No evidence for future planning in Canada jays (Perisoreus canadensis)
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In the past 20 years, research in animal cognition has challenged the belief that complex cognitive processes are uniquely human. At the forefront of these challenges has been research on mental time travel and future planning in jays. We tested whether Canada jays (Perisoreus canadensis) demonstrated future planning, using a procedure that has produced evidence of future planning in California scrub-jays. Future planning in this procedure is caching in locations where the bird will predictably experience a lack of food in the future. Canada jays showed no evidence of future planning in this sense and instead cached in the location where food was usually available, opposite to the behaviour described for California scrub-jays. We provide potential explanations for these differing results adding to the recent debates about the role of complex cognition in corvid caching strategies.
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In caching experiments, scrub-jays, but not Canada jays, preferentially cache in places where they have learned to expect not to receive food the following morning, indicating future planning.
“In caching experiments, scrub-jays [158], but not Canada jays [159], have been shown to plan for the future by preferentially caching in places where they have learned to expect not to receive food the following morning.”
From Is episodic-like memory <i>like</i> episodic memory? (2024) · cites this paper as [159]
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Is episodic-like memory <i>like</i> episodic memory?
Davies, J. R., & Clayton, N. S. (2024) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2023.0397 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
- Authors
- Martin, R. J., Martin, G. K., Roberts, W. A., & Sherry, D. F.
- Affiliations
- Western University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Martin, R. Jeffrey
- Venue
- Biology Letters
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2021-12
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 20210504-20210504
- ISSN
- 1744-9561 (ISSN-L)
- 1744-957X
- PMC
- PMC8651407
- OpenAlex
- W4200461461
- Cited by
- 5
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 0.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Biology Letters (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DRYAD (public-domain)
- Funders
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (105542)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- Canada jay, Perisoreus canadensis, future planning, mental time travel, food caching, corvid cognition, animal cognition, caching strategies
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Canada, Feeding Behavior, Food, Humans, Songbirds, Passeriformes
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