Abstract
The trap-tube paradigm is a useful reference for judging whether a species is likely to use advanced physical causal cognition, however it does not have a standardised format. In this study, the design of an optimised two trap-table is described and is then tested on two species of macaw: Ara ambiguus and Ara glaucogularis. Multiple subjects of both species learned a successful method to solve an initial trap-problem and some transferred this success to other apparatus presented. However this transfer was likely achieved without a functional physical understanding of the task. The macaws probably have a preference to use learned rules based on arbitrary properties to solve the trap-problem. We conclude that this setup of the two-trap-problem is a viable benchmark that could be administered to a variety of species with very little modification, thus paving the way for more directly comparative studies.
Item Type: | Journal article |
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Faculties: | Biology > Department Biology II |
Subjects: | 500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology |
ISSN: | 0005-7959 |
Language: | English |
Item ID: | 83920 |
Date Deposited: | 15. Dec 2021, 15:09 |
Last Modified: | 15. Dec 2021, 15:09 |