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Picture object recognition in an American black bear (Ursus americanus)

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Abstract

Many animals have been tested for conceptual discriminations using two-dimensional images as stimuli, and many of these species appear to transfer knowledge from 2D images to analogous real life objects. We tested an American black bear for picture-object recognition using a two alternative forced choice task. She was presented with four unique sets of objects and corresponding pictures. The bear showed generalization from both objects to pictures and pictures to objects; however, her transfer was superior when transferring from real objects to pictures, suggesting that bears can recognize visual features from real objects within photographic images during discriminations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, 654 Pioneer Drive, Rochester, 48309, MI, USA

    Zoe Johnson-Ulrich & Jennifer Vonk

  2. Detroit Zoological Society, Royal Oak, USA

    Mary Humbyrd, Marilyn Crowley, Ela Wojtkowski, Florence Yates & Stephanie Allard

Authors
  1. Zoe Johnson-Ulrich
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  2. Jennifer Vonk
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  3. Mary Humbyrd
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  4. Marilyn Crowley
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  5. Ela Wojtkowski
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  6. Florence Yates
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  7. Stephanie Allard
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer Vonk.

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All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) at Oakland University. The procedures were consistent with US law and the guidelines of the Animal Behavior Society and the Association for the Study of Animal Behavior.

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Johnson-Ulrich, Z., Vonk, J., Humbyrd, M. et al. Picture object recognition in an American black bear (Ursus americanus). Anim Cogn 19, 1237–1242 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-016-1011-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-016-1011-4

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