title: Abstract-concept learning in Black-billed magpies (Pica hudsonia).
abstract: relational concepts depend upon relationships between stimuli (e.g., same vs. different) and transcend features of the training stimuli. Recent evidence shows that learning abstract concepts is shared across a variety species including birds. Our recent work with a highly-skilled food-storing bird, Clark's nutcracker, revealed superior same/different abstract-concept learning compared to rhesus monkeys, capuchin monkeys, and pigeons. Here we test a more social, but less reliant on food-storing, corvid species, the Black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia). We used the same procedures and training exemplars (eight pairs of the same rule, and 56 pairs of the different rule) as were used to test the other species. Magpies (n = 10) showed a level of abstract-concept learning that was equivalent to nutcrackers and greater than the primates and pigeons tested with these same exemplars. These findings suggest that superior initial abstract-concept learning abilities may be shared across corvids generally, rather than confined to those strongly reliant on spatial memory.
authors: Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, 1 Baylor Plaza, Suite S104, Houston, TX, 77030, USA. magnotti@bcm.edu.
authors: John F
authors: JF
authors: Magnotti
authors: Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, McGovern Medical School, Houston, TX, USA.
authors: Anthony A
authors: AA
authors: Wright
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
authors: Kevin
authors: K
authors: Leonard
authors: Department of Psychology, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA.
authors: Jeffrey S
authors: JS
authors: Katz
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
authors: Debbie M
authors: DM
authors: Kelly
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior; D001717:Birds; D003210:Concept Formation; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D014163:Transfer, Psychology
keywords: Concept learning; Magpie; Novel transfer; Pica hudsonia; Same/different learning