliably followed the cue, the rule was reversed, so that the experimenter now touched/pointed to the empty container. We compared the average number of trials to reach criterion between conditions in acquisition and reversal learning phases. Cue type affected how quickly individuals learnt the stimulus-reward association, and to what extent they were able to reverse the association. Dogs in the pointing treatment took significantly longer to reach criterion than dogs in the touching treatment. Only four dogs passed the reversal criterion, all of which were in the pointing treatment. The results suggest that the stronger local enhancement effect of the touching cue allowed the dogs to learn the cue more quickly than the more subtle pointing cue, but in the reversal the strength of the cue made it more difficult for the dogs to inhibit their previously learned response.
Reference Br€auer, J., Kaminski, J., Riedel, J., Call, J., Tomasello, M., 2006. Making inferences about the location of hidden food: social dog, causal ape J. Comp. Psychol. 120, 38–47.
The domestic dog mtDNA-gene pool consists of a homogenous mix of haplogroups shared among all populations worldwide, indicating that the dog originated at a single time and place. However, one small haplogroup, subclade d1, found among North Scandinavian/Finnish spitz breeds at frequencies above 30%, has a clearly separate origin. We studied the genetic and geographical diversity for this phylogenetic group, to investigate where and when it originated, and whether through independent domestication of wolf or dog-wolf crossbreeding. 582 bp of the mtDNA control region was analyzed for 514 dogs of breeds earlier shown to harbor d1 and possibly related northern spitz breeds. Subclade d1 occurred almost exclusively among Swedish/Finnish Sami reindeer-herding spitzes, and some Swedish/Norwegian hunting spitzes, at a frequency of mostly 60-100%. Genetic diversity was low, with only four haplotypes: a central, most frequent, one surrounded by two haplotypes differing by an indel and one differing by a substitution. The substitution was found in a single lineage, as a heteroplasmic mix with the central haplotype. The data indicates that subclade d1 originated in northern Scandinavia, at most 480-3,000 years ago and therefore through dog-wolf crossbreeding rather than a separate domestication event. The high frequency of d1 suggests that the dog-wolf hybrid phenotype had a selection advantage (Kl€utsch et al., 2010). Key words: mitochondrial DNA; dog-wolf crossbreeding; Spitz-type breeds
Reference ˚ ., Kl€utsch, C.F.C., Sepp€al€a, E.H., Lohi, H., Fall, T., Hedhammar, A Uhlen, M., Savolainen, P., 2010. Regional occurrence, high frequency but low diversity of mitochondrial DNA haplogroup d1 suggests a recent dog-wolf hybridization in Scandinavia Animal Genetics. [E-pub ahead of print]