The effects of requiring different response strategies following caching in Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana)

Alan C. Kamil, Russell P. Balda, Deborah J. Olson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Clark's nutcrackers use spatial memory to recover stored food in the field and have performed very well in laboratory tests of spatial memory. During the present experiment, two groups of nutcrackers cached seeds every 4 days. Following each cache session, the stay group was tested with seeds in their caches; the shift group found seeds in novel sites. The stay group performed accurately throughout the experiment, but the shift group gave no indication of being able to learn to avoid sites where they had stored seeds. These results suggest that although nutcrackers can learn to shift away from remembered locations during some memory experiments, they cannot learn to shift away from cache sites. This raises interesting questions about the relationship between task characteristics, response strategies, and memory.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)373-378
Number of pages6
JournalAnimal Learning & Behavior
Volume22
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1994
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Animal Science and Zoology
  • General Psychology
  • Behavioral Neuroscience

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