An end to insight? New Caledonian crows can spontaneously solve problems without planning their actions

Animals rarely solve problems spontaneously. Some bird species, however, can immediately find a solution to the string-pulling problem. They are able to rapidly gain access to food hung on the end of a long string by repeatedly pulling and then stepping on the string. It is currently unclear whether these spontaneous solutions are produced by insight or by a perceptual-motor feedback loop. Here, we presented New Caledonian crows and humans with a novel horizontal string-pulling task. While the humans succeeded, no individual crow showed a significant preference for the connected string, and all but one failed to gain the food even once. These results clearly show that string pulling in New Caledonian crows is generated not by insight, but by perceptual feedback. Animals can spontaneously solve problems without planning their actions.

[1]  Ludwig Huber,et al.  Kea (Nestor notabilis) consider spatial relationships between objects in the support problem , 2009, Biology Letters.

[2]  Nicola S. Clayton,et al.  The Mentality of Crows: Convergent Evolution of Intelligence in Corvids and Apes , 2004, Science.

[3]  O. Güntürkün,et al.  Asymmetry pays: visual lateralization improves discrimination success in pigeons , 2000, Current Biology.

[4]  Cecilia Heyes,et al.  Simple minds: a qualified defence of associative learning , 2012, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[5]  Culum Brown,et al.  Laterality enhances cognition in Australian parrots , 2009, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[6]  Cynthia Schuck-Paim,et al.  Means to an end: Neotropical parrots manage to pull strings to meet their goals , 2009, Animal Cognition.

[7]  I. Pepperberg.  “Insightful” string-pulling in Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) is affected by vocal competence , 2004, Animal Cognition.

[8]  R. Byrne,et al.  Animal Tool-Use , 2010, Current Biology.

[9]  Ludwig Huber,et al.  A case of quick problem solving in birds: string pulling in keas, Nestor notabilis , 2006, Animal Behaviour.

[10]  Nicola S. Clayton,et al.  New Caledonian Crows Learn the Functional Properties of Novel Tool Types , 2011, PloS one.

[11]  Bernd Heinrich,et al.  AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF INSIGHT IN COMMON RAVENS (CORVUS CORAX) , 1995 .

[12]  Pier Francesco Ferrari,et al.  Towards a bottom-up perspective on animal and human cognition , 2010, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[13]  Kathleen M. Silva,et al.  Humans’ folk physics is sensitive to physical connection and contact between a tool and reward , 2008, Behavioural Processes.

[14]  Bernd Heinrich,et al.  Conflict, Cooperation, and Cognition in the Common Raven , 2011 .

[15]  P. Potí,et al.  Piagetian stage 5 in two infant chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): The development of permanence of objects and the spatialization of causality , 1993, International Journal of Primatology.

[16]  Kathleen M. Silva,et al.  Methodological-conceptual problems in the study of chimpanzees’ folk physics: How studies with adult humans can help , 2005, Learning & behavior.

[17]  Jackie Chappell,et al.  Morphology and sexual dimorphism of the New Caledonian crow Corvus moneduloides, with notes on its behaviour and ecology , 2004 .

[18]  G. Vallortigara,et al.  Advantages of having a lateralized brain , 2004, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[19]  Alex H. Taylor,et al.  An Investigation into the Cognition Behind Spontaneous String Pulling in New Caledonian Crows , 2010, PloS one.

[20]  Problem solving in great apes (Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla, and Pongo abelii): the effect of visual feedback , 2012, Animal Cognition.

[21]  Russell D. Gray,et al.  Animal Cognition: Aesop's Fable Flies from Fiction to Fact , 2009, Current Biology.

[22]  W. Wickler,et al.  Individuality in problem solving : String pulling in two Carduelis species (Aves:Passeriformes) , 2006 .

[23]  B. Heinrich,et al.  Testing Problem Solving in Ravens: String-Pulling to Reach Food , 2005 .

[24]  Evidence of means–end behavior in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) , 2007, Animal Cognition.

[25]  P. Willatts.  The stage-IV infant's solution of problems requiring the use of supports** , 1984 .

[26]  L. Rogers.  Evolution of Hemispheric Specialization: Advantages and Disadvantages , 2000, Brain and Language.

[27]  Marc D. Hauser,et al.  Means-means-end tool choice in cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus): finding the limits on primates’ knowledge of tools , 2005, Animal Cognition.