Jays are sensitive to cognitive illusions.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Ethology
• Animal Behavior
• Avian Intelligence

Background:

• Jays (family Corvidae) exhibit complex caching behaviors, including food storage and theft from conspecifics.
• Prior research indicates jays are selective about their own cache contents based on preference and perishability.
• The extent to which jays apply similar content sensitivity to caches they steal remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether jays demonstrate content sensitivity when pilfering food caches from others.
• To determine if jays react differently to manipulated cache contents (up-value and de-value conditions) compared to expected contents.
• To explore the role of cognitive illusions in assessing avian decision-making regarding stolen food.

Main Methods:

• Adaptation of a 'cups-and-balls' magic routine to create a cognitive illusion paradigm for testing jays.
• Presentation of four experimental conditions: two control (expected food) and two manipulation (unexpected food value).
• Observation and measurement of jay re-inspection behavior, latency to consume, and food rejection rates.

Main Results:

• Jays readily accepted food when cache contents matched their expectations.
• Expectation violations (swapping preferred for less-preferred food or vice versa) increased cache re-inspection behavior.
• In the de-value condition, jays showed longer consumption latencies and higher rates of food rejection.
• Dominant individuals were more prone to rejecting manipulated food items, indicating social influence.

Conclusions:

• Jays exhibit content sensitivity even when stealing caches, reacting to changes in expected food value.
• Cognitive illusions can be effectively employed to probe the psychological mechanisms underlying animal decision-making.
• Social dominance may modulate responses to perceived deception or value discrepancies in food acquisition.