Crows flexibly apply statistical inferences based on previous experience.
Curr Biol
; 33(15): 3238-3243.e3, 2023 08 07.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37369211
Statistical inference, the ability to use limited information to draw conclusions about the likelihood of an event, is critical for decision-making during uncertainty. The ability to make statistical inferences was thought to be a uniquely human skill requiring verbal instruction and mathematical reasoning.1 However, basic inferences have been demonstrated in both preliterate and pre-numerate individuals,2,3,4,5,6,7 as well as non-human primates.8 More recently, the ability to make statistical inferences has been extended to members outside of the primate lineage in birds.9,10 True statistical inference requires subjects use relative rather than absolute frequency of previously experienced events. Here, we show that crows can relate memorized reward probabilities to infer reward-maximizing decisions. Two crows were trained to associate multiple reward probabilities ranging from 10% to 90% to arbitrary stimuli. When later faced with the choice between various stimulus combinations, crows retrieved the reward probabilities associated with individual stimuli from memory and used them to gain maximum reward. The crows showed behavioral distance and size effects when judging reward values, indicating that the crows represented probabilities as abstract magnitudes. When controlling for absolute reward frequency, crows still made reward-maximizing choices, which is the signature of true statistical inference. Our study provides compelling evidence of decision-making by relative reward frequency in a statistical inference task.
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Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Cuervos
Límite:
Animals
/
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Curr Biol
Asunto de la revista:
BIOLOGIA
Año:
2023
Tipo del documento:
Article
Pais de publicación:
Reino Unido