supplementaryData_jackdawVisitstoNestBoxes

Number of approaches to nest boxes and duration on perche

Inhibition and cognitive flexibility are related to prediction of one’s own future preferences in young British and Chinese children

The ability to shift from current to future perspective is pivotal to future-oriented cognition. With two distinct cultural groups, UK (N = 92) and China (N = 90), we investigated 3 to 5-year-olds' understanding of preference changes occurring within themselves and their peers (another child). We administered a battery of representative tasks of executive function and theory of mind to examine their underlying relationships with children's ability to predict future preferences. British 3-year-olds outperformed Chinese children in predicting future preferences, while no country differences were observed between the 4- and 5-year-olds. Across the UK and China, children were more accurate when predicting for their peers than for themselves. They were also more accurate when their current preferences were identified first, i.e. before answering questions about the future. Chinese children outperformed their British counterparts on inhibition and cognitive flexibility tasks whereas there were no Eastern and Western differences in their theory of mind abilities. After controlling for age and children's knowledge of generic adult preferences, children's performance in the inhibition and cognitive flexibility tasks were significantly correlated with the prediction of their own future preferences, but they were not significantly correlated when predicting for a peer. These results are discussed in relation to the conflicts between multiple perspectives and the cognitive correlates of future-oriented cognition

Iris colour and parental care tree

Phylogenetic tree used for correlated evolution between iris colour and parental car

Nesting phylogenetic tree

Phylogenetic tree used for nesting evolutio

Iris colour and nesting behaviour tree

Phylogenetic tree used for correlated evolution between iris colour and nesting behaviou

Iris colour phylogenetic tree

Phylogenetic tree used for iris colour evolutio

Trait Matrices

trait categorisation for iris colour, nesting and parental care. Presence =1, absence = 0

Rawdata for "Difficulties when using video playback to investigate social cognition in California scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica)"

Raw data for the manuscript "Difficulties when using video playback to investigate social cognition in California scrub-jays (<i>Aphelocoma californica</i>)"<p><b><i> <br></i></b></p

Western scrub-jays do not employ cache-protection strategies when exposed to an observer simulated by video playback

<p>Talk presented at the International Ethology Conference, Behaviour 2015. Manuscript in preparation, please do not cite without explicit permission. </p

Looking the other way Are Western scrub-Jays sensitive to the direction of attention of a conspecific simulated by video playback?

<p>When observed by a conspecific, food-caching Western scrub-jays employ a number of different strategies to protect their caches from theft, for example by caching in visually inaccessible locations or re-caching more of those items that the observer could see being cached (Dally, Emery, & Clayton, 2004, 2005; Emery & Clayton, 2001). These findings suggest higher social cognitive abilities in these animals (Clayton, Dally, & Emery, 2007; Clayton, 2014). The present study aimed to determine whether scrub-jays understand the direction of the attention of an observer. To test this, we used video playback to manipulate the attentiveness of the observer: scrub-jays were presented with videos of an observer either facing forward or facing away from the subject whilst the subject could cache in either a site hidden behind a barrier or in-sight. The stimuli presented on the video screen did not influence the caching and re-caching behaviour: The jays did not protect their caches from a facing forwards observer by caching preferentially in the out of sight location and they also did not re-cache caches that the observer had visual access to. This suggests that the video playback o</p> <p>When observed by a conspecific, food-caching Western scrub-jays employ a number of different strategies to protect their caches from theft, for example by caching in visually inaccessible locations or re-caching more of those items that the observer could see being cached (Dally, Emery, & Clayton, 2004, 2005; Emery & Clayton, 2001). These findings suggest higher social cognitive abilities in these animals (Clayton, Dally, & Emery, 2007; Clayton, 2014). The present study aimed to determine whether scrub-jays understand the direction of attention of an observer. To test this, we used video playback to manipulate the attentiveness of the observer: scrub-jays were presented with videos of an observer either facing forward or facing away from the subject whilst the subject could cache in either a site hidden behind a barrier or in-sight. The stimuli presented on the video screen did not influence the caching and re-caching behaviour: The jays did not protect their caches from a facing forwards observer by caching preferentially in the out of sight location and they also did not re-cache caches that the observer had visual access to. This suggests that the video playback of a conspecific is not sufficient to elicit cache protection strategies in Western scrub-jays.</p> <p>f a conspecific is not sufficient to elicit cache protection strategies in Western scrub-jays.</p> <p> </p