'Walnut Test' Reveals Parrots Are Shrewd Investors
Parrots can make economic decisions to maximize their profits -- even if that means they had to resist the urge to choose a low-value food reward in favor of a high-value food reward later
One of the parrots that participated in this study, an African grey parrot, Psittacus erithacus, contemplates her choices. In this study, 33 parrots of four different species demonstrated their shrewd profit-making abilities to scientists. (Credit: Max-Planck Comparative Cognition)
You may be familiar with a famous 1972 study by psychologist Walter Mischel that examined impulse-control in children (ref). Now known as the Stanford marshmallow experiments, these studies offered a child the choice between one small food reward, provided immediately, or two small food rewards, delayed until after the tester returned to the room following a 15 minute absence. Although the food reward was usually a cookie or a pretzel, it sometimes was a marshmallow.
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