1-4- Swift & Marzluff 2015 Flashcards
(140 cards)
What happened in the 72 hours after observing novel humans paired with a dead crow, a red-tailed hawk or a hawk with a dead crow?
Crows mobbed and increased the time to approach food
On the day the stimulus was presented, the number of trials that resulted in mobbing and
avoidance of the food was strongest when what happened?
On the day the stimulus was presented, the number of trials that resulted in mobbing and
avoidance of the food was strongest when crows were presented a hawk with a dead crow
Crows use the proximity of a human to predators, to dead conspecifics and to
predators with dead conspecifics as cues to learn to recognize and subsequently scold the associated
human after only one training event, and that this association can last how long?
6 weeks
Which animals congregate around dead conspecifics?
Black-billed magpies, western scrub-jays, chimpanzees, african elephants and bottlenose dolphins
Which animals respond to dead conspecifics in the absence of artificial distress calls?
Western scrub-jays
following carcass removal, what did scrub-jays show?
following carcass removal, scrub-jays show
reduced feeding activity in the area for 24 h.
How can fear be extinguished?
Fear can be extinguished, however, through repeated exposure to the conditioned
stimulus without reinforcing its predictive value of the unconditioned stimulus
what was experiment 1?
To test
danger learning, we conducted three experiments on wild crows. In
experiment 1, we examined (1) whether the sight of a dead
conspecific is sufficient to elicit alarm calling and recruitment, or
whether the presence of an unconditioned predator is also necessary, (2) whether crows learn areas associated with these dangers
and subsequently avoid them, (3) whether crows use dead conspecifics to identify novel predators and, if so, how this process
compares to conditioned learning when novel predators are paired
with unconditioned stimuli (hawks), and (4) whether fear extinction can be achieved with a minimum of three additional exposures.
What was experiment 2?
For experiment 2, we determined whether a dead conspecific
is a more salient source of dangerous information than a similarly
sized, dead heterospecific
What was experiment 3?
In experiment 3, we compared responses of rock pigeons and crows to dead conspecifics.
what were the three phases of each experiment?
conditioning, stimulus presentation and post-exposure
We assumed that no more than ___ adult birds occupied each territory, as helping behaviour occurs infrequently in crow populations
in the northwestern United States
We assumed that no more than two adult birds occupied each territory, as helping behaviour occurs infrequently in crow populations
in the northwestern United States
Crows received a 2:1 mix of what?
Crows received a 2:1 mix of raw, unshelled peanuts and cheese puffs
Pigeons received a 2:1 mix of what?
Pigeons received a 2:1 mix of
birdseed and crumbled white bread.
After providing food, the observer monitored the food pile from ____ m away, for up to ____, and measured the birds’ latency to approach within ___m of
the food pile (‘food discovery time’).
observer monitored the food pile from 15-25 m away, for up to 2.5 h, and measured the birds’ latency to approach within 2 m of the food pile (‘food discovery time’).
What was the conditioning phase?
Once the birds at each site approached the food within the 2.5 h observation period for 3 consecutive days (in most tests, birds met
the criterion in 3 days; in seven tests, birds took up to 10 days to meet the criterion), we began the stimulus presentation phase on the following day (day 4).
During the stimulus presentation phase, we _____ _____ ____ _____, after which a volunteer ______________________
During the stimulus presentation phase, we provided food as normal, after which a volunteer exposed an experimental or a control stimulus 2 m from the food pile
Volunteers
wore one of six ______ _____ with _____ _____
Volunteers
wore one of six realistic facemasks with neutral expressions
Why did volunteers wear a white sign
around their neck that read ‘UW CROW STUDY’?
to limit interruptions by pedestrians or police
During stimulus presentation,
the data collector recorded instances and durations of _____ and
typical crow ____ ____, and the number ____ _____ ____ _____
During stimulus presentation,
the data collector recorded instances and durations of scolds and
typical crow contact calls, and the number of birds present within
25 m of the stimulus
what was mob formation?
the presence of
more than two scolding individuals within 25 m of the stimulus.
what was mob size?
We calculated mob size as the maximum number of individuals
present during the stimulus event.
why did they not determine
whether all individuals within a mob actively scolded beyond the
three-bird minimum?
Because mobs are highly mobile and most birds were not individually marked
The volunteer removed the stimulus ___min after the first bird perched within __ m of the stimulus and was
observed gazing towards the experimental set-up (‘stimulus discovery time’).
The volunteer removed the stimulus 30 min after the first bird perched within 25 m of the stimulus and was
observed gazing towards the experimental set-up (‘stimulus discovery time’).