Pepperberg Irene M, Hartsfield Leigh Ann
Department of Psychology, Harvard University.
Phoenix Landing.
J Comp Psychol. 2014 Aug;128(3):298-306. doi: 10.1037/a0036205. Epub 2014 May 5.
Linking specific cognitive abilities of nonhuman species on a laboratory task to their evolutionary history-ecological niche can be a fruitful exercise in comparative psychology. Crucial issues, however, are the choice of task, the specific conditions of the task, and possibly the subjects' understanding or interpretation of the task. Salwiczek et al. (2012) compared cleaner wrasse fish (Labroides dimidaitus) to several nonhuman primate species (capuchins, Sapajus paella; chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes; orangutans, Pongo abelii) on a task purportedly related to the ecological demands of the fish, but not necessarily of the nonhuman primates; fish succeeded whereas almost all of the nonhuman primates that were tested failed. We replicated the two-choice paradigm of the task with three Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus), whose ecology, evolutionary history, and cortical capacity are arguably more like those of nonhuman primates than fish. Greys succeeded at levels more like fish than all the nonhuman primates, suggesting possible alternative explanations for their success. Fish and nonhuman primate subjects also experienced a reversal of the initial conditions to test for generalization: Greys were similarly tested; they performed more like fish and capuchins (who now succeeded) than the apes (who continued to fail).
将非人类物种在实验室任务中的特定认知能力与其进化历史——生态位联系起来，在比较心理学中可能是一项富有成效的工作。然而，关键问题在于任务的选择、任务的具体条件，以及可能还包括受试者对任务的理解或诠释。萨尔维采克等人（2012年）将裂唇鱼（Labroides dimidaitus）与几种非人类灵长类物种（卷尾猴，Sapajus paella；黑猩猩，Pan troglodytes；红毛猩猩，Pongo abelii）在一项据称与鱼类的生态需求相关，但不一定与非人类灵长类动物的生态需求相关的任务上进行了比较；鱼类成功了，而几乎所有接受测试的非人类灵长类动物都失败了。我们用三只非洲灰鹦鹉（Psittacus erithacus）重复了该任务的二选一范式，非洲灰鹦鹉的生态、进化历史和皮质能力可以说比鱼类更类似于非人类灵长类动物。非洲灰鹦鹉的成功程度更像鱼类，而不像所有非人类灵长类动物，这表明了它们成功的可能的其他解释。鱼类和非人类灵长类动物受试者还经历了初始条件的反转，以测试泛化能力：对非洲灰鹦鹉进行了类似的测试；它们的表现更像鱼类和卷尾猴（现在成功了），而不像猿类（仍然失败）。
