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Relational Discrimination Learning in Pigeons
Book chapter

Relational Discrimination Learning in Pigeons

Robert G Cook, Edward A Wasserman, Jennifer Vonk and Daniel J Povinelli
The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Cognition
Oxford Library of Psychology, Oxford University Press, 2
03/20/2012
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195392661.013.0028

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Abstract

This chapter explores the possibility that nonhuman animals are capable of conceptual thought. Specifically, we consider whether pigeons can learn same/different discriminations and transfer those discriminations to new stimuli, thereby testifying to the conceptual nature of that discrimination behavior. Considerable experimental evidence does indeed suggest that pigeons exhibit abstract conceptual thought, although controversy still surrounds the nature of that thinking and whether different tasks rely on different perceptual and conceptual processes.
same/different discrimination primates concept learning pigeons

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