Laura Fontanari

University of Trento | UNITN · CIMEC - Center for Mind/Brain Sciences

Significance Correct probabilistic evaluations are one of the hallmarks of rationality. Is the human ability to make them dependent on formal education, or does it emerge regardless of instruction and culture? This paper shows that preliterate and prenumerate Mayan adults are able to solve a variety of probabilistic problems. These individuals corr...

In this paper, we studied the ability of newborn chicks to use kind information (sortal objects) provided by social and food attractors to determine the number of distinct objects present in an event (object individuation). Newly hatched chicks were reared with five imprinting objects and were fed mealworms. Chicks' spontaneous tendency to approach...

Object individuation was investigated in newborn domestic chicks. Chicks' spontaneous tendency to approach the larger group of familiar objects was exploited in a series of five experiments. In the first experiment newborn chicks were reared for 3 days with objects differing in either colour, shape or size. At test, each chick was presented with tw...

Rats were used in a spatial reorientation task to assess their ability to use geometric and non-geometric, featural, information. Experimental conditions differed in the size of the arena (small, medium, or large) and whether the food-baited corner was near or far from a visual feature. The main measure was the percentage of trials with first-choic...

Newly hatched domestic chicks were reared with five identical objects. On days 3 or 4, chicks underwent free-choice tests in which sets of three and two of the five original objects disappeared (either simultaneously or one by one), each behind one of two opaque identical screens. Chicks spontaneously inspected the screen occluding the larger set (...