Behavioural coordination of dogs in a cooperative problem-solving task with a conspecific and a human partner.

The process of domestication has arguably provided dogs (Canis familiaris) with decreased emotional reactivity (reduced fear and aggression) and increased socio-cognitive skills adaptive for living with humans. It has been suggested that dogs are uniquely equipped with abilities that have been identified as crucial in cooperative problem-solving, namely social tolerance and the ability to attend to other individuals' behaviour. Accordingly, dogs might be hypothesised to perform well in tasks in which they have to work together with a human partner. Recently, researchers have found that dogs successfully solved a simple cooperative task with another dog. Due to the simplicity of the task, this study was, however, unable to provide clear evidence as to whether the dogs' successful performance was based on the cognitive ability of behavioural coordination, namely the capacity to link task requirements to the necessity of adjusting one's actions to the partner's behaviour. Here, we tested dogs with the most commonly used cooperative task, appropriate to test behavioural coordination. In addition, we paired dogs with both a conspecific and a human partner. Although dogs had difficulties in inhibiting the necessary action when required to wait for their partner, they successfully attended to the two cues that predicted a successful outcome, namely their partner's behaviour and the incremental movement of rewards towards themselves. This behavioural coordination was shown with both a conspecific and a human partner, in line with the recent findings suggesting that dogs exhibit highly developed socio-cognitive skills in interactions with both humans and other dogs

Avian Models for Human Cognitive Neuroscience: A Proposal.

Research on avian cognitive neuroscience over the past two decades has revealed the avian brain to be a better model for understanding human cognition than previously thought, despite differences in the neuroarchitecture of avian and mammalian brains. The brain, behavior, and cognition of songbirds have provided an excellent model of human cognition in one domain, namely learning human language and the production of speech. There are other important behavioral candidates of avian cognition, however, notably the capacity of corvids to remember the past and plan for the future, as well as their ability to think about another's perspective, and physical reasoning. We review this work and assess the evidence that the corvid brain can support such a cognitive architecture. We propose potential applications of these behavioral paradigms for cognitive neuroscience, including recent work on single-cell recordings and neuroimaging in corvids. Finally, we discuss their impact on understanding human developmental cognition.Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research CouncilThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2015.04.02

The six blind men and the elephant: Are episodic memory tasks tests of different things or different tests of the same thing?

The development of episodic memory in children has been of interest to researchers for more than a century. Current behavioral tests that have been developed to assess episodic memory differ substantially in their surface features. Therefore, it is possible that these tests are assessing different memory processes. In this study, 106 children aged 3 to 6 years were tested on four putative tests of episodic memory. Covariation in performance was investigated in order to address two conflicting hypotheses: (a) that the high level of difference between the tests will result in little covariation in performance despite their being designed to assess the same ability and (b) that the conceptual similarity of these tasks will lead to high levels of covariation despite surface differences. The results indicated a gradual improvement with age on all tests. Performances on many of the tests were related, but not after controlling for age. A principal component analysis found that a single principal component was able to satisfactorily fit the observed data. This principal component produced a marginally stronger correlation with age than any test alone. As such, it might be concluded that different tests of episodic memory are too different to be used in parallel. Nevertheless, if used together, these tests may offer a robust assessment of episodic memory as a complex multifaceted process.Lucy Cheke was funded by a Medical Research Council (MRC) doctoral research fellowship and a Sarah Woodhead Research Fellowship at Girton College, Cambridge.This is the final published version. It first appeared at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022096515000661#

Do birds have the capacity for fun?

A crow carries a jar lid to the top of a sloping snowy rooftop in Russia. Sitting on the lid and sliding down the roof, you could think of it as surfing. It picks up the lid and repeats this behaviour again and again (Figure 1A). A group of black swans ride the crest of a wave that also looks like they are surfing. Once the wave reaches the beach, the swans fly back to another wave crest and perform the same actions again (Figure 1B). In both cases, the birds’ behaviours do not seem to provide any obvious function apart from enjoyment — they look like they are having fun. Videos of these behaviours received millions of views on YouTube, so we appear to like watching other animals having fun. But is this interpretation of the birds’ actions as having fun pure anthropomorphism or is it possible that an animal can act solely for its own enjoyment?This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.09.02

Do different tests of episodic memory produce consistent results in human adults?

A number of different philosophical, theoretical, and empirical perspectives on episodic memory have led to the development of very different tests with which to assess it. Although these tests putatively assess the same psychological capacity, they have rarely been directly compared. Here, a sample of undergraduates was tested on three different putative tests of episodic memory (What-Where-When, Unexpected Question/Source Memory, and Free Recall). It was predicted that to the extent to which these different tests are assessing the same psychological process, performance across the various tests should be positively correlated. It was found that not all tests were related and those relationships that did exist were not always linear. Instead, two tests showed a quadratic relationship, suggesting the contribution of multiple psychological processes. It is concluded that not all putative tests of episodic cognition are necessarily testing the same thing.We thank the research students who were involved in this project, Mathilda Hay and Stephanie Bailey. We also thank Netta Chachuma and Francesca Lewis for help on an early version of this study, and James Thom, Ljerka Ostojic, Jon Simons, and Tom Smulders for commenting on versions of the manuscript, and Daniel Booth and Anthony Cheke for proofreading. Special thanks to Chris Stephenson for creating, maintaining, and updating the computer-based task. L.G.C. was funded by an MRC doctoral training studentship, an MRC Centenary Early Career Award, and a Junior Research Fellowship at Girton College, Cambridge.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/lm.030502.11

New perspectives in gaze sensitivity research.

Attending to where others are looking is thought to be of great adaptive benefit for animals when avoiding predators and interacting with group members. Many animals have been reported to respond to the gaze of others, by co-orienting their gaze with group members (gaze following) and/or responding fearfully to the gaze of predators or competitors (i.e., gaze aversion). Much of the literature has focused on the cognitive underpinnings of gaze sensitivity, namely whether animals have an understanding of the attention and visual perspectives in others. Yet there remain several unanswered questions regarding how animals learn to follow or avoid gaze and how experience may influence their behavioral responses. Many studies on the ontogeny of gaze sensitivity have shed light on how and when gaze abilities emerge and change across development, indicating the necessity to explore gaze sensitivity when animals are exposed to additional information from their environment as adults. Gaze aversion may be dependent upon experience and proximity to different predator types, other cues of predation risk, and the salience of gaze cues. Gaze following in the context of information transfer within social groups may also be dependent upon experience with group-members; therefore we propose novel means to explore the degree to which animals respond to gaze in a flexible manner, namely by inhibiting or enhancing gaze following responses. We hope this review will stimulate gaze sensitivity research to expand beyond the narrow scope of investigating underlying cognitive mechanisms, and to explore how gaze cues may function to communicate information other than attention.This is the final version of the article. It was first available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13420-015-0204-

Re-caching by Western scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica) cannot be attributed to stress.

Western scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica) live double lives, storing food for the future while raiding the stores of other birds. One tactic scrub-jays employ to protect stores is "re-caching"-relocating caches out of sight of would-be thieves. Recent computational modelling work suggests that re-caching might be mediated not by complex cognition, but by a combination of memory failure and stress. The "Stress Model" asserts that re-caching is a manifestation of a general drive to cache, rather than a desire to protect existing stores. Here, we present evidence strongly contradicting the central assumption of these models: that stress drives caching, irrespective of social context. In Experiment (i), we replicate the finding that scrub-jays preferentially relocate food they were watched hiding. In Experiment (ii) we find no evidence that stress increases caching. In light of our results, we argue that the Stress Model cannot account for scrub-jay re-caching

Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) conceal caches from onlookers.

Animals that cache food risk having their stored food pilfered by conspecifics. Previous research has shown that a number of food-caching species of corvid use strategies that decrease the probability of conspecifics pilfering their caches. In this experiment, we investigated whether Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) would choose between caching behind an opaque and caching behind a transparent barrier whilst being observed by a conspecific. If caching in out-of-sight locations is a strategy to prevent conspecifics from pilfering these caches, then the jays should place a greater proportion of caches behind the opaque barrier when being observed than when caching in private. In accordance with this prediction, jays cached a greater proportion of food behind the opaque barrier when they were observed than when they cached in private. These results suggest that Eurasian jays may opt to cache in out-of-view locations to reduce the likelihood of conspecifics pilfering their caches

Neural Processes Underlying Tool Use in Humans, Macaques, and Corvids

It was thought that tool use in animals is an adaptive specialization. Recent studies, however, have shown that some non-tool-users, such as rooks and jays, can use and manufacture tools in laboratory settings. Despite the abundant evidence of tool use in corvids, little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying tool use in this family of birds. This review summarizes the current knowledge on the neural processes underlying tool use in humans, macaques and corvids. We suggest a possible neural network for tool use in macaques and hope this might inspire research to discover a similar brain network in corvids. We hope to establish a framework to elucidate the neural mechanisms that supported the convergent evolution of tool use in birds and mammals