Parrots struggle when told to do something other than mimic their peers

Many studies have been conducted about the ability of inhuman animals to simulate transitional actions, which have a goal. It is unlikely that any studies have shown that animals are also capable of non -transitional actions. Despite the fact that non-transitional actions do not have a special goal, imitating these non-conscious movements still helps in socialization and strengthens the bonds for both animals and people.

Zoologist Ash Holdar and colleagues from the research group of comparative knowledge worked with blue Ara, who are under threat of disappearance in Loro Parque Fundación in Tenerife. They taught the Ara to perform two non -interpretation actions, and then created a conflict: two neighboring Ara asked for different actions.

Holdard and her team found that individual birds are more likely to perform the same unpretated action as the bird next to them, regardless of what they were asked to do. This may mean that the ARRs have mirror neurons, the same neurons that shoot people when we observe non -transitional movements and make us imitate them (at least if these neurons function as some think that they do).

But it was not on purpose

Parrots are already known for their facial expressions, such as the capture of the object. Since they are very social creatures with brains that are large compared to the size of their bodies, they made excellent objects for research, which measured how susceptible they are to copy non -transitional actions.

Mirroring of non -transitional actions, also called automatic imitation, can be measured using a test for a symbolic composition (SRC) of a stimulus (SRC). These tests measure the response time between a vision of non -interpretation (visual stimulus) and imitating it (action). The faster response time indicates a stronger reaction to the stimulus. They also measure the accuracy with which they reproduce the stimulus.

So far, only three studies have been conducted, which showed that inhuman animals are capable of copying non -transitional actions, but non -transitional actions in these studies were by -products of transitional actions. Only one of them was focused on the types of parrots. Haldar and her team will be the first to be directly checked on the mimic of animals of non -transitional actions.