A recent discovery reveals that crows exhibit signs of analogical reasoning- for example the ability to solve comparison puzzles like "bird is to air as fish is to what?" This type of advanced reasoning typically only develops in humans between the ages of three and four.
“Crows Spontaneously Exhibit Analogical Reasoning,” published Dec. 18 in Current Biology, was written by Wasserman and Anna Smirnova, Zoya Zorina and Tanya Obozova, researchers with the Department of Biology at Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow, Russia, where the study was conducted.
In the first phase of the experiment, crows in a wire mesh cage were presented a plastic tray containing three small cups. The sample cup in the middle was covered with a small card on which was pictured a color, shape or number of items. The other two cups were also covered with cards—one that matched the sample and one that did not. During this initial training period, the cup with the matching card contained two mealworms; the crows were rewarded with these food items when they chose the matching card, but they received no food when they chose the other card.
Once the crows were trained on identity matching-to-sample, the second phase of the experiment assessed the birds ability to understand and assess relational aspects by matching pairs of items. The relational matching trials were arranged in such a way that neither test pairs precisely matched the sample pair, thereby eliminating control by physical identity. For example, the crows might have to choose two same-sized circles rather than two different-sized circles when the sample card displayed two same-sized squares.
The astonishing result of this 2-part experiment not only showed that the crows could correctly perform relational matches, but that they did so spontaneously—without explicit training. They understood and performed the tasks naturally, without specific instruction. What new secrets have we yet to discover in the animal kingdom?
*This post was originally published on February 26, 2015.