Little evidence that Eurasian jays protect their caches by responding to cues about a conspecific's desire and visual perspective.
Little evidence that Eurasian jays protect their caches by responding to cues about a conspecific's desire and visual perspective.
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DOI：
10.7554/elife.69647
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发表时间：
2021-09-10
期刊：
影响因子：
7.7
通讯作者：
Clayton NS
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Amodio P;Farrar BG;Krupenye C;Ostojić L;Clayton NS
据报道，欧亚松鸦通过对观察同种的视觉视角或当前欲望的线索做出反应来保护它们的缓存，类似于其他鸦科动物。在这里，我们使用已建立的范例来测试这些鸟类是否可以像人类一样整合关于不同心理状态的多种线索，并相应地做出最佳反应。在五个实验中，其中也包括以前的工作的复制，我们发现很少有证据表明，我们的松鸦调整其缓存行为符合视觉角度和当前的愿望，另一个代理，既不是通过整合这些社会线索，也不是通过响应只有一种类型的线索独立。这些结果提出了问题的可靠性，以前报道的影响，并突出了几个关键问题，影响比较认知研究的可靠性。欧亚松鸦（学名：Garrulus glandarius）是鸦科的成员。这些大脑大的鸟在食物丰富时会把食物藏起来，等到食物稀少时再吃。以前的研究发现，松鸦通过仔细决定藏什么食物和藏在哪里来避免被其他松鸦偷食。在一项研究中，它们更喜欢把食物藏在不透明的屏障后面，而不是透明的屏障后面，当另一只松鸦在看的时候。在第二项研究中，他们更喜欢把那些已经吃得够多的食物藏起来，因此不想吃。这些研究表明，松鸦在保护食物时有灵活的认知技能。他们会根据潜在的小偷是否能看到他们的藏身之处，以及小偷对他们藏匿的食物有多想要做出反应。下一个问题是，欧亚松鸦能将这两条信息联合收割机结合起来吗？例如，如果一只松鸦有两种食物，当另一只松鸦出现时，它们可以藏起来，但只有一个地方可以藏起来（要么在另一只松鸦的视野内，要么在另一只松鸦的视野外），那么第一只松鸦是否更喜欢把第二只松鸦已经吃过的食物藏起来，因此只有当第二只松鸦看到隐藏的地方时，它才不想再吃了？为了找到答案，Amodio等人观察了欧亚松鸦在另一只松鸦面前藏澳洲坚果或花生。在第一个实验中，给松鸦一种食物和两个可能的藏身之处，一个是不透明的，一个是透明的，同时被一只已经吃够了食物或没有吃过食物的松鸦观察;在第二个实验中，给松鸦两种食物都让它们躲藏，但只有一个地方可以躲藏（透明或不透明）;同时被一只已经吃够了其中一种食物的松鸦观察。与预期相反，松鸦似乎无法将另一只松鸦看到的和它吃的信息联合收割机结合起来。事实上，他们似乎无法对这两条信息做出回应。当Amodio等人重复最初的实验时，松鸦似乎并不喜欢把食物藏起来，也不喜欢把观察者已经吃过的食物藏起来。这些结果提出了关于乌鸦家族鸟类食物隐藏策略实验的可重复性的问题。这表明，以前的研究结果应该进一步调查，潜在地确定可能影响食物隐藏策略的可重复性的重要因素。重复这些实验可能会显示出未来如何最好地研究松鸦的行为模式。
Eurasian jays have been reported to protect their caches by responding to cues about either the visual perspective or current desire of an observing conspecific, similarly to other corvids. Here, we used established paradigms to test whether these birds can – like humans – integrate multiple cues about different mental states and perform an optimal response accordingly. Across five experiments, which also include replications of previous work, we found little evidence that our jays adjusted their caching behaviour in line with the visual perspective and current desire of another agent, neither by integrating these social cues nor by responding to only one type of cue independently. These results raise questions about the reliability of the previously reported effects and highlight several key issues affecting reliability in comparative cognition research. Eurasian jays, Garrulus glandarius, are members of the crow family. These large-brained birds hide food when it is abundant, and eat it later, when it is scarce. Previous studies have found that jays avoid theft by other jays by carefully deciding what food to hide, and where. In one study, they preferred to hide their food behind an opaque barrier, rather than a transparent one, when another jay was watching. In a second study, they preferred to hide food that the watching jay had already eaten enough of, and thus did not want. These studies suggest that jays have flexible cognitive skills when it comes to protecting their food. They respond to whether a potential thief can see their hiding place and to how much a thief might want the food they are stashing. The next question is, can Eurasian jays combine these two pieces of information? For example, if a jay has two types of food they could hide when another jay is present, but only has one place to hide them (either in view or out-of-view of the other jay), does the first jay prefer to stash the food that the second jay has already eaten, and therefore does not want anymore, only when the hiding place is visible to second jay? To find out, Amodio et al. watched Eurasian jays hiding macadamia nuts or peanuts in the presence of another jay. In the first setup, jays were given one food to hide and two possible hiding places, one opaque and one transparent, while being watched by a jay that had either had its fill of the food, or not tried it. In the second setup, jays were given both foods to hide, but only had one place to hide them (either transparent or opaque); while being watched by a jay that had eaten enough of one of the foods. Contrary to expectations, the jays did not seem to be able to combine the information about what the other jay could see and what it had been eating. In fact, they seemed unable to respond to either piece of information. When Amodio et al. repeated the original experiments, the jays did not seem to prefer to hide food out of sight, or to hide food that the watcher had already eaten. These results raise questions about the repeatability of experiments on food hiding strategies in birds of the crow family. It suggests that previous findings should be further investigated, potentially to identify important factors that might affect the repeatability of food-hiding tactics. Repeating the experiments may show how best to investigate behavioural patterns in jays in the future.