Flexible decision-making relative to reward quality and tool functionality in Goffin cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana).

ABSTRACT: Decisions involving the use of tools may require an agent to consider more levels of relational complexity than merely deciding between an immediate and a delayed option. Using a new experimental approach featuring two different types of tools, two apparatuses as well as two different types of reward, we investigated the Goffin cockatoos' ability to make flexible and profitable decisions within five different setups. Paralleling previous results in primates, most birds overcame immediate drives in favor of future gains; some did so even if tool use involved additional work effort. Furthermore, at the group level subjects maximized their profit by simultaneously considering both the quality of an immediate versus a delayed food reward (accessible with a tool) and the functionality of the av

SUBMITTER: Laumer IB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4917853 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature