Gestures, particularly pointing, are regarded as important pre-speech acts. Intentional and referential pointing has been shown previously in humans and apes but not in songbirds, although some avian species show cogn...Gestures, particularly pointing, are regarded as important pre-speech acts. Intentional and referential pointing has been shown previously in humans and apes but not in songbirds, although some avian species show cognitive abilities rivaling those of apes, and their brain structures and functions show putative preconditions for referential gestural signaling （i.e. mirror neurons, links of vocal learning nuclei to discrete brain areas active during limb and body movements）. The results reported are based on trials testing predator detection and responses to a taxidermic model of a wedge-tailed eagle by Australian magpies Gymnorhina tibicen. Magpies were subjected to three conditions of finding this model in their territory （open, sheltered and hidden）. In the sheltered and bidden conditions, the discoverer simultaneously engaged in alarm calls and beak pointing, a behavior that has not been described previously. Other group members at once assembled and, after watching the first bird, adopted the same posture by pointing to the location of the intruder. The question is whether beak and body movements orienting towards important stimuli or events are instances of arousal, imitation or intentional communication. The latter presupposes that onlookers interpret the signal and respond by altering their own behavior appropriate to the original stimulus and not merely by imitating the first signaler. Evidence presented here indicates that the act of pointing may well be a complex cognitive behavior, i.e., an intentional and referential signal, showing that pointing is not limited to having hands and arms [Current Zoology 57 （4）： 453-467, 2011].展开更多
The production of novel behavioral sequences that gives rise to animal innovation and creativity is one of the most intriguing aspects of behavioral evolution. Numerous studies have recently documented the abundance a...The production of novel behavioral sequences that gives rise to animal innovation and creativity is one of the most intriguing aspects of behavioral evolution. Numerous studies have recently documented the abundance and diversity of innova- tive and creative behaviors between and within species, yet the ability to innovate or to act creatively has mainly been described and quantified as a measure of animals＇ cognitive ability without explicit reference to cognitive mechanisms that may account for these behaviors. Here we discuss the creative process from a computational point of view and suggest such a mechanistic frame- work. In light of recent research on human creativity, animal learning, and animal problem solving, we suggest that animal crea- tivity is best understood as the production of context-appropriate novel behavioral sequences, which may be facilitated by the ability to learn the regularities in the environment and to represent them hierarchically, allowing for generalization. We present a cognitive framework that we recently developed, which employs domain-general mechanisms and has been used in the modeling of a range of sequential behaviors, from animal foraging to language acquisition, and apply it to behavioral innovation. In a series of simulations, we show how innovation and creative behavior can be produced by this learning mechanism, as it constructs a network representing the statistical regularities of the environment. We use the simulations to demonstrate the role of particular cognitive parameters in this process and to highlight the effects of the learning dynamics and individual experience on creativity展开更多
文摘Gestures, particularly pointing, are regarded as important pre-speech acts. Intentional and referential pointing has been shown previously in humans and apes but not in songbirds, although some avian species show cognitive abilities rivaling those of apes, and their brain structures and functions show putative preconditions for referential gestural signaling （i.e. mirror neurons, links of vocal learning nuclei to discrete brain areas active during limb and body movements）. The results reported are based on trials testing predator detection and responses to a taxidermic model of a wedge-tailed eagle by Australian magpies Gymnorhina tibicen. Magpies were subjected to three conditions of finding this model in their territory （open, sheltered and hidden）. In the sheltered and bidden conditions, the discoverer simultaneously engaged in alarm calls and beak pointing, a behavior that has not been described previously. Other group members at once assembled and, after watching the first bird, adopted the same posture by pointing to the location of the intruder. The question is whether beak and body movements orienting towards important stimuli or events are instances of arousal, imitation or intentional communication. The latter presupposes that onlookers interpret the signal and respond by altering their own behavior appropriate to the original stimulus and not merely by imitating the first signaler. Evidence presented here indicates that the act of pointing may well be a complex cognitive behavior, i.e., an intentional and referential signal, showing that pointing is not limited to having hands and arms [Current Zoology 57 （4）： 453-467, 2011].
基金We would like to thank Corina Logan and an anonymous reviewer for their comments, which helped improve this manuscript. OK was partially supported by a Dean＇s scholarship from the Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel- Aviv University and by a Wolf Foundation award. AL and OK were partially supported by the Israel Science Foundation grant no. 1312/11.
文摘The production of novel behavioral sequences that gives rise to animal innovation and creativity is one of the most intriguing aspects of behavioral evolution. Numerous studies have recently documented the abundance and diversity of innova- tive and creative behaviors between and within species, yet the ability to innovate or to act creatively has mainly been described and quantified as a measure of animals＇ cognitive ability without explicit reference to cognitive mechanisms that may account for these behaviors. Here we discuss the creative process from a computational point of view and suggest such a mechanistic frame- work. In light of recent research on human creativity, animal learning, and animal problem solving, we suggest that animal crea- tivity is best understood as the production of context-appropriate novel behavioral sequences, which may be facilitated by the ability to learn the regularities in the environment and to represent them hierarchically, allowing for generalization. We present a cognitive framework that we recently developed, which employs domain-general mechanisms and has been used in the modeling of a range of sequential behaviors, from animal foraging to language acquisition, and apply it to behavioral innovation. In a series of simulations, we show how innovation and creative behavior can be produced by this learning mechanism, as it constructs a network representing the statistical regularities of the environment. We use the simulations to demonstrate the role of particular cognitive parameters in this process and to highlight the effects of the learning dynamics and individual experience on creativity
