Testing weight-based conditional discrimination in Goffin's cockatoos, Cacatua goffiniana.

ABSTRACT: Discrimination learning tasks are a method for investigating species' perception of and associative learning with a particular stimulus. Goffin's cockatoos previously required surprisingly few trials to differentiate objects based on weight alone in a simple discrimination task, outperforming primates in other weight discrimination setups. Nevertheless, it was unclear whether the difference in performance was largely based on ability or differences in experimental procedures. Therefore, we tested a group of Goffin's cockatoos on a weight-based conditional discrimination, like a task previously used with chimpanzees. Similar to the chimpanzees (compared to their first 15 sessions), none of our subjects reached above-chance levels of performance in the present study. The contrasting performa

SUBMITTER: Lambert PJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12716734 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature