We focus on animals as a resource of processing capability in crowdsourcing and propose an Animal Crowdsourcing (we call it "Animal Cloud”, too) that resolves problems with cooperation between computers and human or animals. This paper gives an overview of Animal Crowdsourcing and reports on the interim results of our learning experiments using rats (Long-Evans rats) to verify the feasibility o...

There has been relatively little research on the psychological mechanisms of social learning. This may be due, in part, to the practice of distinguishing categories of social learning in relation to ill-defined mechanisms (Davis, 1973; Galef, 1988). This practice both makes it difficult to identify empirically examples of different types of social learning, and gives the false impression that t...

Learning audiovisual associations is mediated by the primary cortical areas; however, recent animal studies suggest that such learning can take place even in the absence of the primary visual cortex. Other studies have demonstrated the involvement of extra-geniculate pathways and especially the superior colliculus (SC) in audiovisual association learning. Here, we investigated such learning in ...

while fasting has been practiced for centuries, its beneficial effects was unknown until recently. this review tries to analyze the current literature of how fasting and intermittent fasting (if) could affect clinical pathological parameters, learning, mood and brain plasticity. the effects of different ways of fasting on metabolism and stress were also explored. animal experiments have elucida...

Animal use resulting in harm or death remains common within veterinary education, in disciplines such as surgery, physiology, biochemistry, anatomy, pharmacology, and parasitology. However, many non-harmful alternatives now exist, including computer simulations, high quality videos, 'ethically-sourced cadavers,' such as from animals euthanized for medical reasons, preserved specimens, models an...

Virtual character is a significant application in the research field of technology-enhanced learning. In this study, the concept of animal companions, ‘non-smart’ virtual characters, is proposed as a way to encourage students to promote effort-making learning behaviours. The two underpinning design rationales are first discussed followed by the description of the development of a practical appl...

Normative theories of learning and decision-making are motivated by a computational-level analysis of the task facing an animal: what should the animal do to maximize future reward? However, much of the recent excitement in this field originates in how the animal arrives at its decisions and reward predictions—-algorithmic questions about which the computational-level analysis is silent. Answer...

One account of word learning suggests that children learn that words are unique as labels among perceptual signals because of the way they tend to systematically co-occur with categories of objects. Twenty-month-old’s use of mutual exclusivity with different types of labels emanating from different sources was investigated in order to evaluate this account. Specifically, words and animal sounds...