Clever Corvids: using tools (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, August 29, 2015, 08:45 (3375 days ago) @ David Turell
edited by dhw, Saturday, August 29, 2015, 08:51

DAVID: It seems they learn by some degree of emulation and trial and error:> -http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150826113817.htm
 
 
"Logan and colleagues found that the crows don't imitate or copy actions at all. -"But Logan and her team did find strong evidence of social learning: -"It's called stimulus enhancement," she explained. "That's the social learning mechanism they're using. But there's another interesting aspect: Once they see another bird interact with the door, they go to that door and then begin to solve the problem on their own. And now they completely ignore social information and they just use trial and error learning to open the door and extract the food.'" -David's comment: Tool use has to be learned. It is not programmed as an instinct.-In other words, crows follow the same procedures as we do: they learn from one another, and they also use their own intelligence to solve problems. Why would they have started using tools in the first place if they weren't intelligent? And other scientists in a different field tell us that although bacteria don't have the physical means to use tools as such, they still have the intelligence to solve problems. And yet for some reason, there are folk who insist that corvid problem-solving is "not programmed as an instinct", whereas bacterial problem-solving is. Strange, isn't it?