Do Animals Know the Big Picture in Instinctive Multi-step Processes?

[Fotheringay-Phipps]

For example, suppose a bird is building a nest. Does the bird know when it puts down the first twig that it is in the process of building a nest? Or does it feel an urge/instinct to put down a twig, and then a renewed instinct to put down another, and so on?

Or generally: when an animal does something with multiple steps where the entire practical purpose is the end goal, does it realize upfront that it will do the later steps, or does it do the initial steps with no knowledge of what’s to come and only decide to do the later steps later?

I suppose it would vary by creature and process. Still, some examples from common situations might be interesting.

[Rain_Soaked]

Nova did a series of programs looking at various animals such as crows, dogs and dolphins.
In one experiment, a crow had to perform a number of tasks in a set order to get some food. It had done the tasks each independently before but this time it had to do them all in the correct order to get the food. It accomplished it.

In another, a parrot was trained to open a lock through a number of steps. They could re-arrange the steps and also make some steps not do anything. The parrot when confronted with this was able to do the steps in the correct order and, most importantly, skipped the unnecessary steps.

A very interesting series.

I believe the series was “Inside Animal Minds”.

[Senegoid]

@Rain_Soaked

Nova did a series of programs looking at various animals such as crows, dogs and dolphins.

I want to know what kinds of problems they had for the dolphins!

Dolphins are known to be able to do some relatively high-level thinking (subject to all the usual debates about how critters “think” in general).

There are plenty of anecdotes about clever things that chimpanzees do as well, that often seem to imply some kind of planning ahead.

[Ambrosio_Spinola]

Douglas Hofstadter had an anecdote in one of his books about a type of parasitic wasp. It would dig a burrow, go find a caterpillar, paralyze it, then fly it back to the hole. Before putting the caterpillar in the burrow, it would first leave the caterpillar on the outside and go in to check that it was still clear, then drag the caterpillar in there, lay eggs on it, bury the whole thing and leave. Researchers examining this behavior would move the caterpillar back several yards while the wasp was checking the burrow, and while the wasp was able to find the caterpillar again right away, it would leave the caterpillar on the edge of the burrow and go back in to check that it was clear, although it had just gotten finished checking that. Researchers could apparently repeat the process until they just got bored of the whole thing. I’ve heard that some arthropods (especially jumping spiders of the genius Portia) have been noted to show some learning ability, but on the whole most of them really seem to just go down a checklist with their instinctive behaviors.

[Smeghead]

@Fotheringay-Phipps

For example, suppose a bird is building a nest. Does the bird know when it puts down the first twig that it is in the process of building a nest? Or does it feel an urge/instinct to put down a twig, and then a renewed instinct to put down another, and so on?

Or generally: when an animal does something with multiple steps where the entire practical purpose is the end goal, does it realize upfront that it will do the later steps, or does it do the initial steps with no knowledge of what’s to come and only decide to do the later steps later?

I suppose it would vary by creature and process. Still, some examples from common situations might be interesting.

Perhaps you can suggest an experimental approach that would allow us to unambiguously tell what’s going on inside an animal’s head.

[jtur88]

I think it might be something like when I leave the house, I have a feeling that I am forgetting something. When birds do not add a stick to a nest, they feel like they are forgetting something.