Food Caching by Western Scrub-Jays (Aphelocoma californica) Is Sensitive to the Conditions at Recovery.

Clayton, Nicola S.; Dally, Joanna M.; Gilbert, James D. J.; Dickinson, Anthony

doi:10.1037/0097-7403.31.2.115

Cited by 69 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Thus our results apparently support the hypothesis that non-human animals can maintain high levels of cooperation in the IPD under no special circumstances other than likely future interactions. Recent experimental studies have shown that some species, including primates (Mulcahy & Call 2006) and corvids (Clayton et al 2005;Raby et al 2007) have the ability of anticipating and behaving on the basis of future consequences. There would be, therefore, no reason why animals that demonstrate this ability in other contexts should systematically give in to the short-term temptation of cheating in an IPD game when long-term benefits exist.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term social bonds promote cooperation in the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma

2009

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Reciprocal altruism, one of the most probable explanations for cooperation among non-kin, has been modelled as a Prisoner's Dilemma. According to this game, cooperation could evolve when individuals, who expect to play again, use conditional strategies like tit-for-tat or Pavlov. There is evidence that humans use such strategies to achieve mutual cooperation, but most controlled experiments with nonhuman animals have failed to find cooperation. One reason for this could be that subjects fail to cooperate because they behave as if they were to play only once. To assess this hypothesis, we conducted an experiment with monogamous zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) that were tested in a two-choice apparatus, with either their social partner or an experimental opponent of the opposite sex. We found that zebra finches maintained high levels of cooperation in an iterated Prisoner's Dilemma game only when interacting with their social partner. Although other mechanisms may have contributed to the observed difference between the two treatments, our results support the hypothesis that animals do not systematically give in to the short-term temptation of cheating when long-term benefits exist. Thus, our findings contradict the commonly accepted idea that reciprocal altruism will be rare in non-human animals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term social bonds promote cooperation in the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma

2009

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“…This suggests that tortoises can remember the relative value of a reward, and not just its presence or absence (e.g. [5,6]), for a period spanning seasons and significantly longer than previously found in hoarder species [9,10]. The retention of this information could increase fitness as it would improve foraging efficiency by eliminating the necessity to re-evaluate food sources during each foraging event and reduce the risk of re-visiting inadequate food sources [20].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hoarding birds, for example, are able to recall relative reward features such as the size and transience of cached food for up to 100 h [9]. However, for many animals, foraging decisions require retention of information over a much greater time period (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term memory of relative reward values

et al. 2017

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Long-term memory can be adaptive as it allows animals to retain information that is crucial for survival, such as the appearance and location of key resources. This is generally examined by comparing choices of stimuli that have value to the animal with those that do not; however, in nature choices are rarely so clear cut. Animals are able to assess the relative value of a resource via direct comparison, but it remains unclear whether they are able to retain this information for a biologically meaningful amount of time. To test this, captive red-footed tortoises (Chelonoidis carbonaria) were first trained to associate visual cues with specific qualities and quantities of food, and their preferences for the different reward values determined. They were then retested after an interval of 18 months. We found that the tortoises were able to retain the information they had learned about the cues as indicators of relative reward values over this interval, demonstrating a memory for the relative quantity and quality of food over an extended period of time. This is likely to impact directly on an animal's foraging decisions, such as the exploitation of seasonally varying resources, with obvious fitness implications for the individual; however, the implications may also extend to the ecological interactions in which the animal is involved, affecting processes such as herbivory and seed dispersal.

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“…that is consistently pilfered, and therefore, along with our colleagues, we investigated whether the consistent pilfering of a particular food would affect the caching of that food (Clayton, Dally, Gilbert, & Dickinson, 2005).…”

Section: Figure 4 the Number Of Wax Worms And Peanuts Cached By Groumentioning

confidence: 99%

The Prospective Cognition of Food Caching and Recovery by Western Scrub-Jays (Alphelocoma californica)

Clayton¹

2006

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The role of prospective cognition in food caching and recovery by western scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica) is reviewed. These birds anticipate the short-term consequences of searching for cached food at recovery by reducing their searches for devalued food items. Two further lines of evidence suggest that the jays are also capable of more long-term prospection. First, the caching of food items decreases when they are consistently degraded or pilfered at recovery over cache-recovery intervals that preclude direct delayed reinforcement and punishment. Second, the jays anticipate the pilfering of their caches by another bird, which observes the caching episode, by engaging in various cache-protection behaviors. These finding suggest that the jays are capable of a form of prospective mental "time travel".The last decade has seen an increasing interest in prospective and retrospective cognition by non-human animals. In part, this interest has its origin in Tulving's (983) claim that only humans have an episodic memory system, which allows them to mentally travel through subjective time to reminisce about specific past events. While animals can acquire extensive general information about their environment, according to Tulving (983, p. ) "they cannot travel back in the past in their own minds". The scope of this "temporal myopia" was extended from the past to future by Suddendorf and Corballis (997) in the formulation of their 'mental time travel hypothesis', which claims that animals live in the present, being incapable of episodic recall of specific past events and unable to contemplate possible states of affairs beyond the immediate future. Suddendorf and Corballis based their hypothesis on a review of primate cognition. More recently, Roberts (2002) reached a similar conclusion that animals are, to use his words, "stuck in time" by reviewing the evidence from studies of a variety of species. Moreover, in recent writings, Tulving has also endorsed the prospective component of the mental time travel hypothesis by stating that "mental time travel allows one, as an "owner" of episodic memory ("self"), through the medium of autonoetic awareness, to remember one's own previous "thoughtabout" experiences, as well as to "think about" one's own possible future experiences" (Tulving, 2005, pp. 9).About 0 years ago, we started a research program on the retrospective component of the mental time travel hypothesis in which we investigated the mnemonic processes mediating the recovery of food caches by western scrub-jays. Many species scatter-hoard food throughout their territories when

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Food Caching by Western Scrub-Jays (Aphelocoma californica) Is Sensitive to the Conditions at Recovery.

Cited by 69 publications

References 32 publications

Long-term social bonds promote cooperation in the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma

Long-term social bonds promote cooperation in the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma

Long-term memory of relative reward values

The Prospective Cognition of Food Caching and Recovery by Western Scrub-Jays (Alphelocoma californica)

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