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Ebel SJ, Völter CJ, Sánchez-Amaro A, Helming KA, Herrmann E, Call J. Functional fixedness in chimpanzees. Sci Rep 2024; 14:12155. [PMID: 38802445 PMCID: PMC11130300 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-62685-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2023] [Accepted: 05/20/2024] [Indexed: 05/29/2024] Open
Abstract
Differences in the tool use of non-human primates and humans are subject of ongoing debate. In humans, representations of object functions underpin efficient tool use. Yet, representations of object functions can lead to functional fixedness, which describes the fixation on a familiar tool function leading to less efficient problem solving when the problem requires using the tool for a new function. In the current study, we examined whether chimpanzees exhibit functional fixedness. After solving a problem with a tool, chimpanzees were less efficient in solving another problem which required using the same tool with a different function compared to a control group. This fixation effect was still apparent after a period of nine months and when chimpanzees had learned about the function of a tool by observation of a conspecific. These results suggest that functional fixedness in our closest living relatives likely exists and cast doubt on the notion that stable function representations are uniquely human.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sonja J Ebel
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
- Human Biology and Primate Cognition, Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom.
| | - Christoph J Völter
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Alejandro Sánchez-Amaro
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Division of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom
| | | | - Esther Herrmann
- Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom
| | - Josep Call
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
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Schubotz RI, Ebel SJ, Elsner B, Weiss PH, Wörgötter F. Tool mastering today - an interdisciplinary perspective. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1191792. [PMID: 37397285 PMCID: PMC10311916 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1191792] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2023] [Accepted: 05/19/2023] [Indexed: 07/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Tools have coined human life, living conditions, and culture. Recognizing the cognitive architecture underlying tool use would allow us to comprehend its evolution, development, and physiological basis. However, the cognitive underpinnings of tool mastering remain little understood in spite of long-time research in neuroscientific, psychological, behavioral and technological fields. Moreover, the recent transition of tool use to the digital domain poses new challenges for explaining the underlying processes. In this interdisciplinary review, we propose three building blocks of tool mastering: (A) perceptual and motor abilities integrate to tool manipulation knowledge, (B) perceptual and cognitive abilities to functional tool knowledge, and (C) motor and cognitive abilities to means-end knowledge about tool use. This framework allows for integrating and structuring research findings and theoretical assumptions regarding the functional architecture of tool mastering via behavior in humans and non-human primates, brain networks, as well as computational and robotic models. An interdisciplinary perspective also helps to identify open questions and to inspire innovative research approaches. The framework can be applied to studies on the transition from classical to modern, non-mechanical tools and from analogue to digital user-tool interactions in virtual reality, which come with increased functional opacity and sensorimotor decoupling between tool user, tool, and target. By working towards an integrative theory on the cognitive architecture of the use of tools and technological assistants, this review aims at stimulating future interdisciplinary research avenues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ricarda I. Schubotz
- Department of Biological Psychology, Institute for Psychology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Sonja J. Ebel
- Human Biology & Primate Cognition, Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Birgit Elsner
- Developmental Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Peter H. Weiss
- Cognitive Neurology, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Florentin Wörgötter
- Inst. of Physics 3 and Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Georg August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
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Ibáñez de Aldecoa P, Auersperg AMI, Griffin AS, Tebbich S. Ratcheting up tool innovation in Goffin's cockatoos ( Cacatua goffiniana): The effect of contextually diverse prior experience. Ethology 2023; 129:133-145. [PMID: 37082334 PMCID: PMC10108129 DOI: 10.1111/eth.13351] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2022] [Revised: 11/23/2022] [Accepted: 12/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
The ability to gain information from one situation, acquire new skills and/or perfect existing ones, and subsequently apply them to a new situation is a key element in behavioural flexibility and a hallmark of innovation. A flexible agent is expected to store these skills and apply them to contexts different from that in which learning occurred. Goffin's cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) are highly innovative parrots renowned for their problem-solving and tool-using skills and are thus excellent candidates to study this phenomenon. We hypothesized that birds allowed to use a tool in a larger variety of contingencies would acquire a broader expertise in handling it, facilitating its transfer to new tasks. In our study, we compared the performance of two groups of captive Goffin's cockatoos (N = 13): A test group received more diverse learning and motor experiences on multiple applications of a hook-type tool, while a control group received intensive, total trial-matched, experience with a single application of the same tool. Then, both groups were tested on two novel tasks to determine whether experience with the tool in multiple contexts would facilitate performance during transfer. While both groups transferred to both novel tasks, group differences in performance were apparent, particularly in the second transfer task, where test birds achieved a higher success rate and reached criteria within fewer trials than control birds. These results provide support for the prediction that experiencing a diverse range of contingencies with a tool appears to allow birds to acquire generalizable knowledge and transferrable skills to tackle an untrained problem more efficiently. In contrast, intensive experience with the tool in a single context might have made control birds less flexible and more fixated on previously learned tool-dependent instances.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Alice M. I. Auersperg
- Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, University of Vienna, Medical University of ViennaViennaAustria
| | - Andrea S. Griffin
- School of Psychology, University of NewcastleCallaghanNew South WalesAustralia
| | - Sabine Tebbich
- Department of Behavioural and Cognitive BiologyUniversity of ViennaViennaAustria
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Osuna-Mascaró AJ, Mundry R, Tebbich S, Beck SR, Auersperg AMI. Innovative composite tool use by Goffin's cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana). Sci Rep 2022; 12:1510. [PMID: 35087147 PMCID: PMC8795444 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-05529-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2021] [Accepted: 12/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Composite tool use (using more than one tool simultaneously to achieve an end) has played a significant role in the development of human technology. Typically, it depends on a number of specific and often complex spatial relations and there are thus very few reported cases in non-human animals (e.g., specific nut-cracking techniques in chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys). The innovative strategies underlying the innovation and spread of tool manufacture and associative tool use (using > 1 tools) across tool using animals is an important milestone towards a better understanding of the evolution of human technology. We tested Goffin's cockatoos on a composite tool problem, the 'Golf Club Task', that requires the use of two objects in combination (one used to control the free movement of a second) to get a reward. We demonstrate that these parrots can innovate composite tool use by actively controlling the position of the end effector and movement of both objects involved in a goal directed manner. The consistent use of different techniques by different subjects highlights the innovative nature of the individual solutions. To test whether the solution could be socially transmitted, we conducted a second study, which provided only tentative evidence for emulative learning. To our knowledge, this indicates that the cognitive preconditions for composite tool use have also evolved outside the primate lineage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio J Osuna-Mascaró
- Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine, Medical University of Vienna and University of Vienna, Veterinärplatz 1, 1210, Vienna, Austria.
| | - Roger Mundry
- German Primate Center, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Kellnerweg 4, 37077, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Sabine Tebbich
- Department of Behavioural Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstraße 14, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Sarah R Beck
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
| | - Alice M I Auersperg
- Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine, Medical University of Vienna and University of Vienna, Veterinärplatz 1, 1210, Vienna, Austria
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Sebastián-Enesco C, Amezcua-Valmala N, Colmenares F, Mendes N, Call J. Raising the level: orangutans solve the floating peanut task without visual feedback. Primates 2022; 63:33-39. [PMID: 34655344 PMCID: PMC8800926 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-021-00952-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2021] [Accepted: 09/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/05/2022]
Abstract
Chimpanzees and orangutans are able to generate innovative behaviors to solve complicated physical problems. For example, when presented with an out-of-reach peanut at the bottom of a vertical tube (floating peanut task-FPT), some of them spontaneously spit water into the tube until the peanut floats to the top. Yet, it is unclear whether this innovative solution results from repeating those actions that bring the peanut incrementally closer to the top or from anticipating the solution before acting. In the current study, we addressed this question by presenting three naïve orangutans with an opaque version of the FPT that prevented them from obtaining visual information about the effect of their actions on the position of the peanut. One of the subjects solved the opaque FPT in the very first trial: he collected water from the faucet and poured it into the opaque tube repeatedly until the hitherto non-visible peanut reached the top. This provides evidence for the first time that orangutans can potentially solve the FPT without relying on sensorimotor learning, but to some extent by mentally representing the problem.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carla Sebastián-Enesco
- Grupo UCM de Psicobiología social, evolutiva y comparada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
- Departamento de Investigación y Psicología en Educación, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
| | - Nerea Amezcua-Valmala
- Grupo UCM de Psicobiología social, evolutiva y comparada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Departamento de Psicología. Facultad de Ciencias Biomédicas y Salud, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Fernando Colmenares
- Grupo UCM de Psicobiología social, evolutiva y comparada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología en Ciencias del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Natacha Mendes
- Max Planck School of Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Josep Call
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St. Andrews, UK
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Osuna-Mascaró AJ, Auersperg AMI. Current Understanding of the "Insight" Phenomenon Across Disciplines. Front Psychol 2021; 12:791398. [PMID: 34975690 PMCID: PMC8715918 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.791398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2021] [Accepted: 11/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite countless anecdotes and the historical significance of insight as a problem solving mechanism, its nature has long remained elusive. The conscious experience of insight is notoriously difficult to trace in non-verbal animals. Although studying insight has presented a significant challenge even to neurobiology and psychology, human neuroimaging studies have cleared the theoretical landscape, as they have begun to reveal the underlying mechanisms. The study of insight in non-human animals has, in contrast, remained limited to innovative adjustments to experimental designs within the classical approach of judging cognitive processes in animals, based on task performance. This leaves no apparent possibility of ending debates from different interpretations emerging from conflicting schools of thought. We believe that comparative cognition has thus much to gain by embracing advances from neuroscience and human cognitive psychology. We will review literature on insight (mainly human) and discuss the consequences of these findings to comparative cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio J. Osuna-Mascaró
- Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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Tran TTU, Esseily R, Bovet D, Király I. One Function One Tool? A Review on Mutual Exclusivity in Tool Use Learning in Human and Non-human Species. Front Psychol 2021; 12:603960. [PMID: 34887793 PMCID: PMC8649634 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.603960] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2020] [Accepted: 10/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The goal of this review is twofold: first to explore whether mutual exclusivity and functional fixedness overlap and what might be their respective specificities and second, to investigate whether mutual exclusivity as an inferential principle could be applied in other domains than language and whether it can be found in non-human species. In order to do that, we first give an overview of the representative studies of each phenomenon. We then analyze papers on tool use learning in children that studied or observed one of these phenomena. We argue that, despite their common principle -one tool one function- mutual exclusivity and functional fixedness are two distinct phenomena and need to be addressed separately in order to fully understand the mechanisms underlying social learning and cognition. In addition, mutual exclusivity appears to be applicable in other domains than language learning, namely tool use learning and is also found in non-human species when learning symbols and tools.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thuy Tuong Uyen Tran
- Laboratoire Ethologie Cognition Développement, UPL, Univ Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France
| | - Rana Esseily
- Laboratoire Ethologie Cognition Développement, UPL, Univ Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France
| | - Dalila Bovet
- Laboratoire Ethologie Cognition Développement, UPL, Univ Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France
| | - Ildikó Király
- MTA-ELTE Social Minds Research Group, Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.,Department of Cognitive Science, Cognitive Development Center, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
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Motes-Rodrigo A, Tennie C. Captive great apes tend to innovate simple tool behaviors quickly. Am J Primatol 2021; 84:e23311. [PMID: 34339543 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2021] [Revised: 07/12/2021] [Accepted: 07/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Recent studies have highlighted the important role that individual learning mechanisms and different forms of enhancenment play in the acquisition of novel behaviors by naïve individuals. A considerable subset of these studies has focused on tool innovation by our closest living relatives, the great apes, to better undestand the evolution of technology in our own lineage. To be able to isolate the role that individual learning plays in great ape tool innovation, researchers usually employ what are known as baseline tests. Although these baselines are commonly used in behavioral studies in captivity, the length of these tests in terms of number of trials and duration remains unstandarized across studies. To address this methodological issue, we conducted a literature review of great ape tool innovation studies conducted in zoological institutions and compiled various methodological data including the timing of innovation. Our literature review revealed an early innovation tendency in great apes, which was particularly pronounced when simple forms of tool use were investigated. In the majority of experiments where tool innovation took place, this occurred within the first trial and/or the first hour of testing. We discuss different possible sources of variation in the latency to innovate such as testing setup, species and task. We hope that our literature review helps researchers design more data-informed, resource-efficient experiments on tool innovation in our closest living relatives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alba Motes-Rodrigo
- Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.,Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Claudio Tennie
- Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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