caa a22 4500 605541795 CHVBK 20210128100918.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150101xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10071-014-0786-4 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10071-014-0786-4 Artificial grammar learning in zebra finches and human adults: XYX versus XXY [Elektronische Daten] [Jiani Chen, Danielle van Rossum, Carel ten Cate] Abstracting syntactic rules is critical to human language learning. It is debated whether this ability, already present in young infants, is human- and language specific or can also be found in non-human animals, indicating it may arise from more general cognitive mechanisms. Current studies are often ambiguous and few have directly compared rule learning by humans and non-human animals. In a series of discrimination experiments, we presented zebra finches and human adults with comparable training and tests with the same artificial stimuli consisting of XYX and XXY structures, in which X and Y were zebra finch song elements. Zebra finches readily discriminated the training stimuli. Some birds also discriminated novel stimuli when these were composed of familiar element types, but none of the birds generalized the discrimination to novel element types. We conclude that zebra finches show evidence of simple rule abstraction related to positional learning, suggesting stimulus-bound generalization, but found no evidence for a more abstract rule generalization. This differed from the human adults, who categorized novel stimuli consisting of novel element types into different groups according to their structure. The limited abilities for rule abstraction in zebra finches may indicate what the precursors of more complex abstraction as found in humans may have been like. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2014 Artificial grammar learning nationallicence Rule learning nationallicence Syntax nationallicence Language evolution nationallicence Songbird nationallicence Human adult nationallicence Chen Jiani Behavioural Biology, Sylvius Laboratory, Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9505, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands aut van Rossum Danielle Behavioural Biology, Sylvius Laboratory, Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9505, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands aut ten Cate Carel Behavioural Biology, Sylvius Laboratory, Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9505, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands aut Animal Cognition Springer Berlin Heidelberg 18/1(2015-01-01), 151-164 1435-9448 18:1<151 2015 18 10071 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-014-0786-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-014-0786-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Chen Jiani Behavioural Biology, Sylvius Laboratory, Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9505, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- van Rossum Danielle Behavioural Biology, Sylvius Laboratory, Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9505, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- ten Cate Carel Behavioural Biology, Sylvius Laboratory, Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9505, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Animal Cognition Springer Berlin Heidelberg 18/1(2015-01-01), 151-164 1435-9448 18:1<151 2015 18 10071