1
|
Jacobs I, von Bayern AM, Osvath M. Tools and food on heat lamps: pyrocognitive sparks in New Caledonian crows? BEHAVIOUR 2021. [DOI: 10.1163/1568539x-bja10138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Fire has substantially altered the course of human evolution. Cooking kindled brain expansion through improved energy and time budgets. However, little is known about the origins of fire use and its cognitive underpinnings (pyrocognition). Debates on how hominins innovated cooking focus on archaeological findings, but should also be informed by the response of animals towards heat sources. Here, we report six observations on two captive New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) contacting heat lamps with tools or placing raw food on them. The tools became singed or melted and the food had browned (and was removed). These results suggest that New Caledonian crows can use tools to investigate hot objects, which extends earlier findings that they use tools to examine potential hazards (pericular tool use), and place food on a heat source as play or exploration. Further research on animals will provide novel insights into the pyrocognitive origins of early humans.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ivo Jacobs
- Department of Cognitive Science, Lund University, Helgonavägen 3, 22100 Lund, Sweden
| | - Auguste M.P. von Bayern
- Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology, Eberhard-Gwinner-Strasse, 82319 Seewiesen, Germany
- Max-Planck Comparative Cognition Research Station, Loro Parque Fundacíon, 38400 Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain
| | - Mathias Osvath
- Department of Cognitive Science, Lund University, Helgonavägen 3, 22100 Lund, Sweden
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Baciadonna L, Cornero FM, Emery NJ, Clayton NS. Convergent evolution of complex cognition: Insights from the field of avian cognition into the study of self-awareness. Learn Behav 2021; 49:9-22. [PMID: 32661811 DOI: 10.3758/s13420-020-00434-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Pioneering research on avian behaviour and cognitive neuroscience have highlighted that avian species, mainly corvids and parrots, have a cognitive tool kit comparable with apes and other large-brained mammals, despite conspicuous differences in their neuroarchitecture. This cognitive tool kit is driven by convergent evolution, and consists of complex processes such as casual reasoning, behavioural flexibility, imagination, and prospection. Here, we review experimental studies in corvids and parrots that tested complex cognitive processes within this tool kit. We then provide experimental examples for the potential involvement of metacognitive skills in the expression of the cognitive tool kit. We further expand the discussion of cognitive and metacognitive abilities in avian species, suggesting that an integrated assessment of these processes, together with revised and multiple tasks of mirror self-recognition, might shed light on one of the most highly debated topics in the literature-self-awareness in animals. Comparing the use of multiple assessments of self-awareness within species and across taxa will provide a more informative, richer picture of the level of consciousness in different organisms.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Luigi Baciadonna
- Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK.
| | - Francesca M Cornero
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK
| | - Nathan J Emery
- Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Nicola S Clayton
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Bayern AMPV, Danel S, Auersperg AMI, Mioduszewska B, Kacelnik A. Compound tool construction by New Caledonian crows. Sci Rep 2018; 8:15676. [PMID: 30356096 PMCID: PMC6200727 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-33458-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2018] [Accepted: 09/24/2018] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The construction of novel compound tools through assemblage of otherwise non-functional elements involves anticipation of the affordances of the tools to be built. Except for few observations in captive great apes, compound tool construction is unknown outside humans, and tool innovation appears late in human ontogeny. We report that habitually tool-using New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) can combine objects to construct novel compound tools. We presented 8 naïve crows with combinable elements too short to retrieve food targets. Four crows spontaneously combined elements to make functional tools, and did so conditionally on the position of food. One of them made 3- and 4-piece tools when required. In humans, individual innovation in compound tool construction is often claimed to be evolutionarily and mechanistically related to planning, complex task coordination, executive control, and even language. Our results are not accountable by direct reinforcement learning but corroborate that these crows possess highly flexible abilities that allow them to solve novel problems rapidly. The underlying cognitive processes however remain opaque for now. They probably include the species' typical propensity to use tools, their ability to judge affordances that make some objects usable as tools, and an ability to innovate perhaps through virtual, cognitive simulations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- A M P von Bayern
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, OX1 3PS, Oxford, UK. .,Department II of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 82152, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany. .,Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology, 82319, Seewiesen, Germany.
| | - S Danel
- Department II of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 82152, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany.,Laboratory for the Study of Cognitive Mechanisms, University of Lyon, Bron Rhône-Alpes, 69500, France
| | - A M I Auersperg
- University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, 1210, Wien, Austria.,Messerli Research Institute, Medical University of Vienna, 1010, Wien, Austria.,Messerli Research Institute, University of Vienna, 1090, Wien, Austria
| | - B Mioduszewska
- Department II of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 82152, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany
| | - A Kacelnik
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, OX1 3PS, Oxford, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
The interplay between psychological predispositions and skill learning in the evolution of tool use. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2018.01.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
|