Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, UK.
Anim Cogn. 2012 May;15(3):379-91. doi: 10.1007/s10071-011-0463-9. Epub 2011 Oct 1.
The task of determining an optimal route to several locations is called the traveling salesperson problem (TSP). The TSP has been used recently to examine spatial cognition in humans and non-human animals. It remains unclear whether or not the decision process of animals other than non-human primates utilizes rigid rule-based heuristics, or whether non-human animals are able to flexibly 'plan' future routes/behavior based on their knowledge of multiple locations. We presented pigeons in a One-way and Round-Trip group with TSPs that included two or three destinations (feeders) in a laboratory environment. The pigeons departed a start location, traveled to each feeder once before returning to a final destination. Pigeons weighed the proximity of the next location heavily, but appeared to plan ahead multiple steps when the travel costs for inefficient behavior appeared to increase. The results provide clear and strong evidence that animals other than primates are capable of planning sophisticated travel routes.
确定到多个地点的最佳路线的任务称为旅行商问题（TSP）。最近，TSP 被用于研究人类和非人类动物的空间认知。目前尚不清楚除非灵长类动物以外的动物的决策过程是否利用了基于严格规则的启发式方法，或者非人类动物是否能够根据它们对多个地点的了解灵活地“计划”未来的路线/行为。我们在实验室环境中向单向和往返两组鸽子展示了包含两个或三个目的地（饲料器）的 TSP。鸽子从起始位置出发，每次前往一个饲料器，然后返回最终目的地。鸽子非常重视下一个位置的接近程度，但当低效行为的旅行成本似乎增加时，它们似乎会提前计划多步。这些结果提供了明确而有力的证据，证明除灵长类动物以外的动物能够规划复杂的旅行路线。
