Animal Intelligence Essay Example

In Past animal intellect studies, birds were rarely an example of what characterizes an “intelligent species” as it was thought these animals relied solely on instinct and not intellect compared to other animals like primates, etc. However, modern studies garner a new perspective on avian intellect, such as problem-solving, memory encoding and observational learning, among other examples. Hence, Underestimating the capacities of what avian intellect is capable of. 

Castro & Wasserman. (2016) conducted a task-switching study on pigeons to determine whether birds possessed signs of executive functioning, which are responsible for skills such as memory and flexibility in thinking. In the experiment, Naive pigeons completed two randomized tasks, a numerical and variability discrimination task, both tasks required the birds to differentiate a set of pictorial stimuli on a tablet. The numerical task required the birds to distinguish between a few (6) or many (16) items. Depending on the background screen colour, the pigeons must peck on either the 6 items or 16 items batch presented. Whereas the variability task required the differentiation of low- variability (items that are the same as one another) vs. high-variability (items that are different from one another) the pigeons must also peck at the screen again for the low vs. high variability batch displayed, based on the background screen colour, similar to the numerical task. After the end of these two trials, a novel item generalization test was given, which combined the previous tasks into different assortments (low-variability-high number/ high- variability- low number, etc.); Further testing the capabilities of memory and flexibility with novel item variables the pigeons were unaccustomed with. The results reveal pigeons have flexibility in switching between tasks accurately, with a 91 and 84 percent accuracy rate for the numerosity and variability tasks, respectively, while the novel generalization test had at least a 90 percent accuracy rate. This study provides strong evidence because of the unique experimental design of manipulating trials and novel concepts, further assessing task-switching in the avian brain.  This study is important as it highlights avian brain capabilities of complex cognitive skills likewise of executive functioning, suggesting birds can plan, organize, and set goals for future actions similar to “advanced” mammalian species, rather than relying on instinct alone. 

Rinnert et al. (2019) conducted an experimental study to reveal the neural similarities between the brains of a bird and a primate using Carrion crows as an example. The study focused on the processing of spatial memory, using the avian area of the brain known as nidopallium Caudolaterale (NCL), comparable with the prefrontal cortex (PFC) found in primates. The experiment required the crows to identify the spatial orientation of eight grey squares around a circular axis on a digital touchscreen. The crows were trained to look at a centrally positioned vertical line during the fixation period to maintain a stable field of vision. A grey square appeared at any location of the circular axis during the cue period, the square disappeared, and the crows were required to recall the squares’ location during an unspecified time delay of 1-3 seconds. After this delay period, the fixation line was flipped from vertical to horizontal, signaling the birds to respond where the square was located within 900 ms (response period); delays later than 900 ms were not rewarded. The results revealed the birds performed above 80 percent in identifying the correct location of squares during the trail, approx. 50 percent of neurons in the NCL contributed to the spatial locations of these squares. Moreover, 40 percent of neurons also responded during the delay period, which was tasked in memory coding of the location of the square rather than preparing for a response, indicating the use of the NCL for making predicting future choices, incredibly similar to how the PCL is structured. This study provides strong evidence because of the experimental manipulation of testing neuron activity concerning spatial memory rather than simply correlating spatial memory with experimental task results. This study is interesting as it highlights the remarkable similarities between the neural characteristics of a bird and primate brain, recontextualizing the idea of what defines bird intellect.

The intelligence lecture covered how the avian cerebrum is not as folded as the human cerebrum and thus was taken as evidence that birds do not possess intellect. However, in recent studies, the avian cerebrum can perform complex functions such as problem solving and memory formation akin to the mammalian cortex. The Castro et al. (2016) paper illustrates how pigeons can demonstrate skills related to executive functioning based on an assortment of tasks that tested memory and task switching of these pigeons. Although the experiment only looked at pigeons as an example, the study still provides an outlook into the avian brain and reveals that despite lacking a cortex, birds can still perform complex cognitive functions that were once considered uniquely “mammalian”. Furthermore, the intelligence lecture discussed how corvid tool use rivals that of the primate, as crows and ravens can craft certain tools to suit specific needs based on meta-tool use. However, Rinnert et al. (2019), demonstrates the similarities between primates extend far beyond that of tool use by studying the neural pathways involved in spatial memory of crows, the study found striking neural resemblances in the circuitry of the avian nidopallium with the prefrontal cortex of primates, hence suggesting corvids and primates have analogous modes of intelligence. The two papers focus a lens onto the capabilities of what the avian brain can accomplish, revealing that there is more than meets the eye of what truly avian intelligence can achieve.