scholarly journals The ability of oriental magpies (Pica serica) to solve baited multiple-string problems

PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e9200
Author(s):  
Lin Wang ◽  
Jinxin Guo ◽  
Heng jiu Tian ◽  
Jinling Sui
Keyword(s):  
Bird Species ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Laboratory Studies ◽  
Middle Point ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Error Learning ◽  
String Problems ◽  
Proximity Principle ◽  
Continuity And Discontinuity ◽  
Side Bias

Background Baited multiple-string problems are commonly used in avian laboratory studies to evaluate complex cognition. Several bird species possess the ability to use a string pull for obtaining food. Methods We initially tested and trained 11 magpies to determine whether the oriental magpie (Pica sericia) possesses the ability to solve baited multiple-string problems. Eight of the birds obtained the bait by pulling, and were selected for formal multiple-string tasks in the second stage. Second stage tests were divided into seven tasks based on string configurations. Results Only two magpies were able to solve two tasks: one solved the task of parallel strings, and the other solved the task of slanted strings with the bait farther from the middle point between the two strings and selected the short string in the task of long-short strings. When faced with more difficult tasks (i.e., the task of slanted strings with the bait closer to the middle point between the two strings, the task with two crossing strings, and the task of continuity and discontinuity), the birds initially observed the tasks and chose instead to adopt simpler strategies based on the proximity principle, side bias strategies and trial-and-error learning. Our results indicate that the oriental magpie had a partial understanding of the principle of multiple-string problems but adopted simpler strategies.

scholarly journals The development of flight behaviours in birds

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1929) ◽  
pp. 20200668
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Ruaux ◽  
Sophie Lumineau ◽  
Emmanuel de Margerie
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Breeding Birds ◽  
Practice Trial ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Specific Question ◽  
The Core ◽  
Error Learning

Flight is a unique adaptation at the core of many behaviours in most bird species, whether it be foraging, migration or breeding. Birds have developed a wide diversity of flight modes (e.g. flapping, gliding, soaring, hovering) which involves very specialized behaviours. A key issue when studying flight behaviours is to understand how they develop through all the ontogenetic stages of birds, from the embryo to the flying adult. This question typically involves classical debates on animal behaviour about the importance of maturation and experience. Here, we review the literature available on the development of flight behaviours in birds. First, we focus on the early period when young birds are not yet capable of flight. We discuss examples and show how endogenous processes (e.g. wing flapping in the nest, flight development timing) and environmental factors (e.g. maternal stress, nutritional stress) can influence the development of flight behaviours. Then, we review several examples showing the different processes involved in the development of flight in flight-capable juveniles (e.g. practice, trial and error learning, social learning). Despite the lack of experimental studies investigating this specific question at different developmental stages, we show that several patterns can be identified, and we anticipate that the development of new tracking techniques will allow us to study this question more thoroughly in more bird species.

scholarly journals Developing a Sense of Knowing and Acquiring the Skills to Manage Pain in Children with Profound Cognitive Impairments: Mothers’ Perspectives

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernie Carter ◽  
Janine Arnott ◽  
Joan Simons ◽  
Lucy Bray
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Method ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Reflective Learning ◽  
Descriptive Statistics ◽  
Mixed Method Study ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Pain Diary ◽  
Heterogenous Group ◽  
Error Learning

Children with profound cognitive impairment (PCI) are a heterogenous group who often experience frequent and persistent pain. Those people closest to the child are key to assessing their pain. This mixed method study aimed to explore how parents acquire knowledge and skills in assessing and managing their child’s pain. Eight mothers completed a weekly pain diary and were interviewed at weeks 1 and 8. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis and the quantitative data using descriptive statistics. Mothers talked of learning through a system of trial and error (“learning to get on with it”); this was accomplished through “learning to know without a rule book or guide”; “learning to be a convincing advocate”; and “learning to endure and to get things right.” Experiential and reflective learning was evident in the way the mothers developed a “sense of knowing” their child’s pain. They drew on embodied knowledge of how their child usually expressed and responded to pain to help make pain-related decisions. Health professionals need to support mothers/parents to develop their knowledge and skills and to gain confidence in pain assessment and they should recognise and act on the mothers’ concerns.

Administration of an organization undergoing change

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 691-708
Author(s):  
Abha Chatterjee ◽  
Sasanka Sekhar Chanda ◽  
Sougata Ray
Keyword(s):  
Transaction Cost Economics ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Change Implementation ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Organizational Life ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Inadequate Knowledge ◽  
Error Learning ◽  
Organizational Reality ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to develop conceptual arguments questioning the efficacy of administration by the transaction cost economics (TCE) approach in an organization undergoing a major change. Design/methodology/approach The focus is on three distinct dimensions of organizational life where, as per prior research, TCE is likely to be inadequate: interdependence across transactions, high reliance on managerial foresight and inseparability of administrative decisions made at different points in time. Findings The climate of coercion and surveillance engendered by administration based on TCE approaches – that punishes deviation from goals, even when they are framed on inadequate knowledge – forestalls creative problem-solving that is necessary to address unforeseen developments that arise during change implementation. Fiat accomplishes within-group compliance in the change project sub-teams, but between-group interdependencies tend to be neglected, hampering organizational effectiveness. Moreover, attempts to create independent spheres of accountability for concurrent fiats regarding pre-existing and new commitments breed inefficiency and wastage. Research limitations/implications The malevolent aspects of TCE-based administration contribute to organizational dysfunctions like escalation of commitment and developing of silos in organizations. Practical implications To succeed in effecting a major organizational change, meaningful relaxation of demands for delivering on prior goals is required, along with forbearance of errors made during trial-and-error learning. Originality/value TCE-based administration is deleterious to an organization attempting a major change. Supremacy accorded to resolution of conflicts in distinct hierarchical relationships by the mechanism of fiat fails to address the needs of an organizational reality where multiple groups are engaged in a set of interdependent activities and where multiple, interdependent organizational imperatives need to be concurrently served.

Introduction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Lounsberry
Keyword(s):  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
The Public ◽  
Personal Time ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Diary Writing ◽  
Experimental Stage ◽  
Continuity And Discontinuity

Virginia Woolf's diary is her longest, her longest sustained, and her last work to reach the public. The Introduction presents the book’s main argument, the new view that Woolf entered a second stage as a diarist (after her first experimental stage)—that of her mature, spare, modernist diaries of 1918 to 1929. Woolf deliberately curbs her number of diary entries per year in this second stage, pushing the periodic diary about as far as it can go and still convey a life. The Introduction also documents Woolf’s increasingly inward turn across the 1920s and her continued modernist experiments with form, especially with the fragment. A diary’s inherent oppositions, its “symmetry … of discords” (Woolf’s diary phrase) allowed Woolf to explore a string of paradoxes: continuity and discontinuity, motion and stasis, impersonal and personal time. The insights of the great French diary theorist Philippe Lejeune are used to undergird the book’s argument that diary-writing now becomes a way of life for Virginia Woolf, “life insurance” that brings high returns. The Introduction also previews the book’s second major insight: the heretofore unexplored role of other diaries in Woolf’s revered modernist works.

scholarly journals The Risk of Failure: Trial and Error Learning and Long-Run Performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Callander ◽  
Niko Matouschek
Keyword(s):  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Improve Performance ◽  
Risk Of Failure ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Error Learning ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Impact

Innovation is often the key to sustained progress, yet innovation itself is difficult and highly risky. Success is not guaranteed as breakthroughs are mixed with setbacks and the path of learning is typically far from smooth. How decision makers learn by trial and error and the efficacy of the process are inextricably linked to the incentives of the decision makers themselves and, in particular, to their tolerance for risk. In this paper, we develop a model of trial and error learning with risk averse agents who learn by observing the choices of earlier agents and the outcomes that are realized. We identify sufficient conditions for the existence of optimal actions. We show that behavior within each period varies in risk and performance and that a performance trap develops, such that low performing agents opt to not experiment and thus fail to gain the knowledge necessary to improve performance. We also show that the impact of risk reverberates across periods, leading, on average, to divergence in long-run performance across agents. (JEL D81, D83, O31, O38)

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