Editing Cognitive map (section)

== Cognitive maps in animals ==
According to O'Keefe and Nadel (1978), not only humans require spatial abilities. [[Animal cognition|Non-humans animals]] need them as well to find food, shelters, and other animals whether it is mates or predators.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Blasidell Aaron, Cook Robert |date=2004 |title=Integration of spatial maps in pigeons |url=https://fr.booksc.org/book/7777575/733254 |access-date=2022-04-24 |website=fr.booksc.org}}</ref> To do so, some animals establish relationships between landmarks, allowing them to make spatial inferences and detect positions.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Olthof, Anneke; Sutton, Jennifer E.; Slumskie, Shawna V.; D'Addetta, JoAnne; Roberts, William A. |date=1999 |title=In search of the cognitive map: Can rats learn an abstract pattern of rewarded arms on the radial maze? |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232444629 |access-date=2022-04-24 |website=fr.booksc.org}}</ref>

The first experiments on [[rat]]s in a maze, conducted by Tolman, Ritchie, and Kalish (1946), showed that rats can form mental maps of spatial locations with a good comprehension of them. But these experiments, led again later by other researchers (for example by Eichenbaum, Stewart, & Morris, 1990 and by Singer et al. 2006) have not concluded with such clear results. Some authors tried to bring to light the way rats can take shortcuts. The results have demonstrated that in most cases, rats fail to use a shortcut when reaching for food unless they receive a preexposure to this shortcut route. In that case, rats use that route significantly faster and more often than those who were not preexposed. Moreover, they have difficulties making a spatial inference such as taking a novel shortcut route.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last1=Grieves |first1=Roderick M. |last2=Dudchenko |first2=Paul A. |date=2013-05-01 |title=Cognitive maps and spatial inference in animals: Rats fail to take a novel shortcut, but can take a previously experienced one |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0023969012000525 |journal=Learning and Motivation |language=en |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=81–92 |doi=10.1016/j.lmot.2012.08.001 |issn=0023-9690|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In 1987, Chapuis and Varlet led an experiment on [[Dog intelligence|dogs]] to determine if they were able to infer shortcuts. The conclusion confirmed their hypothesis. Indeed, the results demonstrated that the dogs were able to go from starting point to point A with food and then go directly to point B without returning to the starting point. But for Andrew T.D. Bennett (1996) it can simply mean that the dogs have seen some landmarks near point B such as trees or buildings and headed towards them because they associated them with the food. Later, in 1998, Cheng and Spetch did an experiment on gerbils. When looking for the hidden food (goal), gerbils were using the relationship between the goal and one landmark at a time. Instead of deducing that the food was equidistant from two landmarks, gerbils were searching it by its position from two independent landmarks. This means that even though animals use landmarks to locate positions, they do it in a certain way.<ref name=":3" />

Another experiment, including [[Pigeon intelligence|pigeons]] this time, showed that they also use landmarks to locate positions. The task was for the pigeons to find hidden food in an arena. A part of the testing was to make sure that they were not using their smell to locate food. These results show and confirm other evidence of links present in those animals between one or multiple landmark(s) and hidden food (Cheng and Spetch, 1998, 2001; Spetch and Mondloch, 1993; Spetch et al., 1996, 1997).<ref name=":2" />

There is increasing evidence that [[Fish intelligence|fish]] form navigational cognitive maps.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rodríguez |first1=Fernando |last2=Quintero |first2=Blanca |last3=Amores |first3=Lucas |last4=Madrid |first4=David |last5=Salas-Peña |first5=Carmen |last6=Salas |first6=Cosme |date=August 11, 2021 |title=Spatial Cognition in Teleost Fish: Strategies and Mechanisms |journal=Animals |language=en |volume=11 |issue=8 |pages=2271 |doi=10.3390/ani11082271 |issn=2076-2615 |doi-access=free|pmid=34438729 |pmc=8388456 }}</ref> In one such neurological study, wireless neural recording systems measured the neural activity of [[goldfish]] and found evidence they form complex cognitive maps of their surroundings.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vinepinsky |first1=Ehud |last2=Cohen |first2=Lear |last3=Perchik |first3=Shay |last4=Ben-Shahar |first4=Ohad |last5=Donchin |first5=Opher |last6=Segev |first6=Ronen |date=September 8, 2020 |title=Representation of edges, head direction, and swimming kinematics in the brain of freely-navigating fish |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=14762 |bibcode=2020NatSR..1014762V |doi=10.1038/s41598-020-71217-1 |pmid=32901058 |issn=2045-2322|pmc=7479115 }}</ref>