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Brea J, Clayton NS, Gerstner W. Computational models of episodic-like memory in food-caching birds. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2979. [PMID: 37221167 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38570-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2022] [Accepted: 05/08/2023] [Indexed: 05/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Birds of the crow family adapt food-caching strategies to anticipated needs at the time of cache recovery and rely on memory of the what, where and when of previous caching events to recover their hidden food. It is unclear if this behavior can be explained by simple associative learning or if it relies on higher cognitive processes like mental time-travel. We present a computational model and propose a neural implementation of food-caching behavior. The model has hunger variables for motivational control, reward-modulated update of retrieval and caching policies and an associative neural network for remembering caching events with a memory consolidation mechanism for flexible decoding of the age of a memory. Our methodology of formalizing experimental protocols is transferable to other domains and facilitates model evaluation and experiment design. Here, we show that memory-augmented, associative reinforcement learning without mental time-travel is sufficient to explain the results of 28 behavioral experiments with food-caching birds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johanni Brea
- School of Computer and Communication Science, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- School of Life Science, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
| | - Nicola S Clayton
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Wulfram Gerstner
- School of Computer and Communication Science, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- School of Life Science, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
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Martin RJ, Martin GK, Roberts WA, Sherry DF. No evidence for future planning in Canada jays ( Perisoreus canadensis). Biol Lett 2021; 17:20210504. [PMID: 34875182 PMCID: PMC8651407 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2021.0504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2021] [Accepted: 11/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
In the past 20 years, research in animal cognition has challenged the belief that complex cognitive processes are uniquely human. At the forefront of these challenges has been research on mental time travel and future planning in jays. We tested whether Canada jays (Perisoreus canadensis) demonstrated future planning, using a procedure that has produced evidence of future planning in California scrub-jays. Future planning in this procedure is caching in locations where the bird will predictably experience a lack of food in the future. Canada jays showed no evidence of future planning in this sense and instead cached in the location where food was usually available, opposite to the behaviour described for California scrub-jays. We provide potential explanations for these differing results adding to the recent debates about the role of complex cognition in corvid caching strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- R. Jeffrey Martin
- Department of Biology, Western University, 1151 Richmond Street, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7
- Advanced Facility for Avian Research, Western University, 1151 Richmond Street, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7
| | - Glynis K. Martin
- Department of Psychology, Western University, 1151 Richmond Street, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7
- Advanced Facility for Avian Research, Western University, 1151 Richmond Street, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7
| | - William A. Roberts
- Department of Psychology, Western University, 1151 Richmond Street, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7
- Advanced Facility for Avian Research, Western University, 1151 Richmond Street, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7
| | - David F. Sherry
- Department of Biology, Western University, 1151 Richmond Street, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7
- Department of Psychology, Western University, 1151 Richmond Street, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7
- Advanced Facility for Avian Research, Western University, 1151 Richmond Street, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7
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Zeiträg C, Jacobs I. The elusive perspective of a food thief. eLife 2021; 10:74048. [PMID: 34677128 PMCID: PMC8536253 DOI: 10.7554/elife.74048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2021] [Accepted: 10/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Eurasian jays fail to take into account the point of view and desire of other jays when hiding food they can eat later.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudia Zeiträg
- Department of Cognitive Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - Ivo Jacobs
- Department of Cognitive Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
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