Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2010 Mar 27;365(1542):977-87. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0210.
The scatter hoarding of food, or caching, is a widespread and well-studied behaviour. Recent experiments with caching corvids have provided evidence for episodic-like memory, future planning and possibly mental attribution, all cognitive abilities that were thought to be unique to humans. In addition to the complexity of making flexible, informed decisions about caching and recovering, this behaviour is underpinned by a motivationally controlled compulsion to cache. In this review, we shall first discuss the compulsive side of caching both during ontogeny and in the caching behaviour of adult corvids. We then consider some of the problems that these birds face and review the evidence for the cognitive abilities they use to solve them. Thus, the emergence of episodic-like memory is viewed as a solution for coping with food perishability, while the various cache-protection and pilfering strategies may be sophisticated tools to deprive competitors of information, either by reducing the quality of information they can gather, or invalidating the information they already have. Finally, we shall examine whether such future-oriented behaviour involves future planning and ask why this and other cognitive abilities might have evolved in corvids.
食物的分散贮藏，或称为“ caching”，是一种广泛存在且研究充分的行为。最近对贮藏鸦科鸟类的实验为类似情景记忆、未来规划以及可能的心理归因提供了证据，这些认知能力都被认为是人类独有的。除了在贮藏和取回食物方面做出灵活、明智决策的复杂性之外，这种行为还受到贮藏动机的控制。在这篇综述中，我们首先将讨论贮藏行为在个体发育和成年鸦科动物贮藏行为中的强制性一面。然后，我们将考虑这些鸟类所面临的一些问题，并回顾它们用于解决这些问题的认知能力的证据。因此，类似情景记忆的出现被视为应对食物易腐性的一种解决方案，而各种贮藏保护和盗窃策略可能是剥夺竞争对手信息的复杂工具，既可以通过降低它们能够收集到的信息质量，也可以通过使它们已经拥有的信息无效。最后，我们将探讨这种面向未来的行为是否涉及未来规划，并询问为什么这些以及其他认知能力可能在鸦科动物中进化而来。
