Spontaneous establishing of cross-modal stimulus equivalence in a beluga whale

Abstract

Beluga whales use calls to convey various information to group members. Is this communication similar to humans? We addressed this question by using the framework of stimulus equivalence. Stimulus equivalence consists of three phases: if the animal is trained to match A to B and B to C, symmetry is demonstrated by matching BA and CB, transitivity by matching AC, and equivalence by matching CA. We tested the spontaneous establishment of cross-modal stimulus equivalence between visual and auditory symbols in a beluga whale nicknamed Nack. Nack could make symmetrical choices in novel objects untrained. Moreover, visual/auditory cross-modal transitivity was formed spontaneously. Nack succeeded in six tasks, including an untrained task concerning stimulus equivalence. We conclude that Nack spontaneously formed cross-modal stimulus equivalence between visual and auditory symbols. Cross-modal stimulus equivalence was considered to exist only in humans because of linguistic faculty; however, Nack exhibited the same understanding as humans.