Crows are smarter than you think

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-12/uoi-cas121614.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 18-Dec-2014

Contact: Ed Wasserman
University of Iowa
Crows are smarter than you think
A study involving the University of Iowa finds crows join humans, apes and monkeys in exhiting advanced relational thinking

Crows have long been heralded for their high intelligence - they can remember faces, use tools and communicate in sophisticated ways.

But a newly published study finds crows also have the brain power to solve higher-order, relational-matching tasks, and they can do so spontaneously. That means crows join humans, apes and monkeys in exhibiting advanced relational thinking, according to the research.

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These relational matching trials were arranged in such a way that neither test pairs precisely matched the sample pair, thereby eliminating control by physical identity. For example, the crows might have to choose two same-sized circles rather than two different-sized circles when the sample card displayed two same-sized squares.

What surprised the researchers was not only that the crows could correctly perform the relational matches, but that they did so spontaneously--without explicit training.

"That is the crux of the discovery," Wasserman says. "Honestly, if it was only by brute force that the crows showed this learning, then it would have been an impressive result. But this feat was spontaneous."

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