- Behavioural Processes, 50, 79-94
- http://www.elsevier.com/locate/behavproc
Generalization of 'same-diferent' classification abilities in
bottlenosed dolphins (2000)
- Eduardo Mercado III, Deirdre A. Killebrew, Adam A. Pack, Inés
V.B. Mácha, Louis M. Herman
- Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory
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- (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V.
Two bottlenosed dolphins taught to classify pairs of three-dimensional
objects as either same or different were tested with novel stimulus
sets to determine how well their classification abilities would
generalize. Both dolphins were immediately able to classify novel
pairs of objects, differing only in shape, as same or different.
When tested on sets of three objects consisting of either all
different objects or of two identical objects and one different
object, both dolphins proved to be able to classify 'all different'
sets as different and 'not all different' sets as same, at levels
significantly above chance. These data suggest that dolphins can
use knowledge about similarity-based classification strategies
gained from previous training to perform successfully in a variety
of novel same-different classification tasks. Visual classificatory
abilities appear to be comparable to those that have been demonstrated
in primates.
(Full Text PDF)
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- Mercado, E. III, Killebrew, D.A., Pack, A.A., Mácha,
I.V.B., Herman, L.M. (2000). Generalization of 'same-different'
classification abilities in bottlenosed dolphins. Behavioural
Processes, 50, 79-94.
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