ArticleRoyal Society open science2019
Captive jays exhibit reduced problem-solving performance compared to wild conspecifics.
Article in Royal Society open science, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Hippocampal astrocytic GAT-3 blockade impairs protein synthesis and spatial memory dynamics.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Wild and zoo-housed orangutans differ in how they explore objects.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Mechanical problem solving by plush-crested jays: are tools special after all?Animal cognition · 2024Article
- Sex predicts response to novelty and problem-solving in a wild bird with female-biased sexual dimorphism.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Are comparable studies really comparable? Suggestions from a problem-solving experiment on urban and rural great tits.Animal cognition · 2024Article
- Testing the Effectiveness of the "Smelly" Elephant Repellent in Controlled Experiments in Semi-Captive Asian and African Savanna Elephants.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Article
- Captivity and habituation to humans raise curiosity in vervet monkeys.Animal cognition · 2022Article
- DomArchive: a century of published dominance data.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Social behavior mediates the use of social and personal information in wild jays.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Spatial cognitive ability is associated with transitory movement speed but not straightness during the early stages of exploration.Royal Society open science · 2021Article
- Using touchscreen equipped operant chambers to study animal cognition. Benefits, limitations, and advice.PloS one · 2021Article
- Innovative problem-solving in wild hyenas is reliable across time and contexts.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Using an Innovation Arena to compare wild-caught and laboratory Goffin's cockatoos.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Grow up, be persistent, and stay focused: keys for solving foraging problems by free-ranging possums.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Animal cognitive abilities are frequently quantified in strictly controlled settings, with laboratory-reared subjects. Results from these studies have merit for clarifying proximate mechanisms of performance and the potential upper limits of certain cognitive abilities. Researchers often assume that performance on laboratory-based assessments accurately represents the abilities of wild conspecifics, but this is infrequently tested. In this experiment, we quantified the performance of wild and captive corvid subjects on an extractive foraging task. We found that performance was not equivalent, and wild subjects were faster at problem-solving to extract the food reward. By contrast, there was no difference in the time it took for captive and wild solvers to repeat the behaviour to get additional food rewards (learning speed). Our findings differ from the few other studies that have statistically compared wild and captive performance on assessments of problem-solving and learning. This indicates that without explicitly testing it, we cannot assume that captive animal performance on experimental tasks can be generalized to the species as a whole. To better understand the causes and consequences of a variety of animal cognitive abilities, we should measure performance in the social and physical environment in which the ability in question evolved.
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