Search results for "Cognitive science"
showing 10 items of 6580 documents
Exploratory behaviour is not related to associative learning ability in the carabid beetle Nebria brevicollis.
2020
Abstract Recently, it has been hypothesised that as learning performance and animal personality vary along a common axis of fast and slow types, natural selection may act on both in parallel leading to a correlation between learning and personality traits. We examined the relationship between risk-taking, exploratory behaviour and associative learning ability in carabid beetle Nebria brevicollis females by quantifying the number of trials individuals required to reach criterion during an associative learning task (‘learning performance’). The associative learning task required the females to associate odour and direction with refugia from light and heat in a T-maze. Further, we assessed lea…
Lateralization of complex behaviours in wild greater flamingos.
2018
8 pages; International audience; Lateralization refers to the preferential use of one side of the body to perform certain tasks, often as a consequence of the specialization of cerebral hemispheres. Individuals may benefit from lateralization if it allows them to perform complex tasks simultaneously. Studies on laterality further suggest that sex and age can influence the extent of lateralization. However, most studies on lateralization have been performed on captive individuals, exposed to simplified environments and expressing limited behavioural repertoire. Here, we evaluated behavioural lateralization in the greater flamingo, Phoenicopterus roseus, through observations of wild individua…
Long-term fitness consequences of high yolk androgen levels: sons pay the costs
2012
Summary 1. Early growth conditions, for example hormonal environment during embryonic development, may have long-lasting effects on behaviour and phenotype, with subsequent fitness consequences. Yolk androgens have been shown to affect various offspring traits in the short-term, but fitness consequences for either offspring or parents, a prerequisite for studying the adaptiveness of this maternal effect, are poorly known in the wild. 2. We experimentally elevated yolk androgen levels of whole clutches in a wild population of collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis) and investigated the long-term effects of yolk androgens on offspring local recruitment, parental return rate, and timing and…
How partnerships end in guillemots Uria aalge : chance events, adaptive change, or forced divorce?
2007
Divorce in socially monogamous species can result from different mechanisms, for example, chance events, active desertion of the partner, or the intrusion of a third individual ousting the partner. We compared the predictions associated with such mechanisms with data from common guillemots (Uria aalge) breeding on the Isle of May, Scotland. The data cover the years 1982--2005 and show a yearly divorce rate of 10.2%. In most divorces (86%), one of the original partners moved to another breeding site, whereas the other bird stayed and bred with a new partner. On average, movers had a significantly lower breeding success after divorce, stayers were largely unaffected, whereas the incoming bird…
Ecological services performed by the bonobo (Pan paniscus): seed dispersal effectiveness in tropical forest.
2013
Abstract:Survival of Afrotropical primary forests depends not only on habitat protection but also on the protection of animal species such as frugivorous primates, recognized as the most important seed dispersers for many plants. Here we investigate seed-dispersal services by the bonobo (Pan paniscus) in an evergreen lowland tropical rain forest of the Congo Basin. In the long-term research site of LuiKotale, we investigated food habits and seed processing based on 22 mo of behavioural observation, seed trial experiment and long-term daily GPS tracking of a habituated ape community. Bonobos were mainly frugivores (66% of all feeding sessions), spending about 3.5 h d−1swallowing seeds that w…
Assortative mating by size without a size-based preference: the female-sooner norm as a mate-guarding criterion.
2013
7 pages; International audience; The study of size-assortative mating, or homogamy, is of great importance in speciation and sexual selection. However, the proximate mechanisms that lead to such patterns are poorly understood. Homogamy is often thought to come from a directional preference for larger mates. However, many constraints affect mating preferences and understanding the causes of size assortment requires a precise evaluation of the pair formation mechanism. Mate-guarding crustaceans are a model group for the study of homogamy. Males guard females until moult and reproduction. They are also unable to hold a female during their own moult and tend to pair with females closer to moult…
Colour and luminance contrasts predict the human detection of natural stimuli in complex visual environments.
2017
Much of what we know about human colour perception has come from psychophysical studies conducted in tightly-controlled laboratory settings. An enduring challenge, however, lies in extrapolating this knowledge to the noisy conditions that characterize our actual visual experience. Here we combine statistical models of visual perception with empirical data to explore how chromatic (hue/saturation) and achromatic (luminant) information underpins the detection and classification of stimuli in a complex forest environment. The data best support a simple linear model of stimulus detection as an additive function of both luminance and saturation contrast. The strength of each predictor is modest …
Lessons Learned from the Design and Development of Vehicle Simulators
2018
Vehicle simulators are crucial tools used in a variety of areas, such as aviation, driving, or maritime transportation. International standards require the use of motion-based vehicle simulators in training scenarios. However, the huge variety of applications and requirements makes it difficult for end users to find a motion-based commercial solution that fulfils their needs. On the other hand, commercial solutions are usually expensive as they involve specific hardware and software. Although some ad-hoc solutions have been reported, a generalized design strategy is needed. In this article, the authors emphasize the need for finding a development methodology for these important tools and th…
A Humanoid Social Robot Based Approach for Indoor Environment Quality Monitoring and Well-Being Improvement
2020
The indoor environmental quality (IEQ) monitoring inside buildings where people spend most of their time is essential for ensuring their well-being. Traditional approaches based on Building Automation and Control Systems consider buildings equipped with many different sensors. Unfortunately, the sensors are not always placed for taking the measurements at the right positions. Besides, users could feel a negative perception due to continuous supervision. The present work proposes an approach based on a social humanoid robot that monitors indoor environmental quality. It friendly interacts with occupants providing appropriate suggestions. Particularly, the social robot has been endowed with c…
Human Systems Design: Towards an Integrative Conceptual Framework
2020
International audience; Conceiving artefacts and tools is one of the major key characteristics of the human species. Since the beginning of automation and even more since the spreading of computer science, this activity has become more and more challenging especially through the analysis of the different interaction modes between the artifacts and the human. Nowadays, developing an artifact that must interact with a human is requiring an integrative point of view which must include biological, physical and cybernetical concerns. The current norms aimed at characterizing the quality and the relevance of human machine interface are generally limited to standard interfaces and/or to specific d…