clever corvids Flashcards
corvidae
crow family
tool using crows
-‘phsyical cognition’
-tool use is the use of external object as a functional extension of mouth or break, hand or claw, in the attainment of an immediate goal
-behaviour we once assumed was specific to humans along with language is not unique to humans- chimpanzees also use this
name types of animals which also use tools
-apes, vertebrates, marine and terrestrial mammals, monkeys
tool use and intelligence
-tool use isn’t an indicator of intelligence
-but can reveal the physical cognition
-relies on visible forms of problem solving
-folk physics
chimpanzees
-only other animal capable of tool use
-our closest relative
-have diversity of tools, tool sets, manufacture of tools and tool culture
New Caledonian crows
-live in tropical dense forest, where many species which live there, only live there
-wide use and manufacture of tools, lots of diversity pf tool types
captive study
-keeping birds in captivity can have positive and negative effects
-+ve: controlled study of behaviour
-ve: ecological validity may be compromised, low sample size
what does advanced cognition rely on
-planning
-flexibility
-ability to learn
-insight (problem solving)
-development
how does tool use develop
-you need nest building and mating, then egg-laying and viable eggs, then successful hatching and then feeding and growing
jo wimpenny and her 4 chicks
-4 chicks 2 in 2 different captivities one being regular demonstration and the other being no demonstration (taught or not taught how to use the tools)
-untutored birds didn’t use a good tool to use therefore tuition is important in defining this behaviour
do crows plan their behaviour
-we know they use tools to retrieve their food but could they use the tool to retrieve another tool to retrieve their food- includes primary, secondary any and log, and tertiary conditions
hook and non- hook to retrieve food
-the non-hook was moulded into a hook to retrieve the food
-this wasn’t innate, not observational learning, not associative learning, and most likely insightful learning
-imperfect performance: experiment was repeated, she always managed to mould the straight wire but not always perfectly
understanding he force apparatus
-two groups: stone nudgers and platform pushers
-stone nudger were associative learning and platform pushers were associative learning inadequate
-pushers solved the experiment soon their first try as crows knew about the force
food caching in western scrub jays
-social cognition : knowledge of relationships, dominance hierarchy and mental states of individuals
-animals remember details of cache and protect cache from thieves
-semantic memory= fact learning
-episodic memory= unique recollection, conscious
-experiment to see if scrub jays had episodic like memory: used nuts and worms (birds prefer worms)
-1 st cache had nuts left for 120hours then 2nd cache had worms for 4 hours
-other way round for the other food source
-results showed that in the birds preferred the worms after 4 hours but not 124hours, they preferred nuts at 124hours (look at slides)
can animals plan for the future
animals can only satisfy their current emotional state
