Vernouillet A, Anderson J, Clary D, Kelly D M
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Manitoba, 50 Sifton Road, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T 2N2, Canada.
Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, 9 Campus Drive, 154 Arts, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5A5, Canada.
Anim Cogn. 2016 May;19(3):661-5. doi: 10.1007/s10071-016-0952-y. Epub 2016 Jan 22.
Inhibition (i.e. the ability to restrain ineffective responses to a given stimulus) is a good indicator of complex cognitive abilities in animals. Inhibition has been demonstrated in a broad range of mammals with foraging style and social group size identified as potential influences of this ability. Whether these ecological factors also apply to birds has not been well studied. Corvids, a family of birds well known for being able to accomplish difficult cognitive tasks often requiring inhibition, are a good model for studying inhibitory control. During this study, we measured the ability of Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana), a relatively non-social, food specialist corvid to exercise inhibitory control during a detour-reaching test. Individuals had to retrieve a pine nut inserted into a transparent tube through one of the side openings without pecking directly at the nut from the front of the tube. Overall, nutcrackers were able to inhibit pecking directly at the food (i.e. prepotent response), instead detouring to the side to retrieve the reward. However, the nutcrackers first required a learning period before showing inhibitory control. The nutcrackers' ability to inhibit was lower than other corvids studied to date, and we discuss the implications of this result for the role of sociality and dietary breadth for the evolution of inhibitory control.
抑制作用（即抑制对给定刺激做出无效反应的能力）是动物复杂认知能力的良好指标。抑制作用已在广泛的哺乳动物中得到证实，觅食方式和社会群体规模被确定为这种能力的潜在影响因素。这些生态因素是否也适用于鸟类尚未得到充分研究。鸦科鸟类以能够完成通常需要抑制作用的复杂认知任务而闻名，是研究抑制控制的良好模型。在本研究中，我们测量了克拉克星鸦（Nucifraga columbiana）在迂回取物测试中行使抑制控制的能力，克拉克星鸦是一种相对非社会性的、食物专一的鸦科鸟类。个体必须通过侧面开口之一取回插入透明管中的松子，而不能直接从管子正面啄食松子。总体而言，星鸦能够抑制直接啄食食物（即优势反应），而是绕道从侧面取回奖励。然而，星鸦在表现出抑制控制之前首先需要一个学习期。星鸦的抑制能力低于迄今为止研究的其他鸦科鸟类，我们讨论了这一结果对于社会性和食性广度在抑制控制进化中的作用的影响。
