Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Krems an der Donau, Austria.
Proc Biol Sci. 2020 Nov 11;287(1938):20201490. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1490. Epub 2020 Nov 4.
The ability to plan for future events is one of the defining features of human intelligence. Whether non-human animals can plan for specific future situations remains contentious: despite a sustained research effort over the last two decades, there is still no consensus on this question. Here, we show that New Caledonian crows can use tools to plan for specific future events. Crows learned a temporal sequence where they were (a) shown a baited apparatus, (b) 5 min later given a choice of five objects and (c) 10 min later given access to the apparatus. At test, these crows were presented with one of two tool-apparatus combinations. For each combination, the crows chose the right tool for the right future task, while ignoring previously useful tools and a low-value food item. This study establishes that planning for specific future tool use can evolve via convergent evolution, given that corvids and humans shared a common ancestor over 300 million years ago, and offers a route to mapping the planning capacities of animals.
规划未来事件的能力是人类智力的一个重要特征。非人类动物是否能够为特定的未来情况进行规划仍然存在争议：尽管在过去的二十年中进行了持续的研究，但对于这个问题仍然没有共识。在这里，我们展示了新喀里多尼亚乌鸦可以使用工具来规划特定的未来事件。乌鸦学习了一个时间序列，在这个序列中，它们（a）被展示一个诱饵装置，（b）5 分钟后被给予五个物体的选择，（c）10 分钟后被给予进入装置的机会。在测试中，这些乌鸦被呈现出两种工具-装置组合中的一种。对于每种组合，乌鸦都选择了正确的工具来完成正确的未来任务，同时忽略了之前有用的工具和低价值的食物。这项研究表明，在 3 亿多年前，鸦科动物和人类有一个共同的祖先，因此，特定未来工具使用的规划可以通过趋同进化来演变，并为动物的规划能力提供了一种研究途径。
