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The Effect of Computerized Testing on Sun Bear Behavior and Enrichment Preferences

The field of comparative cognition investigates species’ differences and similarities in cognitive abilities, and sheds light on the evolutionary origins of such capacities. Cognitive testing has been carried out in a variety of species; however, there are some taxa that are underrepresented in this...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Perdue, Bonnie M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5197932/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27669314
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs6040019
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author Perdue, Bonnie M.
author_facet Perdue, Bonnie M.
author_sort Perdue, Bonnie M.
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description The field of comparative cognition investigates species’ differences and similarities in cognitive abilities, and sheds light on the evolutionary origins of such capacities. Cognitive testing has been carried out in a variety of species; however, there are some taxa that are underrepresented in this field. The current work follows on a recent increase in cognitive research in the order Carnivora with a specific focus on sun bears. Sun bears are the smallest existing bear species and live in tropical regions of Southeast Asia. They have an omnivorous diet and use their tongues to forage for insects and sap. Little is known about sun bear cognition, although much like other bear species, anecdotes suggest a high level of intelligence. The current work explored training sun bears to use a touchscreen computer. This effort allows for insight into cognitive abilities as well as providing a complex source of enrichment for the bears. The bears use their tongues to respond to a touchscreen computer, and the effects on stereotypic behaviors on exhibit and preference for this over other forms of enrichment were examined. Overall, bears performed well on the task and showed a preference for the computer.
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spelling pubmed-51979322017-01-04 The Effect of Computerized Testing on Sun Bear Behavior and Enrichment Preferences Perdue, Bonnie M. Behav Sci (Basel) Article The field of comparative cognition investigates species’ differences and similarities in cognitive abilities, and sheds light on the evolutionary origins of such capacities. Cognitive testing has been carried out in a variety of species; however, there are some taxa that are underrepresented in this field. The current work follows on a recent increase in cognitive research in the order Carnivora with a specific focus on sun bears. Sun bears are the smallest existing bear species and live in tropical regions of Southeast Asia. They have an omnivorous diet and use their tongues to forage for insects and sap. Little is known about sun bear cognition, although much like other bear species, anecdotes suggest a high level of intelligence. The current work explored training sun bears to use a touchscreen computer. This effort allows for insight into cognitive abilities as well as providing a complex source of enrichment for the bears. The bears use their tongues to respond to a touchscreen computer, and the effects on stereotypic behaviors on exhibit and preference for this over other forms of enrichment were examined. Overall, bears performed well on the task and showed a preference for the computer. MDPI 2016-09-22 /pmc/articles/PMC5197932/ /pubmed/27669314 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs6040019 Text en © 2016 by the author; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Perdue, Bonnie M.
The Effect of Computerized Testing on Sun Bear Behavior and Enrichment Preferences
title The Effect of Computerized Testing on Sun Bear Behavior and Enrichment Preferences
title_full The Effect of Computerized Testing on Sun Bear Behavior and Enrichment Preferences
title_fullStr The Effect of Computerized Testing on Sun Bear Behavior and Enrichment Preferences
title_full_unstemmed The Effect of Computerized Testing on Sun Bear Behavior and Enrichment Preferences
title_short The Effect of Computerized Testing on Sun Bear Behavior and Enrichment Preferences
title_sort effect of computerized testing on sun bear behavior and enrichment preferences
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5197932/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27669314
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs6040019
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