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Cognition and Decision-Making by a California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus) in Visual Discrimination Tests

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Marine Mammal Sensory Systems

Abstract

Sensory systems inform an organism about its internal and external environment. The organism uses this information to adapt its behavior to these environments. In the last 3 decades, sensory systems have been investigated in the California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) by several authors; audition (Gentry, 1967; Bullock et al., 1971; Schusterman et al., 1972; Schusterman, 1974; Moore, 1975; Moore and Au, 1975; Moore and Schusterman, 1976; Schusterman, 1976; Schusterman and Moore, 1978), vision (Crescitelli, 1958; Walls, 1963; Schusterman et al., 1965; Hobson, 1966; Schusterman and Balliet, 1971; Lavigne and Ronald, 1975; Griebel and Schmid, 1992), chemoreception (Nachtigall et al., 1981; Friedl et al., 1990) and mechanoreception (Stephens et al., 1973; Dehnhardt, 1990). It is interesting to study how sensory information is perceived, and how it influences the sea lions’ decisions and behavior.

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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Kastelein, R., Mosterd, P., Vaughan, N. (1992). Cognition and Decision-Making by a California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus) in Visual Discrimination Tests. In: Thomas, J.A., Kastelein, R.A., Supin, A.Y. (eds) Marine Mammal Sensory Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3406-8_42

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3406-8_42

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6505-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-3406-8

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