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Masters Thesis, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Department of Psychology
Category formation in a bottlenosed dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) derived from a common antecedent in a match-to-sample (MTS) procedure
- Robert K. Uyeyama
- (c) 1999 University of Hawaii
A bottlenosed dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), trained with comprehension of an artificial language system, had learned associations between symbols and a pair of nonidentical object exemplars to which each referred. In a test for category formation, the dolphin was able to match exemplars of an object to the other pair member within a three-alternative matching to sample (MTS) context. A performance bias in favor of the more familiar exemplar serving as the sample was observed, suggesting the dolphin’s possible use of a prototype-based category. The dolphin had not been previously exposed to tasks requiring the matching of nonidentical objects; the dolphin’s generalization indicates similarities to human semantic representations and could further be used to illuminate the possibility that inductive generalizations in human language acquisition, which are commonly believed to be the result of language-specific innate mechanisms, could be due to domain-general cognitive mechanisms.
Uyeyama, R.K. (1999). Category formation in a bottlenosed dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) derived from a common antecedent in a match-to-sample (MTS) procedure. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Hawaii, Honolulu
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