Abstract
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.
Highlights
As early as the 16th century it was noted that birds would pull up string to obtain food [1]
Corvids [7,8] and psittacids [9,10] have often succeeded at this famous example of animal problem solving within seconds of exposure to it
If New Caledonian crows spontaneously solved the standard string-pulling problem, we predicted that their performance on the visually-restricted task might show whether insight or a perceptualmotor feedback cycle was the cognitive mechanism behind such behaviour
Summary
As early as the 16th century it was noted that birds would pull up string to obtain food [1]. If New Caledonian crows spontaneously solved the standard string-pulling problem, we predicted that their performance on the visually-restricted task might show whether insight or a perceptualmotor feedback cycle was the cognitive mechanism behind such behaviour. The perceptual-motor feedback hypothesis predicts that naıve crows would perform better in the visually-restricted condition if they had access to more information about the position of the meat during problem solving To address this prediction, we provided naıve crows with access to a mirror (Figure 1b) so they could potentially follow the meat’s movement from a side-on angle when pulling the string in the visual-restricted task
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