As problem solving typically depends on perceptually-based relations ( Povinelli and Henley, 2020), pitting the actual relevance against the apparent relevance of these relations provides a measure of flexibility in problem solving across species.Ī recent study on an orangutan and chimpanzees suggests that great apes flexibly use relevant experiences to solve a novel problem, even if interrupted by irrelevant experiences ( Bobrowicz et al., 2020). Behavioral flexibility, in turn, supports technical innovativeness, an ability to innovate new tools and their applications, which seems to require a combination of previous experiences to solve a new problem ( Call, 2013 Auersperg, 2015) and flexible adaptation to demands of the problem ( Laumer et al., 2017).įlexibility in physical problem solving draws on (1) matching perceptual cues in the present task with similar cues, experienced in the past, (2) combining previous experiences to guide responses in the present, and (3) adjusting one's own responses based on the perceptual feedback from the present task. Such inhibition of irrelevant memories in favor of relevant ones is considered a hallmark of human memory flexibility ( Anderson, 2005), and, arguably, supports behavioral flexibility, the ability to switch from a previously rewarding behavior when changes in the environment occur ( Lea et al., 2020). In such cases, inappropriate memories should be suppressed in favor of memories of another situation, related to the causal structure and not to the visual similarity ( Anderson and Spellman, 1996 Anderson et al., 2016). For example, some problems might appear very similar, but in fact differ in mechanism or causal structure. However, when several salient but irrelevant properties overlap and relevant properties are more subtle, the retrieved memory may be inappropriate for the immediate problem. Such overlaps can cue retrieval of experiences and prime behaviors that were productive under similar circumstances ( Tulving and Pearlstone, 1966 Tulving, 1974). In humans, long-term memories can guide problem solving, given sufficient overlap between a past and a new situation. Our result supports the hypothesis that flexible memory functions may promote technical innovations. This suggests that selecting relevant experiences over irrelevant experiences guides problem solving at least in some Goffin's cockatoos. Here, we show that proficient tool-users among Goffin's cockatoos-an innovative tool-using species-could use a relevant previous experience to solve a novel, partially overlapping problem, even despite a conflicting, potentially misleading, experience. This capacity has been proposed to promote technical innovativeness and thus warrants investigations of such a mechanism in other innovative species. Using relevant, while inhibiting irrelevant, memories to solve novel problems is a hallmark of behavioral flexibility in humans and has recently been demonstrated in great apes. Some features match the qualities of previous situations stored in long-term memory and therefore trigger their retrieval. Novel problems often partially overlap with familiar ones. 4Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.3Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
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