biostudies-literatureUnknown129(3)Ibanez de Aldecoa PThe ability to gain information from one situation, acquire new skills and/or perfect existing ones, and subsequently apply them to a new situation is a key element in behavioural flexibility and a hallmark of innovation. A flexible agent is expected to store these skills and apply them to contexts different from that in which learning occurred. Goffin's cockatoos (<i>Cacatua goffiniana</i>) are highly innovative parrots renowned for their problem-solving and tool-using skills and are thus excellent candidates to study this phenomenon. We hypothesized that birds allowed to use a tool in a larger variety of contingencies would acquire a broader expertise in handling it, facilitating its transfer to new tasks. In our study, we compared the performance of two groups of captive Goffin's cockatEthology : formerly Zeitschrift fur Tierpsychologie133-145https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC10108129biostudies-literatureRatcheting up tool innovation in Goffin's cockatoos (<i>Cacatua goffiniana</i>): The effect of contextually diverse prior experience.PMC10108129Ibanez de Aldecoa PAuersperg AMIGriffin ASTebbich SfalseRatcheting up tool innovation in Goffin's cockatoos (<i>Cacatua goffiniana</i>): The effect of contextually diverse prior experience.The ability to gain information from one situation, acquire new skills and/or perfect existing ones, and subsequently apply them to a new situation is a key element in behavioural flexibility and a hallmark of innovation. A flexible agent is expected to store these skills and apply them to contexts different from that in which learning occurred. Goffin's cockatoos (<i>Cacatua goffiniana</i>) are highly innovative parrots renowned for their problem-solving and tool-using skills and are thus excellent candidates to study this phenomenon. We hypothesized that birds allowed to use a tool in a larger variety of contingencies would acquire a broader expertise in handling it, facilitating its transfer to new tasks. In our study, we compared the performance of two groups of captive Goffin's cockat2023-01-01T00:00:00Z2023 Mar2025-04-18T14:51:54.541Z2025-04-07T01:09:15.175ZS-EPMC101081293708233410.1111/eth.13351