Contextual imitation of intransitive body actions in a Beluga whale ( Delphinapterus leucas ):a “do as other does” study

Cetaceans are remarkable for exhibiting group-specific behavioral traditions or cultures in several behavioral domains (e.g., calls, behavioral tactics), and the question of whether they can be acquired socially, for example through imitative processes, remains open. Here we used a “Do as other does...

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Published in:PLOS ONE
Main Authors: Abramson, José Z., Hernández-Lloreda, Mª Victoria, Esteban, José-Antonio, Colmenares, Fernando, Aboitiz, Francisco, Call, Josep
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/en/researchoutput/contextual-imitation-of-intransitive-body-actions-in-a-beluga-whale-delphinapterus-leucas(54250451-2447-4085-a8fa-ac19e6a98329).html
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178906
https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/10023/11058/1/Call_2017_PLoSONE_IntransitiveBodyActions_CC.pdf
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0178906#sec014
id ftunstandrewcris:oai:research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk:publications/54250451-2447-4085-a8fa-ac19e6a98329
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spelling ftunstandrewcris:oai:research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk:publications/54250451-2447-4085-a8fa-ac19e6a98329 2024-06-23T07:51:41+00:00 Contextual imitation of intransitive body actions in a Beluga whale ( Delphinapterus leucas ):a “do as other does” study Abramson, José Z. Hernández-Lloreda, Mª Victoria Esteban, José-Antonio Colmenares, Fernando Aboitiz, Francisco Call, Josep 2017-06-21 application/pdf https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/en/researchoutput/contextual-imitation-of-intransitive-body-actions-in-a-beluga-whale-delphinapterus-leucas(54250451-2447-4085-a8fa-ac19e6a98329).html https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178906 https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/10023/11058/1/Call_2017_PLoSONE_IntransitiveBodyActions_CC.pdf http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0178906#sec014 eng eng https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/en/researchoutput/contextual-imitation-of-intransitive-body-actions-in-a-beluga-whale-delphinapterus-leucas(54250451-2447-4085-a8fa-ac19e6a98329).html info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Abramson , J Z , Hernández-Lloreda , M V , Esteban , J-A , Colmenares , F , Aboitiz , F & Call , J 2017 , ' Contextual imitation of intransitive body actions in a Beluga whale ( Delphinapterus leucas ) : a “do as other does” study ' , PLoS One , vol. 12 , no. 6 , e0178906 . https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178906 article 2017 ftunstandrewcris https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178906 2024-06-13T00:56:16Z Cetaceans are remarkable for exhibiting group-specific behavioral traditions or cultures in several behavioral domains (e.g., calls, behavioral tactics), and the question of whether they can be acquired socially, for example through imitative processes, remains open. Here we used a “Do as other does” paradigm to experimentally study the ability of a beluga to imitate familiar intransitive (body-oriented) actions demonstrated by a conspecific. The participant was first trained to copy three familiar behaviors on command (training phase) and then was tested for her ability to generalize the learned “Do as the other does” command to a different set of three familiar behaviors (testing phase). We found that the beluga (1) was capable of learning the copy command signal “Do what-the-other-does”; (2) exhibited high matching accuracy for trained behaviors (mean = 84% of correct performance) after making the first successful copy on command; (3) copied successfully the new set of three familiar generalization behaviors that were untrained to the copy command (range of first copy = 12 to 35 trials); and (4) deployed a high level of matching accuracy (mean = 83%) after making the first copy of an untrained behavior on command. This is the first evidence of contextual imitation of intransitive (body-oriented) movements in the beluga and adds to the reported findings on production imitation of sounds in this species and production imitation of sounds and motor actions in several cetaceans, especially dolphins and killer whales. Collectively these findings highlight the notion that cetaceans have a natural propensity at skillfully and proficiently matching the sounds and body movements demonstrated by conspecifics, a fitness-enhancing propensity in the context of cooperative hunting and anti-predatory defense tactics, and of alliance formation strategies that have been documented in these species’ natural habitats. Future work should determine if the beluga can also imitate novel motor actions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Beluga Beluga whale Beluga* Delphinapterus leucas University of St Andrews: Research Portal PLOS ONE 12 6 e0178906
institution Open Polar
collection University of St Andrews: Research Portal
op_collection_id ftunstandrewcris
language English
description Cetaceans are remarkable for exhibiting group-specific behavioral traditions or cultures in several behavioral domains (e.g., calls, behavioral tactics), and the question of whether they can be acquired socially, for example through imitative processes, remains open. Here we used a “Do as other does” paradigm to experimentally study the ability of a beluga to imitate familiar intransitive (body-oriented) actions demonstrated by a conspecific. The participant was first trained to copy three familiar behaviors on command (training phase) and then was tested for her ability to generalize the learned “Do as the other does” command to a different set of three familiar behaviors (testing phase). We found that the beluga (1) was capable of learning the copy command signal “Do what-the-other-does”; (2) exhibited high matching accuracy for trained behaviors (mean = 84% of correct performance) after making the first successful copy on command; (3) copied successfully the new set of three familiar generalization behaviors that were untrained to the copy command (range of first copy = 12 to 35 trials); and (4) deployed a high level of matching accuracy (mean = 83%) after making the first copy of an untrained behavior on command. This is the first evidence of contextual imitation of intransitive (body-oriented) movements in the beluga and adds to the reported findings on production imitation of sounds in this species and production imitation of sounds and motor actions in several cetaceans, especially dolphins and killer whales. Collectively these findings highlight the notion that cetaceans have a natural propensity at skillfully and proficiently matching the sounds and body movements demonstrated by conspecifics, a fitness-enhancing propensity in the context of cooperative hunting and anti-predatory defense tactics, and of alliance formation strategies that have been documented in these species’ natural habitats. Future work should determine if the beluga can also imitate novel motor actions.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Abramson, José Z.
Hernández-Lloreda, Mª Victoria
Esteban, José-Antonio
Colmenares, Fernando
Aboitiz, Francisco
Call, Josep
spellingShingle Abramson, José Z.
Hernández-Lloreda, Mª Victoria
Esteban, José-Antonio
Colmenares, Fernando
Aboitiz, Francisco
Call, Josep
Contextual imitation of intransitive body actions in a Beluga whale ( Delphinapterus leucas ):a “do as other does” study
author_facet Abramson, José Z.
Hernández-Lloreda, Mª Victoria
Esteban, José-Antonio
Colmenares, Fernando
Aboitiz, Francisco
Call, Josep
author_sort Abramson, José Z.
title Contextual imitation of intransitive body actions in a Beluga whale ( Delphinapterus leucas ):a “do as other does” study
title_short Contextual imitation of intransitive body actions in a Beluga whale ( Delphinapterus leucas ):a “do as other does” study
title_full Contextual imitation of intransitive body actions in a Beluga whale ( Delphinapterus leucas ):a “do as other does” study
title_fullStr Contextual imitation of intransitive body actions in a Beluga whale ( Delphinapterus leucas ):a “do as other does” study
title_full_unstemmed Contextual imitation of intransitive body actions in a Beluga whale ( Delphinapterus leucas ):a “do as other does” study
title_sort contextual imitation of intransitive body actions in a beluga whale ( delphinapterus leucas ):a “do as other does” study
publishDate 2017
url https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/en/researchoutput/contextual-imitation-of-intransitive-body-actions-in-a-beluga-whale-delphinapterus-leucas(54250451-2447-4085-a8fa-ac19e6a98329).html
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178906
https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/10023/11058/1/Call_2017_PLoSONE_IntransitiveBodyActions_CC.pdf
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0178906#sec014
genre Beluga
Beluga whale
Beluga*
Delphinapterus leucas
genre_facet Beluga
Beluga whale
Beluga*
Delphinapterus leucas
op_source Abramson , J Z , Hernández-Lloreda , M V , Esteban , J-A , Colmenares , F , Aboitiz , F & Call , J 2017 , ' Contextual imitation of intransitive body actions in a Beluga whale ( Delphinapterus leucas ) : a “do as other does” study ' , PLoS One , vol. 12 , no. 6 , e0178906 . https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178906
op_relation https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/en/researchoutput/contextual-imitation-of-intransitive-body-actions-in-a-beluga-whale-delphinapterus-leucas(54250451-2447-4085-a8fa-ac19e6a98329).html
op_rights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
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