More information: Taylor AH, Elliffe DM, Hunt GR, Emery NJ, Clayton NS, et al. (2011) New Caledonian Crows Learn the Functional Properties of Novel Tool Types. PLoS ONE 6(12): e26887.
Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Crows show advanced learning abilities
In the chapter CLEVER CORVIDS in NOT A CHIMP I detail cognitive psychology research on crows and other corvid birds which showed they have extraordinary powers of tool manufacture and use; understanding of deception; and planning for the future - otherwise known as mental time travel. After publication, Nathan Emery added to the list of corvid mental attributes by showing that ravens could solve the Aesop problem of water displacement to recover floating food. Here New Zealand researchers Hunt and Taylor team up with Emery and Clayton to demonstrate the same skill in New Caledonian crows who, without prior learning, seem to realize that dropping big stones into containers of water containing food will cause the food to rise until it can be retrieved using the beak. The paper is in the open access PLoS 1:
More information: Taylor AH, Elliffe DM, Hunt GR, Emery NJ, Clayton NS, et al. (2011) New Caledonian Crows Learn the Functional Properties of Novel Tool Types. PLoS ONE 6(12): e26887.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0026887
More information: Taylor AH, Elliffe DM, Hunt GR, Emery NJ, Clayton NS, et al. (2011) New Caledonian Crows Learn the Functional Properties of Novel Tool Types. PLoS ONE 6(12): e26887.
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