3 ms·

Can Crows Make Mental Pictures of Tools?

• louithethrid 8y ago
  I sometimes wonder how a crow would behave- if it where given the ability to search the internet. If you gave a species the tools of tomorrow today, allowing them to leap over aeons.
• gvd 8y ago
  Of course we can
• dvtv75 8y ago
  “Could they look at a tool and just based on mental image of the tool — can they recreate that tool design?” Dr. Taylor said. “That’s what we set out to test, and that’s what our results show.” I can't. I'm unable to visualize things (I believe I have Aphantasia) so when I create something, I have to do it a piece at a time and see if it satisfies the requirements of each step. Makes for a lot of trial-and-error.
  • derefr 8y ago
    Fun anecdata: I have ADHD, and aphantasia. Regular stimulant-class drugs make the aphantasia a bit less—I become able to picture things for about a second at a time before the image “flickers away.” The tyrosine-hydroxylase promoter Bromantane (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromantane https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromantane) completely fixes the aphantasia for as long as I’m taking it. (As well, the equivalent happens for music—I go from being unable to improvise even two notes of pleasant melody, to being able to hum decent songs, and also “rap”—i.e. improvise poetry with correct rhyme and meter. All in a flow state where I’m not really providing any conscious executive control to direct the results, only to constrain them.)