Food-caching mountain chickadees can learn abstract rules to solve a complex spatial-temporal pattern.

Autor:	Benedict LM; University of Nevada Reno, Department of Biology, Reno, NV 89557, USA; University of Nevada Reno, Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, Reno, NV 89557, USA. Electronic address: lbenedict@nevada.unr.edu., Heinen VK; University of Nevada Reno, Department of Biology, Reno, NV 89557, USA., Welklin JF; University of Nevada Reno, Department of Biology, Reno, NV 89557, USA., Sonnenberg BR; University of Nevada Reno, Department of Biology, Reno, NV 89557, USA; University of Nevada Reno, Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, Reno, NV 89557, USA., Whitenack LE; University of Nevada Reno, Department of Biology, Reno, NV 89557, USA; University of Nevada Reno, Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, Reno, NV 89557, USA., Bridge ES; University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Biological Survey, Norman, OK 73019, USA., Pravosudov VV; University of Nevada Reno, Department of Biology, Reno, NV 89557, USA; University of Nevada Reno, Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, Reno, NV 89557, USA.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Current biology : CB [Curr Biol] 2023 Aug 07; Vol. 33 (15), pp. 3136-3144.e5. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Jul 12.
DOI:	10.1016/j.cub.2023.06.036
Abstrakt:	The use of abstract rules in behavioral decisions is considered evidence of executive functions associated with higher-level cognition. Laboratory studies across taxa have shown that animals may be capable of learning abstract concepts, such as the relationships between items, but often use simpler cognitive abilities to solve tasks. Little is known about whether or how animals learn and use abstract rules in natural environments. Here, we tested whether wild, food-caching mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli) could learn an abstract rule in a spatial-temporal task in which the location of a food reward rotated daily around an 8-feeder square spatial array for up to 34 days. Chickadees initially searched for the daily food reward by visiting the most recently rewarding locations and then moving backward to visit previously rewarding feeders, using memory of previous locations. But by the end of the task, chickadees were more likely to search forward in the correct direction of rotation, moving away from the previously rewarding feeders. These results suggest that chickadees learned the direction rule for daily feeder rotation and used this to guide their decisions while searching for a food reward. Thus, chickadees appear to use an executive function to make decisions on a foraging-based task in the wild. VIDEO ABSTRACT. Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests. (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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