Check this http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(09)01455-9
and this http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8181233.stm
My comments are
The papers in "current biology" and PLOS1 are the proverbial reinvention of the wheel. Aesop would be telling the authors "I told you so". We have known this for 2000 years! But it takes a high impact factor journal publication to validate it in the strictest scientific sense. BTW- The paper strictly speaking has not actually come out with ...
The authors of the paper say that "Although we did not
provide an independent control condition in which subjects
were presented with a tube containing water but no worm,
we found that subjects stopped adding stones once the
worm had been reached and removed from the tube, providing evidence against this argument" Now a control is essential in an experiment no matter what the judgmental may be. I would have liked to see a video where the bird does nothing but stare at the tube without the worm and same level of water!
Now how about this scenario- another control in the experiment wherein the birds are presented with the tube with the worm and the same level of water but no stones for a long time. Me thinks that the crow would have simply pushed the tube with its beek to make it fall and would have gone for the worm! and once it has learn t this technique then even when presented with stones the birds would have gone for the push method unless the tubes where made bigger and heavier to push!
Hey this paper has sparked me off - the authors say that "The results of these experiments provide the first empirical
evidence that a species of corvid is capable of the remarkable
problem-solving ability described more than two thousand
years ago by Aesop" Now the fable was about a thirsty crow this paper is about a "hungry" crow - would the crow have done the same thing in the exp had it been thirsty ie had the reward been just water and not the grub? here is where the technique of just pushing the tube comes into play! If any of you want the original paper ( its still in press! not published yet) I will send it by mail
and this http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8181233.stm
My comments are
The papers in "current biology" and PLOS1 are the proverbial reinvention of the wheel. Aesop would be telling the authors "I told you so". We have known this for 2000 years! But it takes a high impact factor journal publication to validate it in the strictest scientific sense. BTW- The paper strictly speaking has not actually come out with ...
The authors of the paper say that "Although we did not
provide an independent control condition in which subjects
were presented with a tube containing water but no worm,
we found that subjects stopped adding stones once the
worm had been reached and removed from the tube, providing evidence against this argument" Now a control is essential in an experiment no matter what the judgmental may be. I would have liked to see a video where the bird does nothing but stare at the tube without the worm and same level of water!
Now how about this scenario- another control in the experiment wherein the birds are presented with the tube with the worm and the same level of water but no stones for a long time. Me thinks that the crow would have simply pushed the tube with its beek to make it fall and would have gone for the worm! and once it has learn t this technique then even when presented with stones the birds would have gone for the push method unless the tubes where made bigger and heavier to push!
Hey this paper has sparked me off - the authors say that "The results of these experiments provide the first empirical
evidence that a species of corvid is capable of the remarkable
problem-solving ability described more than two thousand
years ago by Aesop" Now the fable was about a thirsty crow this paper is about a "hungry" crow - would the crow have done the same thing in the exp had it been thirsty ie had the reward been just water and not the grub? here is where the technique of just pushing the tube comes into play! If any of you want the original paper ( its still in press! not published yet) I will send it by mail
