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2.3 Cognitive Abilities 19

VetBooks.ir are observed frequently in competitive and Thus, engaging in grazing in these areas may
lead to an aversive consequence of seeing a
aggressive interactions in many species.
Interestingly, in contrast to reinforcement
predator. For example, the richness of a flow-
processes, the efficacy of an animal to stop lion or being chased, injured, or killed by a
engaging in a behaviour is often higher when er’s hue may signal for the availability of nec-
the behaviour is punished continuously (i.e. tar for foraging hummingbirds, thus serving
every time) rather than intermittently. as a discriminative stimulus.

2.2.3 Stimulus Control 2.3 Cognitive Abilities
The behaviour of animals clearly changes in
ways that are adaptive in their natural envi- Cognitive abilities in animals are often not
ronments. Stimulus control occurs when a simply conditioning, but the result of higher‐
stimulus exerts discriminative control over level or complex forms of learning, which
an organism’s behaviour. Many aspects or may nonetheless involve similar processes.
features of an animal’s environment may However, it is important to remember that
come under stimulus control, and as such, demonstrations of higher cognitive abilities
there are infinite examples of stimulus con- in animals also often interact with classical
trol in the wild. For example, African hoofstock and operant conditioning processes. In this
species tend to avoid areas in their natural section of the chapter, I will focus on several
habitat that contain stimuli that has been well‐known higher cognitive abilities includ-
associated with predators (Griffin 2004; see ing tool use, spatial learning, discrimination,
Figure 2.1). Many ungulate species avoid social learning, and cultural transmission;
grazing in habitat patches that, although and examples of how these abilities have
filled with plentiful and high levels of dense been demonstrated observationally and
vegetation, can conceal predators quite well. experimentally in wild animals.

Figure 2.1 Wild African herbivores, like zebra, have been seen to actively avoid grazing in areas associated
with a predator. Source: Vicky Melfi.