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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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 |
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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 |
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Open Polar |
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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 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178906 |
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PLOS ONE |
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12 |
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