Compound tool construction by New Caledonian crows

Abstract

The construction of novel compound tools through assemblage of otherwise non-functional elements involves anticipation of the affordances of the tools to be built. Except for few observations in captive great apes, compound tool construction is unknown outside humans, and tool innovation appears late in human ontogeny. We report that habitually tool-using New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) can combine objects to construct novel compound tools. We presented 8 naïve crows with combinable elements too short to retrieve food targets. Four crows spontaneously combined elements to make functional tools, and did so conditionally on the position of food. One of them made 3- and 4-piece tools when required. In humans, individual innovation in compound tool construction is often claimed to be evolutionarily and mechanistically related to planning, complex task coordination, executive control, and even language. Our results are not accountable by direct reinforcement learning but corroborate that these crows possess highly flexible abilities that allow them to solve novel problems rapidly. The underlying cognitive processes however remain opaque for now. They probably include the species’ typical propensity to use tools, their ability to judge affordances that make some objects usable as tools, and an ability to innovate perhaps through virtual, cognitive simulations.

Kea show three signatures of domain-general statistical inference

“…To observe these three signatures of domain-general statistical inference in kea is surprising, even given recent developments in avian cognition. Much work in this field over the past 15 years has focused on corvids, which, as a group, have produced their most impressive problem-solving performances predominantly on domain-specific, ecologically relevant tasks, such as those involving caching or tool use [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60] . Parrots have only recently become the focus of a sustained, global research effort 61 .…”

Measuring creativity: an account of natural and artificial creativity

“…While there is quite a widespread consensus on ascribing problem-solving skills to birds that engage in such performances, more contentious is the attribution of creativity and insight to them. Here I apply the creativity framework I proposed to the specific case of New Caledonian crows building compound tools from individually useless objects (von Bayern et al 2018).…”

Autonomous industrial assembly using force, torque, and RGB-D sensing

“…Smarthand interacts with its environment through a parallel gripper. The fingers of the gripper have a tapered profile that mimics the beak of a crow, a design choice based on the renown of corvids for dextrous manipulation [13]. Also like a crow, the vision sensor's field of view is in the immediate workspace of the gripper, allowing the gripper to see assembly objects as close as 11cm.…”