Cargando…

An Investigation into the Cognition Behind Spontaneous String Pulling in New Caledonian Crows

The ability of some bird species to pull up meat hung on a string is a famous example of spontaneous animal problem solving. The “insight” hypothesis claims that this complex behaviour is based on cognitive abilities such as mental scenario building and imagination. An operant conditioning account,...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Taylor, Alex H., Medina, Felipe S., Holzhaider, Jennifer C., Hearne, Lindsay J., Hunt, Gavin R., Gray, Russell D.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2825261/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20179759
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0009345
_version_ 1782177804856590336
author Taylor, Alex H.
Medina, Felipe S.
Holzhaider, Jennifer C.
Hearne, Lindsay J.
Hunt, Gavin R.
Gray, Russell D.
author_facet Taylor, Alex H.
Medina, Felipe S.
Holzhaider, Jennifer C.
Hearne, Lindsay J.
Hunt, Gavin R.
Gray, Russell D.
author_sort Taylor, Alex H.
collection PubMed
description The ability of some bird species to pull up meat hung on a string is a famous example of spontaneous animal problem solving. The “insight” hypothesis claims that this complex behaviour is based on cognitive abilities such as mental scenario building and imagination. An operant conditioning account, in contrast, would claim that this spontaneity is due to each action in string pulling being reinforced by the meat moving closer and remaining closer to the bird on the perch. We presented experienced and naïve New Caledonian crows with a novel, visually restricted string-pulling problem that reduced the quality of visual feedback during string pulling. Experienced crows solved this problem with reduced efficiency and increased errors compared to their performance in standard string pulling. Naïve crows either failed or solved the problem by trial and error learning. However, when visual feedback was available via a mirror mounted next to the apparatus, two naïve crows were able to perform at the same level as the experienced group. Our results raise the possibility that spontaneous string pulling in New Caledonian crows may not be based on insight but on operant conditioning mediated by a perceptual-motor feedback cycle.
format Text
id pubmed-2825261
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2010
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-28252612010-02-24 An Investigation into the Cognition Behind Spontaneous String Pulling in New Caledonian Crows Taylor, Alex H. Medina, Felipe S. Holzhaider, Jennifer C. Hearne, Lindsay J. Hunt, Gavin R. Gray, Russell D. PLoS One Research Article The ability of some bird species to pull up meat hung on a string is a famous example of spontaneous animal problem solving. The “insight” hypothesis claims that this complex behaviour is based on cognitive abilities such as mental scenario building and imagination. An operant conditioning account, in contrast, would claim that this spontaneity is due to each action in string pulling being reinforced by the meat moving closer and remaining closer to the bird on the perch. We presented experienced and naïve New Caledonian crows with a novel, visually restricted string-pulling problem that reduced the quality of visual feedback during string pulling. Experienced crows solved this problem with reduced efficiency and increased errors compared to their performance in standard string pulling. Naïve crows either failed or solved the problem by trial and error learning. However, when visual feedback was available via a mirror mounted next to the apparatus, two naïve crows were able to perform at the same level as the experienced group. Our results raise the possibility that spontaneous string pulling in New Caledonian crows may not be based on insight but on operant conditioning mediated by a perceptual-motor feedback cycle. Public Library of Science 2010-02-22 /pmc/articles/PMC2825261/ /pubmed/20179759 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0009345 Text en Taylor et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Taylor, Alex H.
Medina, Felipe S.
Holzhaider, Jennifer C.
Hearne, Lindsay J.
Hunt, Gavin R.
Gray, Russell D.
An Investigation into the Cognition Behind Spontaneous String Pulling in New Caledonian Crows
title An Investigation into the Cognition Behind Spontaneous String Pulling in New Caledonian Crows
title_full An Investigation into the Cognition Behind Spontaneous String Pulling in New Caledonian Crows
title_fullStr An Investigation into the Cognition Behind Spontaneous String Pulling in New Caledonian Crows
title_full_unstemmed An Investigation into the Cognition Behind Spontaneous String Pulling in New Caledonian Crows
title_short An Investigation into the Cognition Behind Spontaneous String Pulling in New Caledonian Crows
title_sort investigation into the cognition behind spontaneous string pulling in new caledonian crows
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2825261/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20179759
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0009345
work_keys_str_mv AT tayloralexh aninvestigationintothecognitionbehindspontaneousstringpullinginnewcaledoniancrows
AT medinafelipes aninvestigationintothecognitionbehindspontaneousstringpullinginnewcaledoniancrows
AT holzhaiderjenniferc aninvestigationintothecognitionbehindspontaneousstringpullinginnewcaledoniancrows
AT hearnelindsayj aninvestigationintothecognitionbehindspontaneousstringpullinginnewcaledoniancrows
AT huntgavinr aninvestigationintothecognitionbehindspontaneousstringpullinginnewcaledoniancrows
AT grayrusselld aninvestigationintothecognitionbehindspontaneousstringpullinginnewcaledoniancrows
AT tayloralexh investigationintothecognitionbehindspontaneousstringpullinginnewcaledoniancrows
AT medinafelipes investigationintothecognitionbehindspontaneousstringpullinginnewcaledoniancrows
AT holzhaiderjenniferc investigationintothecognitionbehindspontaneousstringpullinginnewcaledoniancrows
AT hearnelindsayj investigationintothecognitionbehindspontaneousstringpullinginnewcaledoniancrows
AT huntgavinr investigationintothecognitionbehindspontaneousstringpullinginnewcaledoniancrows
AT grayrusselld investigationintothecognitionbehindspontaneousstringpullinginnewcaledoniancrows