In daily life, both animals and humans are often faced with the task of returning to previously visited locations. In many cases, an organism must be able to (1) establish a directional frame of reference and (2) determine location based on surrounding cues in order to solve this problem. Moreover, successful navigation is generally thought to rely on how an organism learns and uses the metric relationships between various locations in its environment. This thesis examines various factors that affect the way animals encode and use metric information in their environment, both to orient and to navigate. A transformation approach is used to determine what aspects of metric information are learned and/or preferred. Additionally, this thesis follows a comparative approach in order to examine similarities and differences among species. In chapter 2, I show that two closely related species of chickadees differently use geometric and featural information when establishing a directional frame of reference. I suggest that ecological factors, but not rearing condition, affect the way that chickadees preferentially use metric or featural information to orient. In chapter 3, I used a similar paradigm to show that a pre-existing directional frame of reference can interact with rats’ use of metric cues to navigate. More specifically, chapter 3 shows that experience gained through training procedures affects the way that rats use metric information in a navigation task. Chapter 4 expands upon this idea, and shows that pigeons encode directional metric differently based on their past experience. Finally, in chapter 5, I examined the flexibility of use of metrics by comparing how search strategies of human adults and children can change based on a goal’s proximity to an edge. To summarize, this thesis shows that use of metric information is malleable and situation-specific and can be affected by a variety of factors including ecology, past experience and boundary information.

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Thesis (Ph.D)--Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Maple, Terry; Committee Member: Blanchard-Fields, Fredda; Committee Member: Hampton, Robert; Committee Member: Marr, Marcus; Committee Member: Stoinski, Tara. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Cognitive research is the study of mental processes that guide behaviors and decision making in animals and humans. By studying the cognitive attributes of species within a taxon, as in the case of the order Primates, one can identify behavioral and cognitive components characteristic of certain taxa, such as families, species, or perhaps individuals. This allows us to estimate when and where these cognitive abilities arose in evolutionary history and to hypothesize about their cause and evolutionary origins. Episodic memory or episodic cognition gives an organism the ability to recall declarative forms of memories, which allows one to recall past experiences/histories and can then be used to teach, learn, or even promote socialization in many species (Dunbar, 2011). Additionally, it involves how that organism applies such memories to the past and future, thus allowing the organism to project “oneself” into time and space (Clayton, 2017). This is known as mental time travel or future-oriented memory. Scholars maintain that Homo sapiens (e.g. humans) have the most advanced degree of episodic memory (Suddendorf & Corballis, 2007; Tulving, 1985). However, when and how episodic and future-oriented memory evolved in the primate lineage, and if nonhuman and human episodic memory are comparable, is still unknown. Studying the foundation of this complex form of cognitive memory in a basal group of extant hominoids (apes), allows us to hypothesize about the phylogenetic, social, and perhaps objective mechanisms that were necessary for this complex cognitive system to evolve and persist throughout the primate lineage. Our current understanding of episodic memory is ambiguous, concerning what parts of the brain are truly utilized in this system and to what degree of episodic/future-oriented memory abilities are found throughout the animal kingdom. The current understanding is that very few taxa genuinely exhibit episodic memory capabilities (Allen & Fortin, 2013; Crystal & Suddendorf, 2019). The purpose of this research was to examine episodic/future-oriented memory in nonhuman primates, specifically in hylobatids (Family Hylobatidae), also known as small Asian apes, the gibbons, and siamangs. Hylobatids are small bodied, arboreal apes native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia (Fleagle, 1976). Although apes, hylobatids have very different social, physical, and ecological distinctions from their larger-bodied cousins, the great apes (Reichard et al., 2016). These differences have often been used as a justification as to why hylobatid behavior and cognition have been postulated by some as “inferior” to the larger bodied great apes (Russon, 2004b; Tomasello & Call, 1997). However, without scientific evidence to back up this claim, we are still very unaware of the actual cognitive capabilities of these very cryptic small apes. In total, 12 hylobatid subjects were included in this study. Hylobates, Hoolock, Nomascus, and Symphalangus were used as representatives to investigate the episodic/future-oriented memory system of hylobatids by participating in a series of noninvasive, interactive, digital cognitive tasks presented on touchscreen technology and digital testing software. Subjects varied in age, sex, and life-histories and consisted of five different species, Symphalangus syndactylus, Hylobates pileatus, Hylobates mooloch, Hoolock leuconedys, and Nomascus leucongenys, within the four genera that make up the family Hylobatidae. To date, this is one of the largest and extensive cognitive studies done with hylobatids, and to my knowledge the only study investigating components of their episodic/future-oriented memory. The cognitive tasks employed in this study were a digitally based Paired Associates Learning Task (PAL) and Future-Oriented Memory Task (FOM). The PAL task was created by Cambridge Cognition, designed to assess acute visual episodic memory, and was employed using their Monkey CANTAB software (Cambridge Cognition). The FOM task was chosen to evaluate multiple aspects of episodic/future-oriented memory, including the “what, when, and where” paradigm, and assessment of executive function and anticipatory behavior of future-oriented memory associated with the episodic memory system. The digital portion of the FOM task was commissioned and designed by an independent software developer and was created using Python and Tkinter tool kit. Only one of the subjects (Jagger) chose to participate and complete the training procedure of the PAL task but did not meet the testing threshold to move on to the data collection portion of the task. All the other subjects attempted to participate in the PAL task but lost interest and failed to participate (not interacting with the touchscreen when PAL task was presented) after approximately ~<4 training sessions. Conversely, all subjects chose to participate in the FOM task in which three of the twelve participants performed above chance (>50%) in the task. With three subjects performing well above the predetermined threshold of >50% in the FOM task, which utilizes higher cognitive control including components of episodic/future-oriented memory, it can be established that hylobatids most likely possess the same cognitive hardware regarding complex cognitive memory as those of other extant apes. Thus, this study provides further evidence that complex cognition, including advanced episode-like/future-oriented memory capabilities, were present in the last common ancestor of all apes. Furthermore, subjects’ performances were statistically analyzed to see if age, sex, species, and or life history (LH) had an impact on task performance. There was no statistical significance between age, sex, species and/or LH for the individuals in this study, but this is most likely due to the smaller sample size and/or “uneven” number of individuals occupying each category. This is common in nonhuman primate cognition studies with ape subjects due to their endangered species status and scarcity in captive settings supporting cognitive research. The knowledge obtained by this research is significant to many different biological realms. In one aspect, this information strengthens our understanding of the cognitive traits the basal ancestor of all apes may have exhibited, therefore contributing to our understating of human cognitive origin. Furthermore, by understanding the cognitive attributes of a different species, we can further investigate their behavior and “species-specific” intelligence. For example, in-situ animal rehabilitation and reintroduction programs can use the results of this research to help maintain semi-captive populations while promoting educational programs, which can prevent human-wildlife conflicts. Additionally, both in-situ and ex-situ organizations/programs such as zoos, sanctuaries, laboratories, and rehabilitation centers can use the same information to design educational programs to promote animal welfare and conservation to the public, while simultaneously establishing new husbandry and enrichment protocols, which will promote progressive animal welfare (Cronin et al., 2017; Whitehouse et al., 2013). Note: The term hylobatid(s), gibbon(s), siamang(s), and small ape(s) are used in unanimity throughout this dissertation. All usage of such terms refers to an animal(s) that belongs to primate the family Hylobatidae.

This thesis presents a model of a narrow faculty for music - qualities that are at once universally present and operational in music across cultures whilst also being specific to our species and to the domain of music. The comparative approach taken focuses on core psychological and physiological capabilities that root and enable appropriate engagement with music rather than on their observable physical correlates. Configurations of musical pulse; musical tone; and musical motivation are described as providing a sustained attentional structure for managing personal experience and interpersonal interaction and as offering a continually renewing phenomenological link between the immediate past, the perceptual present and future expectation. Constituent parts of the narrow faculty for music are considered most fundamentally as a potentiating, quasi-architectural framework in which our most central affective and socio-intentional drives are afforded extended time, stability, and a degree of abstraction, intensity, focus and meaning. The author contends, therefore, that music's defining characteristics, specific functionalities and/or situated efficacies are not demarcated in broadly termed "musical" qualities such as melodic contour or rhythm or in those surprisingly elusive "objective facts" of musical structure. Rather they are solely the attentional/motivational frameworks which root our faculty to make and make sense of music. Our generic capacities for culture and the manifold uses of action, gesture, and sound to express and induce emotion; to regulate affective states; to create or reflect meaning; to signify; to ritualize; coordinate; communicate; interrelate; embody; entrain; and/or intentionalize, none of these is assessed as being intrinsically unique to music performance. Music is, instead, viewed as an ordered expression of human experience, behaviour, interaction, and vitality, all shaped, shared, given significance, and/or transformed in time. The relevance of this model to topical debates on music and evolution is discussed and the author contends that the perspective offered affords significant implications for our understanding of why music is evidently and remarkably effective in certain settings and in the pursuit of certain social, individual, and therapeutic goals.

In this thesis, Genetic Granular Cognitive Fuzzy Neural Networks (GGCFNN), combining genetic algorithms (GA) and granular cognitive fuzzy neural networks (GCFNN), is proposed for pattern recognition problems. According to cognitive patterns, biological neural networks in the human brain can recognize different patterns. Since GA and neural networks represent two learning methods based on biological science, it is indispensable and valuable to investigate how biological neural networks and artificial neural networks recognize different patterns. The new GGCFNN, based on granular computing, soft computing and cognitive science, is used in the pattern recognition problems. The hybrid forward-wave-backward-wave learning algorithm, as a main learning technology in GCFNN, is used to enhance learning quality. GA optimizes parameters to make GGCFNN get better learning results. Both pattern recognition results generated by human persons and those by GGCFNN are analyzed in terms of computer science and cognitive science.

Studies have shown that linguistic and perceptual constraints are important for speech processing. First, rule-like structures are more easily learned over vowels than over consonants. Second, sequences varying in pitch and duration are grouped following the Iambic – Trochaic Law (ITL). In this research, I investigated the origins of these linguistic and perceptual constraints. My aim was to test if vowels’ acoustic saliency was the reason why they are the preferred target for abstract computations, and to explore the extent to which the principles of the ITL come from evolutionary heritage or language experience. Results show that rats learn rules over consonants and vowels with the same ease, so saliency is insufficient to explain the asymmetries observed in humans. This also shows that animals share with humans the trochaic principle of the ITL, but they lack the iambic-grouping bias, which might rely on language experience. / Diversos estudios han encontrado que limitaciones perceptuales y de aprendizaje intervienen en el procesamiento del lenguaje. Primero, que el aprendizaje de reglas se realiza mejor sobre las vocales. Segundo, que secuencias alternando en frecuencia y duración son agrupadas siguiendo la Ley Yámbico-Trocaico (LYT). En esta investigación busqué esclarecer el origen de estas limitaciones lingüísticas y perceptuales. Mi objetivo fue estudiar si la preferencia por las vocales se debe a su prominencia acústica e investigar hasta qué punto la LYT es producto de la herencia evolutiva o de la experiencia lingüística. Los resultados muestran que las ratas computan reglas sobre vocales y consonantes, por lo que las asimetrías funcionales observadas en humanos no se explican por la saliencia acústica de las vocales. También sugieren que animales y humanos comparten el principio trocaico de la LYT, pero no el yámbico, el cual podría emerger tras años de experiencia con el lenguaje nativo.

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The experiments reported in this thesis were conducted to examine the effects of executive-control and associative-learning processes on performance in conventional executive-control paradigms. For this purpose, I developed comparative task-switching and response-inhibition paradigms, which were used to assess the performance of pigeons, whose behaviour is presumably based purely on associative processes, and of humans, whose behaviour may be guided by executive control and by associative processes. Pigeons were able to perform accurately in the comparative paradigms; hence, associative-learning processes are sufficient to account for successful performance. However, some task-specific effects that can be attributed to executive-control processes, and which were found in humans applying executive control, were absent or greatly reduced in pigeons. Those effects either reflect the mental operations that are performed to ensure that a specific set of stimulus-response-contingencies is applied and any contingencies belonging to a different set are suppressed, or reflect mental preparations for the possibility that the requirement to execute a certain response suddenly changes. In particular, in Chapter 3, it is shown that the benefits of repeatedly applying the same set of stimulus-response contingencies (or, in reverse, the costs of switching from one set to another) do not apply when Pavlovian processes dominate learning, which is likely the case for pigeons. Furthermore, as shown in Chapters 4 and 5, the behavioural effects of preparing for an unpredicted change in response requirements appeared to be absent when behaviour was based purely on associative processes. Instead, associatively mediated performance was primarily influenced by the stimulus-response contingencies that were effective in each paradigm. Repeating the same response in consecutive trials facilitated the performance of pigeons and associatively learning human participants in the task-switching paradigms, and performing a particular Go response increased the pigeons' likelihood of executing that response in the following trial in two response-inhibition paradigms. In summary, any behavioural effects that can be observed at the level of abstract task requirements reflect the influence of executive-control processes, both in task-switching paradigms and in response-inhibition paradigms.