'Smartness' in birds and primates: Consistency in cognitive performance in ravens, keas and chimpanzees

• Applicant: Dr. Martin Schmelz
• Subject Area: Sensory and Behavioural Biology
• Term: from 2016 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 319427943

What can individual behavioral differences tell us about the evolution of cognition? In chimpanzees, there are individuals that perform consistently well in tasks in which they have to learn arbitrary relationships while there are other individuals that are consistently proficient in tasks in which they have to infer causal relations. Additionally, temperament and inhibitory control seem to correlate with individual cognitive skills. In my project, I will present ravens, keas and chimpanzees with an identical test battery in which they receive a certain number of small-scale tasks in five different domains: temperament, learning, inhibition, inferences and problem solving. With this structural test battery I can address two big topics: 1) I want to compare distantly-related bird and primate taxa that are known for their remarkable and apparently similar cognitive abilities. My test battery allows a direct and systematic comparison of corvids, parrots and great apes in a way it has never been done before. It has been argued that the cognitive skills of those taxa present a case of convergent evolution. With a detailed analysis of their similarities and differences I can make an important contribution to this hypothesis. 2) I want to show consistent individual differences within and between the five domains. I am especially interested in the question if animals that have to solve novel problems rely more on their learning skills or their inference skills. This would be an important contribution to the field that could answer longstanding questions about the structure and evolution of cognition.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: Austria
• Host: Professor Dr. Thomas Bugnyar