Do animals have ability for "abstraction". It is said that "In a few cases, if more than one animal has been taught the abstractions, animals may use them to communicate among themselves". ( http://www.animalbehavioronline.com/languageandcognition.html) Are there any further studies about this matter?
Recently I listened to an audiobook "Animals in translation" by Dr Temple Grandin. Among numerous interesting examples of animal behaviour, she mentioned a parrot capable of something close to arguing with its owner and teacher. Here is a short story about it: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/09/arts/a-thinking-bird-or-just-another-birdbrain.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm. Maybe this will lead you to other similar studies.
There is also some research that shows that dolphins can show self awareness. .Check this link
http://www.pnas.org/content/98/10/5937.full
Read the book--Alex and me by Dr. Irene Pepperberg. Her studies on african parrots show that they have abilities to name colors, the concept of zero/none etc. I think recently there have been lots of similar studies on crows, dogs etc.
Some examples of abstraction ability and sometimes
related to animal language.
Especially honeybees. I've seen similar experiments
with octopuses but unfortunately have no link.
http://phys.org/news/2012-05-insects-master-abstract-concepts.html
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/04/18/1202576109.abstract
http://phys.org/news3552.html
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/209/22/ii.full
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/209/22/4420.abstract
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/270/Suppl_2/S181.abstract
Birds
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2005/07/68226
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/09/10/1208724109
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10570-only-hungry-hens-heed-the-dinner-call.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/uoc-bpf021907.php
Monkeys
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/afps-mat042007.php
http://edition.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/09/05/coolsc.countingmonkeys/index.html
Rats
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/uog-urs030607.php
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC1861845
http://pigeonrat.psych.ucla.edu/resources/6/blaisdell%20et%20al%20science%20main%20+%20som%202006.pdf
Dogs
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0049382
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/s-csc112807.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbI13nbDRRI&feature=player_embedded
Elephants
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/sumc-fed100212.php
Regards,
Joachim
I hope my colleagues and friends in Applied Linguistics read your answer Joachim. Thank you for the info.
Regards,
Leyla
A colleague of mine: Robert Cook has an excellent online book that covers avian visual abilities:
http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/avc/
Including equivalence class formation stuff which you might be interested in.
Also I have a paper comparing 4 species and their ability to form and use rules in category formation:
Smith, J., Berg, M. E., Cook, R. G., Murphy, M. S., Crossley, M. J., Boomer, J., & ... Grace, R. C. (2012). Implicit and explicit categorization: A tale of four species. Neuroscience And Biobehavioral Reviews, 36(10), 2355-2369. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.09.003
A definite thumbs up to Bob Cook's e book. As well, check out the last few chapters of Shettleworth's Cognition, Evolution and Behavior.
Maybe this new paper in fish behaviour could be interesting for you:
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n4/full/ncomms2781.html
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/evidence-shows-fish-collaboration-on-hunting-prey
Hi Leyla, the subject is quite interesting and in some way "controversial". Working with dolphins and whales, I particularly like research and effort by Loius Herman, Professor Emeritus at University of Hawaii and Lori Marino, Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology and a Faculty Affiliate of the Center for Ethics at Emory University. Their list of scientific publications is massively long so it is not possible to list their work here. The following links might be of help to you:
http://www.dolphin-institute.org/our_research/dolphin_research/dolphinresearchpublications.htm
http://www.kimmela.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Lori-Marino-CV-November-2012.pdf
http://marineanimalwelfare.com/bibliogr.htm
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