Tool use and physical cognition in birds and mammals

@article{Emery2009ToolUA,
  title={Tool use and physical cognition in birds and mammals},
  author={Nathan J. Emery and Nicola S. Clayton},
  journal={Current Opinion in Neurobiology},
  year={2009},
  volume={19},
  pages={27-33}
}
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92 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
3
Background Citations
37
Methods Citations
9
Results Citations
4

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92 Citations

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An Investigation of the Factors Driving Cognition in Darwin's finches
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The data provide no evidence that tool-use in woodpecker has evolved in conjunction with enhanced physical cognition or that domain-specific experience hones domain- specific skills, an important contribution to a growing body of evidence indicating that animal tool- use, even that which seems complex, does not necessitate specialized cognitive adaptations.
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Evidence is presented that rooks hold certain expectations about how objects interact and appear to possess perceptual understanding of support relations similar to that demonstrated by human babies, which is more comprehensive than that of chimpanzees.
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The number of cortical neurons appears to be a better predictor of intelligence but does not solve the paradox of elephants and cetaceans, which have at least several billion cortical neurons like the great apes, while being less intelligent.
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The results showed that tool selection depended on the stimulus context (i.e., the number and lengths of the alternative tools) and the factors in addition to the candy’s distance influenced the participants’ selections.
T Tool Use
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The challenges associated with longitudinal designs and correlational tests between tool use and individual fitness benefits make it extremely difficult to unequivocally demonstrate the adaptive value of tool use, as measured by increased survival rate and reproductive success.
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