Data from: Function and flexibility of object exploration in kea and New Caledonian crows

A range of nonhuman animals frequently manipulate and explore objects in their environment, which may enable them to learn about physical properties and potentially form more abstract concepts of properties such as weight and rigidity. Whether animals can apply the information learned during their exploration to solve novel problems, however, and whether they actually change their exploratory behaviour to seek functional information about objects have not been fully explored. We allowed kea (Nestor notabilis) and New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) to explore sets of novel objects both before and after encountering a task in which some of the objects could function as tools. Following this, subjects were given test trials in which they could choose among the objects they had explored to solve a tool-use task. Several individuals from both species performed above chance on these test trials, and only did so after exploring the objects, compared to a control experiment with no prior exploration phase. These results suggest that selection of functional tools may be guided by information acquired during exploration. Neither kea nor crows changed the duration or quality of their exploration after learning that the objects had a functional relevance, suggesting that birds do not adjust their behaviour to explicitly seek this information.

诸多非人类动物常会对所处环境中的物体进行操作与探索，这一行为可帮助它们认知物体的物理属性，还有可能形成诸如重量、刚性等属性的抽象概念。然而，动物能否将探索过程中获取的信息应用于解决全新问题，以及它们是否会主动调整探索行为以获取物体的功能相关信息，这两个问题尚未得到充分探究。我们让啄羊鹦鹉（Nestor notabilis）与新喀里多尼亚乌鸦（Corvus moneduloides）在接触一项部分物体可充当工具的任务前后，分别对多组全新物体进行探索。在此之后，我们为受试动物设置了测试试次：受试动物可从此前探索过的物体中进行选择，以完成工具使用任务。相较于未设置前置探索阶段的对照实验，两个物种的多个个体在本次测试试次中的表现均优于随机水平，且仅在完成物体探索后才达到这一水平。上述结果表明，功能性工具的选择或许会受到探索过程中获取的信息的引导。无论是啄羊鹦鹉还是新喀里多尼亚乌鸦，在得知物体具备功能相关性后，均未改变其探索的时长与质量，这表明鸟类并不会主动调整行为以明确获取这类信息。