Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Cognitive Learning01:21

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight learning.
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...
Optimal Foraging00:48

Optimal Foraging

How animals obtain and eat their food is called foraging behavior. Foraging can include searching for plants and hunting for prey and depends on the species and environment.
Instinctive Drift01:05

Instinctive Drift

Instinctive drift refers to the tendency of animals to revert to their innate behaviors despite repeated reinforcement. Breland and Breland demonstrated this concept in an experiment with a raccoon. The raccoon was trained to pick up two coins and place them in a container in exchange for food. Initially, the raccoon learned to associate the coins with food, making them a conditioned stimulus or a substitute for food. However, over time, the raccoon became less willing to put the coins into the...
Cognition and Behavior01:23

Cognition and Behavior

Social psychology examines the complex interplay between individual mental processes and social interactions. Historically, the field was divided into two domains: social behavior and social cognition. Researchers focusing on social behavior analyzed actions within social contexts, such as conformity, aggression, or cooperation. Meanwhile, social cognition researchers investigated how people perceive, interpret, and mentally represent their social environments. However, modern perspectives no...
Nonconscious Mimicry01:13

Nonconscious Mimicry

Nonconscious mimicry occurs when individuals alter their mannerisms to match the behaviors and expressions of those nearby, without intention.
Conservation of Declining Populations02:07

Conservation of Declining Populations

Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Associative models of instrumental learning: a response to Dupuis and Dawson.

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes·2013
Same author

Do animals have insight, and what is insight anyway?

Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie experimentale·2012
Same author

Modularity, comparative cognition and human uniqueness.

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences·2012
Same author

Comparative cognition: function and mechanism in lab and field. A tribute to the contributions of Alex Kacelnik.

Behavioural processes·2011
Same author

Sara J. Shettleworth.

Current biology : CB·2010
Same author

Clever animals and killjoy explanations in comparative psychology.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2010
Same journal

An adaptable, self-organizing, single-cell morphology circuit optimizes suctorian predatory trap structure.

Current biology : CB·2026
Same journal

Temporal tuning of switch-like virulence expression resolves environmental uncertainty through phenotypic heterogeneity.

Current biology : CB·2026
Same journal

An abstract relational map emerges in the human medial prefrontal cortex with consolidation.

Current biology : CB·2026
Same journal

Phloem evolved gradually and asynchronously to xylem in early vascular plants.

Current biology : CB·2026
Same journal

Tracing the origins of crmA megasynthase through lichen genomes.

Current biology : CB·2026
Same journal

Planar cell polarity-directed cell crawling drives polarized epithelial morphogenesis.

Current biology : CB·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 18, 2026

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae
04:51

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae

Published on: July 8, 2025

Animal cognition: Deconstructing avian insight.

Sara J Shettleworth1

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. shettle@psych.utoronto.ca

Current Biology : CB
|December 2, 2009
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Tool-using crows demonstrate insightful problem-solving through experience. Operating an apparatus with their beak or a stick leads to innovative stone tool usage on the same device.

More Related Videos

A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons (Columba Livia)
06:14

A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons (Columba Livia)

Published on: September 7, 2018

The Innovation Arena: A Method for Comparing Innovative Problem-Solving Across Groups
14:14

The Innovation Arena: A Method for Comparing Innovative Problem-Solving Across Groups

Published on: May 13, 2022

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 18, 2026

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae
04:51

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae

Published on: July 8, 2025

A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons (Columba Livia)
06:14

A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons (Columba Livia)

Published on: September 7, 2018

The Innovation Arena: A Method for Comparing Innovative Problem-Solving Across Groups
14:14

The Innovation Arena: A Method for Comparing Innovative Problem-Solving Across Groups

Published on: May 13, 2022

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive ethology
  • Animal behavior
  • Avian intelligence

Background:

  • Tool use in corvids is well-documented.
  • Investigating the role of direct experience in problem-solving.
  • Examining the transfer of learned skills to novel contexts.

Discussion:

  • Experience with tool operation facilitates cognitive flexibility.
  • Crows adapt their stone-tool use based on prior apparatus interaction.
  • This suggests a mechanism for apparent insight in tool-using species.

Key Insights:

  • Apparent insight in problem-solving is influenced by prior tool-use experience.
  • Operating a device with tools (beak/stick) enhances subsequent tool modification or selection.
  • Crows exhibit adaptive learning in tool-related problem-solving tasks.

Outlook:

  • Further research into the neural basis of tool-use learning in crows.
  • Exploring cross-species comparisons of experience-dependent problem-solving.
  • Investigating the evolutionary trajectory of complex tool behavior.