Animal Learning and Intelligence News — ScienceDaily
Quantifying Cognitive Decline in Dogs Could Help Humans With Alzheimer’s Disease
May 9, 2022 Researchers have found that a suite of complimentary tests can quantify changes in dogs suspected of suffering from cognitive decline. The approach could not only aid owners in managing their elderly …
Flies Possess More Sophisticated Cognitive Abilities Than Previously Known
Feb. 17, 2022 Common flies feature more advanced cognitive abilities than previously believed. Using a custom-built immersive virtual reality arena, neurogenetics and real-time brain activity imaging, researchers …
Can a Goldfish Drive a Car on Land?
Jan. 5, 2022 Are animals’ innate navigational abilities universal or are they restricted to their home environments? Researchers designed a set of wheels under a goldfish tank with a camera system to record …
Consciousness in Humans, Animals and Artificial Intelligence
Dec. 20, 2021 A new theory of consciousness provides experimental access to the study of this phenomenon. Not just in …
Scientists Discover Gut Bacteria That Improve Memory in Bees
Nov. 25, 2021 An international research team have discovered a specific type of gut bacteria in bees that can improve …
Gorillas Can Tell Human Voices Apart
Oct. 12, 2021 A new study is the first to show that gorillas are able to recognize familiar human voices based on their relationship with the …
Smart Parrots Need More Stimulation
Oct. 5, 2021 The smarter the bird, the more unique welfare needs it has in captivity, according to a new study that helps to explain why many intelligent animals struggle in captivity. The findings are also …
Both Early Experiences and Gene Expression Influence Impulsivity in Chicks
Aug. 18, 2021 Differences in impulsivity between individuals are linked to both experience and gene expression, according to a study on the ancestor of domestic chickens, the red …
You Can Snuggle Wolf Pups All You Want, They Still Won’t ‘Get’ You Quite Like Your Dog
July 12, 2021 You know your dog gets your gist when you point and say ‘go find the ball’ and he scampers right to it. This knack for understanding human gestures may seem unremarkable, but it’s a …
Elephants Solve Problems With Personality
June 25, 2021 This study makes connections between two sources of individual variation, personality and cognition, in threatened …
Asian Elephants Do More Than Just Trumpet — They Buzz Their Lips to Squeak
June 23, 2021 Communication is crucial for elephants that live in complex multi-tiered social systems. Apart from their iconic trumpets uttered through the trunk, Asian elephants also produce species-specific …
Petting Therapy Dogs Enhances Thinking Skills of Stressed College Students
May 12, 2021 Programs exclusively focused on petting therapy dogs improved stressed-out students’ thinking and planning skills more effectively than programs that included traditional stress-management …
Mammals Evolved Big Brains After Big Disasters
Apr. 29, 2021 A large study reveals the way relative brain size of mammals changed over the last 150 million …
Travel Paths of Primates Show How Their Minds Work
Apr. 23, 2021 Using data from 164 wild primate populations, the global survey examines the mental abilities that primates, including ourselves, use to know where and when to travel in the most efficient …
Mice Master Complex Thinking With a Remarkable Capacity for Abstraction
Apr. 21, 2021 Categorization is the brain’s tool to organize nearly everything we encounter in our daily lives. Grouping information into categories simplifies our complex world and helps us to react quickly …
Mystery Canine Illness Identified: Animal Coronavirus
Apr. 14, 2021 An outbreak of vomiting among dogs has been traced back to a type of animal coronavirus by researchers. Vets across the country began reporting cases of acute onset prolific vomiting in …
Dogs Synchronize Their Behavior With Children, but Not as Much as With Adults, Study Finds
Feb. 22, 2021 Dogs synchronize their behavior with the children in their family, but not as much as they do with adults, a new study …
Friends Fur Life Help Build Skills for Life
Feb. 17, 2021 A new study finds children not only reap the benefits of working with therapy dogs — they enjoy it …
Mediterranean-Style Diet Linked to Better Thinking Skills in Later Life
Feb. 10, 2021 People who eat a Mediterranean-style diet — particularly one rich in green leafy vegetables and low in meat — are more likely to stay mentally sharp in later life, a study shows. Closely adhering …
Training Methods Based on Punishment Compromise Dog Welfare, Study Finds
Dec. 17, 2020 After aversive training, dogs had a lower behavioral state (higher stress and anxiety), a new study has found. If aversive methods were used in high proportions, that persisted even in other …
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Source link Animal learning and intelligence has become an area of intense research amongst scientists as humans look to better understand the complex nature of animals and their ability to learn quickly, harnessing the power of their minds to remember and adapt to the environment around them. This article aims to provide readers with an overview of some of the latest developments in animal learning and intelligence, as reported by ScienceDaily.
One of the most exciting findings on animal intelligence in recent years has been the discovery of socially-guided imitation in rats. Scientists have found that these animals not only can learn from other rats, but that doing so accelerates the learning process. Experiments revealed that rats in a group learned a skill faster than those that were alone—suggesting that learning from one another produces a benefit in rats.
Another fascinating finding suggests that some octopuses can remember their environment over extended period of time. Learnings from recent studies have shown that the cephalopod has the capacity to recall and recognize objects and the locations of dangers it has encountered. This was observed both with short-term and long-term memory.
Over the past decade, there have been a number of breakthroughs in the study of animal learning. For example, researchers have uncovered that fox squirrels possess the capacity to plan ahead, using stored nuts to help them through lean times. This means these animals are capable of looking ahead and judging the future circumstances which then affects the decisions they make.
Pigeons have also been found to engage in long-term memory tasks, suggesting a level of cognitive complexity previously thought to be exclusive to humans. The birds were able to remember to peck at specific symbols or objects after a long interval of time had passed.
It is clear from these findings that animals possess a remarkable level of intelligence and memory that aids in their everyday existence. With continued research and development, scientists are slowly but surely peering further into this fascinating field.