The cognitive abilities of birds are remarkable: hummingbirds integrate spatial and temporal information about food sources, day-old chicks have a sense of numbers, parrots can make and use tools, and ravens have sophisticated insights in social relationships. This volume describes the full range of avian cognitive abilities, the mechanisms behind such abilities and how they relate to the ecology of the species. Synthesising the latest research in avian cognition, a range of experts in the field provide first-hand insights into experimental procedures, outcomes and theoretical advances, including a discussion of how the findings in birds relate to the cognitive abilities of other species, including humans. The authors cover a range of topics such as spatial cognition, social learning, tool use, perceptual categorization and concept learning, providing the broader context for students and researchers interested in the current state of avian cognition research, its key questions and appropriate experimental approaches.

In these autobiographical essays by pioneers in the field of animal behavior, the authors discuss childhood, education, moments of discovery, and the attractions of the research that each pursued. The field of animal behavior has been interdisciplinary throughout its history, and the two psychologists and seventeen biologists in Donald Dewsbury's collection provide a fascinating assortment of backgrounds and interests. Chosen by a panel of seven distinguished animal behaviorists, the men whose essays are collected here include two Nobel Prize winners and one Pulitzer Prize winner. All provide unique accounts of the development of the field written by its original leading practitioners.

Behavior studies now span a variety of sub-disciplines, including behavioral ecology, neuroscience, cognitive psychology and evolutionary developmental biology. While the fields' rapid growth has led to startling new insights into animal behavior, it has brought increasingly fragmented approaches to the subject. Integrating ideas and findings from a range of disciplines, this book provides a common framework for understanding diverse issues in behavior studies. The framework is derived from classical ethology, incorporating concepts and data from research in experimental psychology, neurophysiology and evolutionary biology. Hogan outlines the origin and development of major ideas and issues in the field, drawing on examples throughout to highlight connections across sub-disciplines. Demonstrating how results in one area can directly inform work in others, the book ultimately proposes concepts to facilitate new discussions that will open the way for improved dialog between researchers across behavior studies.

Reproduction is a fundamental feature of life, it is the way life persists across the ages. This book offers new, wider vistas on this fundamental biological phenomenon, exploring how it works through the whole tree of life. It explores facets such as asexual reproduction, parthenogenesis, sex determination and reproductive investment, with a taxonomic coverage extended over all the main groups - animals, plants including 'algae', fungi, protists and bacteria. It collates into one volume perspectives from varied disciplines - including zoology, botany, microbiology, genetics, cell biology, developmental biology, evolutionary biology, animal and plant physiology, and ethology - integrating information into a common language. Crucially, the book aims to identify the commonalties among reproductive phenomena, while demonstrating the diversity even amongst closely related taxa. Its integrated approach makes this a valuable reference book for students and researchers, as well as an effective entry point for deeper study on specific topics.

How does behaviour affect biological invasions? Can it explain why some animals are such successful invaders? With contributions from experts in the field, and covering a broad range of animals, this book examines the role of behaviour in biological invasions from the point of view of both invaders and native species. The chapters cover theoretical aspects, particularly relevant behaviours and well-documented case studies, showing that behaviour is critical to the success, and ecological and socio-economic impact, of invasive species. Its insights suggest methods to prevent and mitigate those impacts, and offer unique opportunities to understand the adaptive role of behaviour. Offering a comprehensive overview of current understanding on the subject, the book is intended for biological invasion researchers and behavioural ecologists, as well as ecologists and evolutionary biologists interested in how organisms deal with anthropogenic environmental changes such as climate change and habitat loss.

The flock of greylag geese established by Konrad Lorenz in Austria in 1973 has become an influential model animal system and one of the few worldwide with complete life-history data spanning several decades. Based on the unique records of nearly 1000 free-living greylag geese, this is a synthesis of more than twenty years of behavioural research. It provides a comprehensive overview of a complex bird society, placing it in an evolutionary framework and drawing on a range of approaches, including behavioural (personality, aggression, pair bonding and clan formation), physiological, cognitive and genetic. With contributions from leading researchers, the chapters provide valuable insight into historic and recent research on the social behaviour of geese. All aspects of goose and bird sociality are discussed in the context of parallels with mammalian social organisation, making this a fascinating resource for anyone interested in integrative approaches to vertebrate social systems.

Winner of the "Outstanding Academic Title" recognition by Choice for the 2020 OAT Awards. The Choice OAT Award represents the highest caliber of scholarly titles that have been reviewed by Choice and conveys the extraordinary recognition of the academic community. In recent years social media has gained significant popularity and has become an essential medium of communication. Such user-generated content provides an excellent scenario for applying the metaphor of mining any information. Transfer learning is a research problem in machine learning that focuses on leveraging the knowledge gained while solving one problem and applying it to a different, but related problem. Features: Offers novel frameworks to study user behavior and for addressing and explaining task heterogeneity Presents a detailed study of existing research Provides convergence and complexity analysis of the frameworks Includes algorithms to implement the proposed research work Covers extensive empirical analysis Social Media Analytics for User Behavior Modeling: A Task Heterogeneity Perspective is a guide to user behavior modeling in heterogeneous settings and is of great use to the machine learning community.

The mammalian neurohypophyseal peptide hormones oxytocin and vasopressin act to mediate human social behavior - they affect trust and social relationships and have an influence on avoidance responses. Describing the evolutionary roots of the effects that these neuropeptides have on behavior, this book examines remarkable parallel findings in both humans and non-human animals. The chapters are structured around three key issues: the molecular and neurohormonal mechanisms of peptides; phylogenetic considerations of their role in vertebrates; and their related effects on human behavior, social cognition and clinical applications involving psychiatric disorders such as autism. A final chapter summarizes current research perspectives and reflects on the outlook for future developments. Providing a comparative overview and featuring contributions from leading researchers, this is a valuable resource for graduate students, researchers and clinicians in this rapidly developing field.

The relationship between humans and domestic animals has changed in dramatic ways over the ages, and those transitions have had profound consequences for all parties involved. As societies evolve, the selective pressures that shape domestic populations also change. Some animals retain close relationships with humans, but many do not. Those who establish residency in the wild, free from direct human control, are technically neither domestic nor wild: they are feral. If we really want to understand humanity's complex relationship with domestic animals, then we cannot simply ignore the ones who went feral. This is especially true in the American South, where social and cultural norms have facilitated and sustained large populations of feral animals for hundreds of years. Feral Animals in the American South retells southern history from this new perspective of feral animals.

Many industrial applications built today are increasingly using emerging behavior engineering technologies: this book looks at various research and practical issues for researchers and students working in computer science and engineering, and for industry technology providers interested in behavior engineering and applications. Behavior Engineering and Applications encompasses intelligent and efficient computational solutions, including models, architectures, algorithms and specific applications, focused on processing, discovering, understanding and analyzing the behavior captured by the above data. Focusing on applying any engineering paradigm to systemically process, discover, understand and analyze these data, this book also addresses problems in a variety of areas and applications that related to behavior engineering. This book includes chapters derived from selected papers from The 2016 International Conference on Behavior Engineering (ICBE), as well as separate contributions the editors selected cutting-edge research related to behavior engineering.

This unique book provides an overview of continuous time modeling in the behavioral and related sciences. It argues that the use of discrete time models for processes that are in fact evolving in continuous time produces problems that make their application in practice highly questionable. One main issue is the dependence of discrete time parameter estimates on the chosen time interval, which leads to incomparability of results across different observation intervals. Continuous time modeling by means of differential equations offers a powerful approach for studying dynamic phenomena, yet the use of this approach in the behavioral and related sciences such as psychology, sociology, economics and medicine, is still rare. This is unfortunate, because in these fields often only a few discrete time (sampled) observations are available for analysis (e.g., daily, weekly, yearly, etc.). However, as emphasized by Rex Bergstrom, the pioneer of continuous-time modeling in econometrics, neither human beings nor the economy cease to exist in between observations. In 16 chapters, the book addresses a vast range of topics in continuous time modeling, from approaches that closely mimic traditional linear discrete time models to highly nonlinear state space modeling techniques. Each chapter describes the type of research questions and data that the approach is most suitable for, provides detailed statistical explanations of the models, and includes one or more applied examples. To allow readers to implement the various techniques directly, accompanying computer code is made available online. The book is intended as a reference work for students and scientists working with longitudinal data who have a Master's- or early PhD-level knowledge of statistics.

This book's basic hypothesis - which it proposes to test with a cognitive-sociological approach - is that legal behavior, like every form of human behavior, is directed and framed by biosocial constraints that are neither entirely genetic nor exclusively cultural. As such, from a sociological perspective the law can be seen as a super-meme, that is, as a biosocial constraint that develops only in complex societies. This super-meme theory, by highlighting a fundamental distinction between defensive and assertive biases, might explain the false contradiction between law as a static and historical phenomenon, and law as a dynamic and promotional element. Socio-legal scholars today have to face the challenge of pursuing a truly interdisciplinary approach, connecting all the fields that can contribute to building a modern theory of normative behavior and social action. Understanding and framing concepts such as rationality, emotion, or justice can help to overcome the significant divide between micro and macro sociological knowledge. Social scientists who are interested in the law must be able to master the epistemological discourses of different disciplines, and to produce fruitful syntheses and bridge-operations so as to understand the legal phenomenon from each different point of view. The book adopts four perspectives: sociological, psychological, biological-evolutionary and cognitive. All of them have the potential to be mutually integrated, and constitute that general social science that provides common ground for exchange. The goal is to arrive at a broad and integrated view of the socio-legal phenomenon, paving the way for a comprehensive theory of norm-oriented and norm-perceived actions.

This book will provide the state-of-the-art on most of the topics involved in the ecology and conservation of birds of prey. With chapters authored by the most recognized and prestigious researchers on each of the fields, this book will become an authorized reference volume for raptor biologists and researchers around the world.

The goal for this volume is to provide an up-to-date review of the discriminative stimulus properties of major psychoactive drug classes with an emphasis on how this paradigm enhances our understanding of these drugs and how these findings translate from animals to humans. The drug discrimination paradigm applies to both drugs of abuse and drugs for treating mental illnesses, and research from these studies has provided immense translational value for learning about the mechanisms responsible for drug effects in humans.

The Second Edition of this introduction to fire protection systems is completely revised and updated to offer the student, architect or engineer the basics of fire protection devices and equipment, and how they may be applied to any given project. Fire Protection: Detection, Notification, and Suppression reveals the "nuts and bolts" of fire protection system selection, design and equipment in an applied approach. Whether a mechanical engineer, safety engineer, architect, estimator, fire service personnel, or student studying in these areas, the authors show the pros and the cons of protection systems being proposed, and how they should be compared to one another. It also gives non-fire engineering practitioners a sense of proportion when they are put in a position to select a consultant, and to give a sense of what the consultant may be doing and how a system is being matched to the hazard. Beginning fire protection engineers could also use its language for writing a report about these systems for a client.

The explanation of animal communication by means of concepts like information, meaning and reference is one of the central foundational issues in animal behaviour studies. This book explores these issues, revolving around questions such as: what is the nature of information? What theoretical roles does information play in animal communication studies? Is it justified to employ these concepts in order to explain animal communication? What is the relation between animal signals and human language? The book approaches the topic from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including ethology, animal cognition, theoretical biology and evolutionary biology, as well as philosophy of biology and mind. A comprehensive introduction familiarises non-specialists with the field and leads on to chapters ranging from philosophical and theoretical analyses to case studies involving primates, birds and insects. The resulting survey of new and established concepts and methodologies will guide future empirical and theoretical research.

Cephalopods are generally regarded as the most intelligent group among the invertebrates. Despite their popularity, relatively little is known about the range and function of their cognitive abilities. This book fills that gap, accentuating the varied and fascinating aspects of cognition across the group. Starting with the brain, learning and memory, Part I looks at early learning, memory acquisition and cognitive development in modern cephalopods. An analysis of the chambered nautilus, a living fossil, is included, providing insight into the evolution of behavioural complexity. Part II surveys environmental responses, especially within the active and learning-dependent coleoids. The ever-intriguing camouflage abilities of octopus and cuttlefish are highlighted, alongside bioluminescence, navigation and other aspects of visual and cognitive competence. Covering the range of cognitive function, this text underscores the importance of the cephalopods within the field of comparative cognition generally. It will be highly valuable for researchers, graduates and senior undergraduate students.

'Behavioral Neuroscience of Learning and Memory' brings together the opinions and expertise of some of the world's foremost neuroscientists in the field of learning and memory research. The volume provides a broad coverage of contemporary research and thinking in this field, focusing both on well established topics such as the medial temporal lobe memory system, as well as emerging areas of research such as the role of memory in decision making and the mechanisms of perceptual learning. Key intersecting themes include the molecular and cellular mechanisms of memory formation, the multiplicity of memory systems in the brain, and the way in which technological innovation is driving discovery. Unusually for a volume of this kind, this volume brings together research from both humans and animals-often relatively separate areas of discourse-to give a more comprehensive and integrated view of the field. The book will be of interest to both established researchers who wish to broaden their knowledge of topics outside of their specific areas of expertise, and for students who need a resource to help them make sense of the vast scientific literature on this subject.

Behavioral, biobehavioral, and biomedical interventions are programs with the objective of improving and maintaining human health and well-being, broadly defined, in individuals, families, schools, organizations, or communities. These interventions may be aimed at, for example, preventing or treating disease, promoting physical and mental health, preventing violence, or improving academic achievement. This book provides additional information on a principled empirical framework for developing interventions that are more effective, efficient, economical, and scalable. This framework is introduced in the monograph, "Optimization of Behavioral, Biobehavioral, and Biomedical Interventions: The Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST)" by Linda M. Collins (Springer, 2018). The present book is focused on advanced topics related to MOST. The chapters, all written by experts, are devoted to topics ranging from experimental design and data analysis to development of a conceptual model and implementation of a complex experiment in the field. Intervention scientists who are preparing to apply MOST will find this book an important reference and guide for their research. Fields to which this work pertains include public health (medicine, nursing, health economics, implementation sciences), behavioral sciences (psychology, criminal justice), statistics, and education.

This book assembles recent research on memory and learning in plants. Organisms that share a capability to store information about experiences in the past have an actively generated background resource on which they can compare and evaluate coming experiences in order to react faster or even better. This is an essential tool for all adaptation purposes. Such memory/learning skills can be found from bacteria up to fungi, animals and plants, although until recently it had been mentioned only as capabilities of higher animals. With the rise of epigenetics the context dependent marking of experiences on the genetic level is an essential perspective to understand memory and learning in organisms. Plants are highly sensitive organisms that actively compete for environmental resources. They assess their surroundings, estimate how much energy they need for particular goals, and then realize the optimum variant. They take measures to control certain environmental resources. They perceive themselves and can distinguish between 'self' and 'non-self'. They process and evaluate information and then modify their behavior accordingly. The book will guide scientists in further investigations on these skills of plant behavior and on how plants mediate signaling processes between themselves and the environment in memory and learning processes.

Animal Learning and Cognition: An Introduction provides an up-to-date review of the principal findings from more than a century of research into animal intelligence. This new edition has been expanded to take account of the many exciting developments that have occurred over the last ten years. The book opens with a historical survey of the methods that have been used to study animal intelligence, and follows by summarizing the contribution made by learning processes to intelligent behavior. Topics include Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning, discrimination learning, and categorization. The remainder of the book focuses on animal cognition and covers such topics as memory, navigation, social learning, language and communication, and knowledge representation. Expanded areas include extinction (to which an entire chapter is now devoted), navigation in insects, episodic memory in birds, imitation in birds and primates, and the debate about whether primates are aware of mental states in themselves and others. Issues raised throughout the book are reviewed in a concluding chapter that examines how intelligence is distributed throughout the animal kingdom. The broad spectrum of topics covered in this book ensures that it will be of interest to students of psychology, biology, zoology, and neuroscience. Since very little background knowledge is required, the book will be of equal value to anyone simply interested in either animal intelligence, or the animal origins of human intelligence. This textbook is accompanied by online instructor resources which are free of charge to departments who adopt this book as their text. They include chapter-by-chapter lecture slides, an interactive chapter-by-chapter multiple-choice question test bank, and multiple-choice questions in paper and pen format.

Bird song is one of the most remarkable and impressive sounds in the natural world, and has inspired not only students of natural history, but also great writers, poets and composers. Extensively updated from the first edition, the main thrust of this book is to suggest that the two main functions of song are attracting a mate and defending territory. It shows how this evolutionary pressure has led to the amazing variety and complexity we see in the songs of different species throughout the world. Writing primarily for students and researchers in animal behavior, the authors review over 1000 scientific papers and reveal how scientists are beginning to unravel and understand how and why birds communicate with the elaborate vocalizations we call song. Highly illustrated throughout and written in straightforward language, Bird Song also holds appeal for amateur ornithologists with some knowledge of biology.

Play takes up much of the time budget of young children, and many animals, but its importance in development remains contested. This comprehensive collection brings together multidisciplinary and developmental perspectives on the forms and functions of play in animals, children in different societies, and through the lifespan. The Cambridge Handbook of Play covers the evolution of play in animals, especially mammals; the development of play from infancy through childhood and into adulthood; historical and anthropological perspectives on play; theories and methodologies; the role of play in children's learning; play in special groups such as children with impairments, or suffering political violence; and the practical applications of playwork and play therapy. Written by an international team of scholars from diverse disciplines such as psychology, education, neuroscience, sociology, evolutionary biology and anthropology, this essential reference presents the current state of the field in play research.