Crows and Learning

New Caledonian Crows Can Interconnect Behaviors Learned in Different Contexts, with Different Consequences, and After Exposure to Failure

What was the study?

The goal of this research was to study how well New Caledonian crows learn and retain information. It is one thing if an animal can demonstrate problem-solving skills-this demonstrates higher thinking, particularly when done with tools, as crows are known to do. It is another skill, then, if they are capable of taking the information learned from solving that problem, and applying it to other situations at other times. This study was intended to see if the crows have a working memory in this way.

How was this research conducted and measured?

First, the crows were trained in a variety of behaviors. This included dropping a stone into a tube, using a ring to pull open a door, using a door to choose between two boxes, and using a mesh door to enter a new environment. The researchers varied the rewards given to the crows for completing these tasks. These trainings happened independent of eachother, over a multi-month period-for example, the stone training happened 5 months before the main testing, while choosing the boxes happened just a week before. The tests themselves combined these skills, forcing the crows to utilize information learned over a period of months in order to complete the tasks. They recorded how long it took the crows to complete the tests at hand.

What did we find?

One of the crows was able to solve the comprehensive tests with no problem at all. Many of the others, upon not being able to solve it immediately, were given additional training-namely, of the stone task, which would have been learned the longest time ago. Upon recieving the additional training, the crows demonstrated the ability to solve the rest of the problems. This shows that the crows can in fact interconnect separated training in order to complete a task, with varying amounts of success, and with the skills learned longest ago being the hardest.