Flexibility in Problem Solving and Tool Use of Kea and New Caledonian Crows in a Multi Access Box Paradigm

Parrots and corvids show outstanding innovative and flexible behaviour. In particular, kea and New Caledonian crows are often singled out as being exceptionally sophisticated in physical cognition, so that comparing them in this respect is particularly interesting. However, comparing cognitive mechanisms among species requires consideration of non-cognitive behavioural propensities and morphological characteristics evolved from different ancestry and adapted to fit different ecological niches. We used a novel experimental approach based on a Multi-Access-Box (MAB). Food could be extracted by four different techniques, two of them involving tools. Initially all four options were available to the subjects. Once they reached criterion for mastering one option, this task was blocked, until the subjects became proficient in another solution. The exploratory behaviour differed considerably. Only one (of six) kea and one (of five) NCC mastered all four options, including a first report of innovative stick tool use in kea. The crows were more efficient in using the stick tool, the kea the ball tool. The kea were haptically more explorative than the NCC, discovered two or three solutions within the first ten trials (against a mean of 0.75 discoveries by the crows) and switched more quickly to new solutions when the previous one was blocked. Differences in exploration technique, neophobia and object manipulation are likely to explain differential performance across the set of tasks. Our study further underlines the need to use a diversity of tasks when comparing cognitive traits between members of different species. Extension of a similar method to other taxa could help developing a comparative cognition research program

The temporal dependence of exploration on neotic style in birds

Exploration (interacting with objects to gain information) and neophobia (avoiding novelty) are considered independent traits shaped by the socio-ecology of a given species. However, in the literature it is often assumed that neophobia inhibits exploration. Here, we investigate how different approaches to novelty (fast or slow) determine the time at which exploration is likely to occur across a number of species. We presented four corvid and five parrot species with a touchscreen discrimination task in which novel stimuli were occasionally interspersed within the familiar training stimuli. We investigated the likelihood that an animal would choose novelty at different stages of its training and found evidence for a shift in the pattern of exploration, depending on neotic style. The findings suggest that faster approaching individuals explored earlier, whilst animals with long initial approach latencies showed similar amounts of exploration but did so later in training. Age rather than species might have influenced the amount of total exploration, with juveniles exploring more than adults. Neotic style varied consistently only for one species and seems to involve a strong individual component, rather than being a purely species-specific trait. This suggests that variation in behavioural phenotypes within a species may be adaptive

Inhibitory control, but not prolonged object-related experience appears to affect physical problem-solving performance of pet dogs

Human infants develop an understanding of their physical environment through playful interactions with objects. Similar processes may influence also the performance of non-human animals in physical problem-solving tasks, but to date there is little empirical data to evaluate this hypothesis. In addition or alternatively to prior experiences, inhibitory control has been suggested as a factor underlying the considerable individual differences in performance reported for many species. Here we report a study in which we manipulated the extent of object-related experience for a cohort of dogs (Canis familiaris) of the breed Border Collie over a period of 18 months, and assessed their level of inhibitory control, prior to testing them in a series of four physical problem-solving tasks. We found no evidence that differences in object-related experience explain variability in performance in these tasks. It thus appears that dogs do not transfer knowledge about physical rules from one physical problem-solving task to another, but rather approach each task as a novel problem. Our results, however, suggest that individual performance in these tasks is influenced in a complex way by the subject’s level of inhibitory control. Depending on the task, inhibitory control had a positive or a negative effect on performance and different aspects of inhibitory control turned out to be the best predictors of individual performance in the different tasks. Therefore, studying the interplay between inhibitory control and problem-solving performance will make an important contribution to our understanding of individual and species differences in physical problem-solving performance

De Imitatione Christi

DE IMITATIONE CHRISTI De Imitatione Christi ( - ) Einband ( - ) Illustration: Kupferstich. Venerabilis Joannes Gersen de Canabaco ... ([1]) Titelseite. ([I]) Lvdovico I. Bavariae Regi Ivsto Constanti Patri Patriae. ([III]) Praefatio. ([XV]) Animadversiones Qvaedam Criticae In Textvm Et Interpretationes ... (XXIX) De Imitatione Christi Libri Quattro. / Della Imitazione Di Cristo Libri Quattro. / De La Imitacion De Cristo Libros Cuatro. / L'Imitation De Jesus-Christ En Quatre Livres. / Die Nachfolge Christi In Vier Büchern. / The Following Of Christ In Four Books. / ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΤΟΥ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ ΜΙΜΗΣΕΩΣ ΒΙΒΛΙΑ ΤΕΣΣΑΡΑ. ([1]) Liber Primus. Admonitiones Ad Spiritualem Vitam Utiles. / Libro Primo. / Libro Primero. / Livre Premier. / Erstes Buch. / The First Book. / ΒΙΒΛΙΟΝ ΠΡΩΤΟΝ. (1) Liber Secundus. Admonitiones Ad Interna Trahentes. / Libro Secondo. / Libro Segundo. / Livre Second. / Zweites Buch. / The Second Book. / ΒΙΒΛΙΟΝ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΟΝ. (127) Liber Tertius. De Interna Consolatione. / Libro Tero. / Libro Tercero. / Livre Troisième. / Drittes Buch. / The Third Book. / ΒΙΒΛΙΟΝ ΤΡΙΤΟΝ. (199) Liber Quartus. De Sacramento Altaris. / Libro Quarto. / Libro Cuarto. / Livre Quartième. / Viertes Buch. / The Fourth Book. / ΒΙΒΛΙΟΝ ΤΕΤΑΡΤΟΝ. (477) Graccus interpres Libelli de Imitatione Christi. (605) Κατα Στοιχειον Πινακιδιον. (605) Errata. ([1]