Social cognition by food-caching corvids. The western scrub-jay as a natural psychologist

Clayton, Nicola S.; Dally, Joanna M.; Emery, Nathan J.

doi:10.1098/rstb.2006.1992

Cited by 244 publications

(158 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…Certainly, a problem arises, as this finding is counter intuitive to our thoughts about large brains and social complexity when they are formulated around the traditional primate view of the SBH. If we did not know something about the socio-cognitive abilities of birds (especially the cache protection strategies of corvids, see Clayton et al 2007), we might be inclined to suggest that, perhaps, sociality was not an important factor for the evolution of the avian brain and intelligence.…”

Section: Can Lifelong Pair Bonds Be Cognitively Complex?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive adaptations of social bonding in birds

Emery

Seed

Bayern

et al. 2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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344

341

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The ‘social intelligence hypothesis’ was originally conceived to explain how primates may have evolved their superior intellect and large brains when compared with other animals. Although some birds such as corvids may be intellectually comparable to apes, the same relationship between sociality and brain size seen in primates has not been found for birds, possibly suggesting a role for other non-social factors. But bird sociality is different from primate sociality. Most monkeys and apes form stable groups, whereas most birds are monogamous, and only form large flocks outside of the breeding season. Some birds form lifelong pair bonds and these species tend to have the largest brains relative to body size. Some of these species are known for their intellectual abilities (e.g. corvids and parrots), while others are not (e.g. geese and albatrosses). Although socio-ecological factors may explain some of the differences in brain size and intelligence between corvids/parrots and geese/albatrosses, we predict that the type and quality of the bonded relationship is also critical. Indeed, we present empirical evidence that rook and jackdaw partnerships resemble primate and dolphin alliances. Although social interactions within a pair may seem simple on the surface, we argue that cognition may play an important role in the maintenance of long-term relationships, something we name as ‘relationship intelligence’.

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Section: Can Lifelong Pair Bonds Be Cognitively Complex?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive adaptations of social bonding in birds

Emery

Seed

Bayern

et al. 2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

Self Cite

344

341

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“…dependent on who is watching when Dally et al 2006). This flexibility may depend on an ability to take the visual perspective and even the knowledge state of the competitor into account (reviewed in Clayton et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cooperative problem solving in rooks ( Corvus frugilegus )

2008

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Recent work has shown that captive rooks, like chimpanzees and other primates, develop cooperative alliances with their conspecifics. Furthermore, the pressures hypothesized to have favoured social intelligence in primates also apply to corvids. We tested cooperative problem-solving in rooks to compare their performance and cognition with primates. Without training, eight rooks quickly solved a problem in which two individuals had to pull both ends of a string simultaneously in order to pull in a food platform. Similar to chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys, performance was better when within-dyad tolerance levels were higher. In contrast to chimpanzees, rooks did not delay acting on the apparatus while their partner gained access to the test room. Furthermore, given a choice between an apparatus that could be operated individually over one that required the action of two individuals, four out of six individuals showed no preference. These results may indicate that cooperation in chimpanzees is underpinned by more complex cognitive processes than that in rooks. Such a difference may arise from the fact that while both chimpanzees and rooks form cooperative alliances, chimpanzees, but not rooks, live in a variable social network made up of competitive and cooperative relationships.

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“…Future studies are needed to broaden the taxonomic scope beyond basic abilities so that inferences about cognitive evolution stand on a much firmer ground (e.g. [49]). Second, most of the work that we have cited was done in the laboratory, not in the field.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The psychology of primate cooperation and competition: a call for realigning research agendas

Schmelz

Call

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Cooperation and competition are two key components of social life. Current research agendas investigating the psychological underpinnings of competition and cooperation in non-human primates are misaligned. The majority of work on competition has been done in the context of theory of mind and deception, while work on cooperation has mostly focused on collaboration and helping. The current impression that theory of mind is not necessarily implicated in cooperative activities and that helping could not be an integral part of competition might therefore be rather misleading. Furthermore, theory of mind research has mainly focused on cognitive aspects like the type of stimuli controlling responses, the nature of representation and how those representations are acquired, while collaboration and helping have focused primarily on motivational aspects like prosociality, common goals and a sense of justice and other-regarding concerns. We present the current state of these two bodies of research paying special attention to how they have developed and diverged over the years. We propose potential directions to realign the research agendas to investigate the psychological underpinnings of cooperation and competition in primates and other animals.

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Social cognition by food-caching corvids. The western scrub-jay as a natural psychologist

Cited by 244 publications

References 81 publications

Cognitive adaptations of social bonding in birds

Cognitive adaptations of social bonding in birds

Cooperative problem solving in rooks ( Corvus frugilegus )

The psychology of primate cooperation and competition: a call for realigning research agendas

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