bjoern.brembs.net - a neuroscientist's blog: News / Comments / Clever rooks

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bjoern
on 24 Apr : 02:06

IIRC, the front of the car is to the right in this diagram, I'm not quite sure anymore. But yes, the numbers coincide with the cylinders, so there is a way in which you can align the diagram with your engine.

Anonymous
on 23 Apr : 21:10

Hey Bjoern. I have a question about your wiring diagram on the MAF conversion. Is the diagram of the injector wiring from the top view of the engine? Because I'm guessing the injector numbers don't coinside with the cylinder numbers? Thanks

bjoern
on 13 Apr : 08:44

Awesome, thanks. Just left a comment at the article and will write a short blog post, too.

Anonymous
on 13 Apr : 07:47

They have a feature to suggest interesting stuff, though it might fit in nicely with the other stories they run.

bjoern
on 13 Apr : 07:05

Sweet! How'd you get that there?

Matthias W.
on 12 Apr : 07:08

You should be getting some traffic right now: [link]

Anonymous
on 31 Jan : 13:07

temperture location

bjoern
on 09 Nov : 10:44

Shoot me an email if there's anything specific I can do for you!

bjoern
on 09 Nov : 10:43

The auto tranny is a problem, because you have a very limited choice of computers. Unfortunately, I have no idea about auto trannies and can't help you there. Conversion to standard is a big deal and not for the faint of heart.
I bought a book on Ford EFI which I found to be very helpful and I learned a lot from it. I think it was this one:
[link]

lightning_msd
on 07 Nov : 02:56

hey bjoern, ive had your maf conversion in my favorites forever... i finally rebuilt the engine, but put in a lumpier cam, along with some other minor mods, so now basically, it runs, but with the old map sensor, not so good. thats alot of technical words, and all ive worked on up to this point is oldies with carbs and no EFI, but im learning alot and im loving it. i have one difference, but i dont think it bothers anything, i have an automatic transmission, so if i install the maf system out of a newer pickup it may want to read the e40d when i just have an aod... unless maybe i can find one with a standard transmission?? i dunno, im getting so confused with all this technology, i would like to do it step by step just as you did. can you help me somehow?

View all posts (232)

I support PLoS

Clever rooks

science |

There's a new paper out by the group of Nicky Clayton, Cambridge, in the April 4 issue of Current Biology. I know Nicky from the Social Science Research Council sponsored workshop "Behavioral Organization in Animals" in Bodega Bay (see program).
In their study, the researchers used the popular �trap-tube� task to assay the extent of physical cognition (specifically, an understanding of the operation of gravity) in rooks. In the experiment, food is placed inside a horizontal tube which has a vertical, blind-ended tube attached to it. The animals had to push (or pull) the item from the appropriate end of the tube using a stick, so that they do not lose the item in the trap. Seven out of eight rooks learned the task and all seven passed a transfer test, in which the food had to be dropped into the trap to be accessible (see picture).

The authors hypothesize that the rooks have a sense of gravity ("physical cognition") and may use learning to abstract rules to acquire it.
There was a fairly recent (2002) report in the journal Science by Weir, Chappell and Kacelnik, who showed that New Caledonian crows are able to shape unfamiliar materials to create a usable tool for a specific task.
These corvids don't have birdbrains, it seems

Tuesday 04 April 2006 - 09:59:49 -----

comments: 3

rooks

Comments

Matt
Guest

10 May : 20:16 |
Hi, I read that article too. I guess I just dont get the big difference. The 'recursive' sequences were of the form AB, AABB, AAABBB, etc. But I fail to see why those sequences require a radically different form of recognition. On the other hand, the fact that the tamarins couldn't learn these sequences is interesting. I would be interested in your comments. Thanks, Matt

bjoern

Comments: 63
Location: Berlin, Germany

11 May : 03:49 |
For us, it doesn't seem to be such a big deal to differentiate AABB from ABAB. I guess this is because it's so engrained in our language. But for animals, it's not that easy. I guess that's because both sequences contain the same number of As and Bs and so are very similar in "content". My prediction would be that quite a few species will be able to discriminate ABAB from AABB, but you would need to train them operantly, i.e. they need to really have to work for the food and be engaged. Moreover, you might need to use very specific stimuli that match the sort of stimuli the animals are faced with in their "normal" life (as the song sounds for the starlings).
It may be that the researchers studying the tamarins also thought "ha, this should be no big deal for them, let's see if they can do it!". More studies clearly need to be performed on more species to find out if the distinction really is difficult, or maybe we're just not asking the animals in the right way.
Does that address your line of thought?

bjoern

Comments: 63
Location: Berlin, Germany

11 May : 03:49 |
BTW, shouldn't these comments have goe to the starling entry? Did you accidentally post yours in this entry, or is there a bug in the comments function?

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