Parrots remember their own actions
This ability is an important prerequisite for self-representation and episodic memory
Blue-throated macaws can remember their own past actions. This ability is an important prerequisite for mental self-representation and episodic memory and has now been demonstrated for the first time in birds. The study involved scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence (in foundation) in collaboration with the Loro Parque Fundación at Loro Parque: Animal Embassy in Tenerife. They show that blue-throated macaws can remember and repeat self-performed actions for up to 15 seconds. They can also apply the repetition prompt to new situations.
Three blue-throated macaws (Ara glaucogularis) were trained by a team of scientists led by Auguste von Bayern, group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence (in foundation) to repeat previously learned actions on command. During testing, trials were either repeated once, twice or not at all to ensure that the parrots relied on their memory of the last action and did not simply learn to always perform each behavior twice by default. "All blue-throated macaws repeated correctly only when requested," said Sara Torres Ortiz of Auguste von Bayern's research group and lead author of the study.
Next, the scientists gradually increased the time delay between the first action and the request to repeat. The parrots were able to remember their last action for up to 15 seconds and repeat it. This time span corresponds to the short-term memory of some mammalian species, such as sea lions or dolphins in the same test, as shown by other researchers.
The scientists then investigated whether the parrots could understand and generalize the abstract concept of the command "repeat." The animals were asked to repeat new actions that they had never been asked to repeat before and all the animals were able to successfully apply the "repeat rule" to new situations as well. "This means that the blue-throated macaws were capable of generalizing the underlying rule and that the parrots' response to the "repeat" command was not a mere result of intensive training," Torres Ortiz said.
Auguste von Bayern adds, "The results suggest that memory for one's own actions, has evolved in this group of birds. It`s an important prerequisite for self-representation and probably brings some evolutionary advantages." The memory ability could help parrots coordinate joint actions with conspecifics, such as raising offspring or finding new feeding sites.
Parrots remember their own actions
The blue-throated macaws used in the behavioral study came from the Loro Parque Fundación, which maintains the world's largest keeping of parrot species for conservation purposes. The Loro Parque Foundation supports conservation, as well as research and education on biodiversity conservation. The study took place at the Max Planck Research Station for Comparative Cognition Research in the Animal Embassy at Loro Parque, Tenerife, where all visitors to Loro Parque could observe the ongoing cognition research live.
