Transfer of physical understanding in a non-tool-using parrot

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• 作者：Jayden O. van Horik ; Nathan J. Emery
• 关键词：Physical cognition ; Parrots ; Means ; end ; Causal reasoning ; Behavioural flexibility ; Tool ; use ; Trap ; Gaps
• 刊名：Animal Cognition
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：November 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：19
• 期：6
• 页码：1195-1203
• 全文大小：485 KB
• 刊物类别：Biomedical and Life Sciences
• 刊物主题：Life Sciences
  Behavioural Sciences
  Zoology
  Human Physiology
  
• 出版者：Springer Berlin / Heidelberg
• ISSN：1435-9456
• 卷排序：19

文摘

Physical cognition has generally been assessed in tool-using species that possess a relatively large brain size, such as corvids and apes. Parrots, like corvids and apes, also have large relative brain sizes, yet although parrots rarely use tools in the wild, growing evidence suggests comparable performances on physical cognition tasks. It is, however, unclear whether success on such tasks is facilitated by previous experience and training procedures. We therefore investigated physical comprehension of object relationships in two non-tool-using species of captive neotropical parrots on a new means-end paradigm, the Trap-Gaps task, using unfamiliar materials and modified training procedures that precluded procedural cues. Red-shouldered macaws (Diopsittaca nobilis) and black-headed caiques (Pionites melanocephala) were presented with an initial task that required them to discriminate between pulling food trays through gaps while attending to the respective width of the gaps and size of the trays. Subjects were then presented with a novel, but functionally equivalent, transfer task. Six of eight birds solved the initial task through trial-and-error learning. Four of these six birds solved the transfer task, with one caique demonstrating spontaneous comprehension. These findings suggest that non-tool-using parrots may possess capacities for sophisticated physical cognition by generalising previously learned rules across novel problems.