Ravens attribute visual access to unseen competitiors

Ravens anticipate what other ravens can see, cognitive biologists Thomas Bugnyar and Stephan Reber of the University Vienna found out in collaboration with the philosopher Cameron Buckner (University of Houston, Texas). Bugnyar and his team show for the first time unequivocally that animals do not rely on behavioural cues to pass an attribution task. The findings support the assumption that, aside humans, some animals may develop a basic Theory of Mind. The results of this study have been published in the scientific journal "Nature ". Recent studies purported to demonstrate such a basic 'Theory of Mind' in non-human animals like chimpanzees, monkeys, and corvids. However, these studies remain controversial because they share a common confound: the other's head orientation or line of gaze, which could serve as an associative cue. The current study is the first to rule out this confound: Thomas Bugnyar from the Department of Cognitive Biology at the University of Vienna and his colleagues tested ravens for their understanding of 'seeing' as mental state, using the birds' predisposition to compete for hidden food.