Editing Animal cognition (section)

==== Rule learning ====
The use of rules has sometimes been considered an ability restricted to humans, but a number of experiments have shown evidence of simple rule learning in primates<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = D'Amato MR, Colombo M | title = Representation of serial order in monkeys (Cebus apella) | journal = Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes | volume = 14 | issue = 2 | pages = 131–9 | date = April 1988 | doi = 10.1037/0097-7403.14.2.131 | pmid = 3367099}}</ref> and also in other animals.  Much of the evidence has come from studies of [[sequence learning]] in which the "rule" consists of the order in which a series of events occurs.  Rule use is shown if the animal learns to discriminate different orders of events and transfers this discrimination to new events arranged in the same order. For example,  Murphy ''et al.'' (2008)<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Murphy RA, Mondragón E, Murphy VA | title = Rule learning by rats | journal = Science | volume = 319 | issue = 5871 | pages = 1849–51 | date = March 2008 | pmid = 18369151 | doi = 10.1126/science.1151564 | url = http://www.cal-r.org/mondragon/home/Papers/MurphyMondragonMurphy-08.pdf | bibcode = 2008Sci...319.1849M | s2cid = 591112}}</ref> trained rats to discriminate between visual sequences.  For one group ABA and BAB were rewarded, where A="bright light" and B="dim light".  Other stimulus triplets were not rewarded.  The rats learned the visual sequence, although both bright and dim lights were equally associated with reward.  More importantly, in a second experiment with auditory stimuli, rats responded correctly to sequences of novel stimuli that were arranged in the same order as those previously learned.  Similar sequence learning has been demonstrated in birds and other animals as well.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Kundey SM, Strandell B, Mathis H, Rowan JD | year = 2010 | title = Learning of monotonic and nonmonotonic sequences in domesticated horses (''Equus callabus'') and chickens (''Gallus domesticus'') | journal = Learning and Motivation | volume = 14 | issue = 3| pages = 213–223 | doi = 10.1016/j.lmot.2010.04.006}}</ref>