Ravens attribute visual access to unseen competitors
(2016) In Nature Communications 7.- Abstract
- Recent studies purported to demonstrate that chimpanzees, monkeys and corvids possess a basic Theory of Mind, the ability to attribute mental states like seeing to others. However, these studies remain controversial because they share a common confound: the conspecific’s line of gaze, which could serve as an associative cue. Here, we show that ravens Corvus corax take into account the visual access of others, even when they cannot see a conspecific. Specifically, we find that ravens guard their caches against discovery in response to the sounds of conspecifics when a peephole is open but not when it is closed. Our results suggest that ravens can generalize from their own perceptual experience to infer the possibility of being seen. These... (More)
- Recent studies purported to demonstrate that chimpanzees, monkeys and corvids possess a basic Theory of Mind, the ability to attribute mental states like seeing to others. However, these studies remain controversial because they share a common confound: the conspecific’s line of gaze, which could serve as an associative cue. Here, we show that ravens Corvus corax take into account the visual access of others, even when they cannot see a conspecific. Specifically, we find that ravens guard their caches against discovery in response to the sounds of conspecifics when a peephole is open but not when it is closed. Our results suggest that ravens can generalize from their own perceptual experience to infer the possibility of being seen. These findings confirm and unite previous work, providing strong evidence that ravens are more than mere behaviour-readers. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/c3c53a0b-6783-4015-8fc9-be0fec85bd0b
- author
- Bugnyar, Thomas ; Reber, Stephan Alexander LU and Buckner, Cameron
- publishing date
- 2016
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Nature Communications
- volume
- 7
- article number
- 10506
- pages
- 6 pages
- publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:84957604299
- ISSN
- 2041-1723
- DOI
- 10.1038/ncomms10506
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- c3c53a0b-6783-4015-8fc9-be0fec85bd0b
- date added to LUP
- 2018-10-02 23:59:31
- date last changed
- 2022-03-25 04:23:10
@article{c3c53a0b-6783-4015-8fc9-be0fec85bd0b,
abstract = {{Recent studies purported to demonstrate that chimpanzees, monkeys and corvids possess a basic Theory of Mind, the ability to attribute mental states like seeing to others. However, these studies remain controversial because they share a common confound: the conspecific’s line of gaze, which could serve as an associative cue. Here, we show that ravens Corvus corax take into account the visual access of others, even when they cannot see a conspecific. Specifically, we find that ravens guard their caches against discovery in response to the sounds of conspecifics when a peephole is open but not when it is closed. Our results suggest that ravens can generalize from their own perceptual experience to infer the possibility of being seen. These findings confirm and unite previous work, providing strong evidence that ravens are more than mere behaviour-readers.}},
author = {{Bugnyar, Thomas and Reber, Stephan Alexander and Buckner, Cameron}},
issn = {{2041-1723}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
series = {{Nature Communications}},
title = {{Ravens attribute visual access to unseen competitors}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10506}},
doi = {{10.1038/ncomms10506}},
volume = {{7}},
year = {{2016}},
}