Editing Animal cognition (section)

=== Spatial cognition ===
Whether an animal ranges over a territory measured in square kilometers or square meters, its survival typically depends on its ability to do such things as find a food source and then return to its nest. Sometimes such a task can be performed rather simply, for example by following a chemical trail. Typically, however, the animal must somehow acquire and use information about locations, directions, and distances. The following paragraphs outline some of the ways that animals do this.<ref name="Shettleworth" /><ref name="pigeon.psy.tufts.edu">{{cite book | veditors = Brown MF, Cook RG | date = 2006 | title = Animal Spatial Cognition: Comparative, Neural, and Computational Approaches. [On-line]. | url = https://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/asc/ | access-date = 2020-09-29 | archive-date = 2022-03-02 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220302152409/http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/asc/ | url-status = dead}}</ref> 
*'''Beacons''' Animals often learn what their nest or other goal looks like, and if it is within sight they may simply move toward it; it is said to serve as a "beacon".
*'''Landmarks''' When an animal is unable to see its goal, it may learn the appearance of nearby objects and use these landmarks as guides.  Researchers working with birds and bees have demonstrated this by moving prominent objects in the vicinity of nest sites, causing returning foragers to hunt for their nest in a new location.<ref name="Shettleworth" />
*'''[[Dead reckoning]]''', also known as "path integration", is the process of computing one's position by starting from a known location and keeping track of the distances and directions subsequently traveled. Classic experiments have shown that the [[desert ant]] keeps track of its position in this way as it wanders for many meters searching for food. Though it travels in a randomly twisted path, it heads straight home when it finds food.  However, if the ant is picked up and released some meters to the east, for example, it heads for a location displaced by the same amount to the east of its home nest.
*'''Cognitive maps''' Some animals appear to construct a [[cognitive map]] of their surroundings, meaning that they acquire and use information that enables them to compute how far and in what direction to go to get from one location to another. Such a map-like representation is thought to be used, for example, when an animal goes directly from one food source to another even though its previous experience has involved only travel between each source and home.<ref name="Shettleworth" /><ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Lund N |title = Animal cognition |publisher = Psychology Press |year = 2002 |isbn = 978-0-415-25298-0 |page = 4 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Ti4cgStf6q8C&pg=PA4}}</ref> Research in this area<ref name="pigeon.psy.tufts.edu" /> has also explored such topics as the use of geometric properties of the environment by rats and pigeons, and the ability of [[rat]]s to represent a spatial pattern in either [[radial arm maze]]s or [[Morris water navigation task|water mazes]]. Spatial cognition is used in [[visual search]] when an animal or human searches their environment for specific objects to focus on among other objects in the environment.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Treisman AM, Gelade G | title = A feature-integration theory of attention | journal = Cognitive Psychology | volume = 12 | issue = 1 | pages = 97–136 | date = January 1980 | pmid = 7351125 | doi = 10.1016/0010-0285(80)90005-5 | s2cid = 353246}}</ref>
*'''Detour behaviour''' Some animals appear to have an advanced understanding of their spatial environment and will not take the most direct route if this confers an advantage to them.  Some jumping spiders take an indirect route to prey rather than the most direct route, thereby indicating flexibility in behaviour and route planning, and possibly insight learning.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Sherwin CM | date = 2001 | title = Can invertebrates suffer? Or, how robust is argument-by-analogy? | journal = Animal Welfare | volume = 10 | issue = supplement | pages = S103–S118 | doi = 10.1017/S0962728600023551 | s2cid = 54126137}}</ref>

====Long-distance navigation; homing====

{{main|Animal navigation}}
Many animals travel hundreds or thousands of miles in seasonal migrations or returns to breeding grounds. They may be guided by the Sun, the stars, the polarization of light, magnetic cues, olfactory cues, winds, or a combination of these.<ref>{{cite book | last = Gauthreaux | first = Sidney A. | name-list-style = vanc | date = 1980 | title = Animal Migration, Orientation, and Navigation | publisher = Academic Press}}</ref> 

It has been hypothesized that animals such as apes and wolves are good at spatial cognition because this skill is necessary for survival. Some researchers argue that this ability may have diminished somewhat in dogs because humans have provided necessities such as food and shelter during some 15,000 years of domestication.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Savolainen P, Zhang YP, Luo J, Lundeberg J, Leitner T | title = Genetic evidence for an East Asian origin of domestic dogs | journal = Science | volume = 298 | issue = 5598 | pages = 1610–3 | date = November 2002 | pmid = 12446907 | doi = 10.1126/science.1073906 | bibcode = 2002Sci...298.1610S | s2cid = 32583311}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Fiset S, Plourde V | title = Object permanence in domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and gray wolves (Canis lupus) | journal = Journal of Comparative Psychology | volume = 127 | issue = 2 | pages = 115–27 | date = May 2013 | pmid = 23106804 | doi = 10.1037/a0030595}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Bräuer J, Kaminski J, Riedel J, Call J, Tomasello M | title = Making inferences about the location of hidden food: social dog, causal ape | journal = Journal of Comparative Psychology | volume = 120 | issue = 1 | pages = 38–47 | date = February 2006 | pmid = 16551163 | doi = 10.1037/0735-7036.120.1.38 | s2cid = 10162449}}</ref>