Tool Use
WWTF CS18-023: The innovation problem: Factors influencing innovative tool use in human infants and cockatoos
Understanding the environmental and social factors that drove the evolution of intelligence is a central focus of cognitive biology, and tool use plays a key role in this debate. We investigate tool use in birds and human infants, guided by Tinbergen’s four questions (mechanism, ontogeny, function, and evolution).
Our research takes a comparative approach, using both laboratory and field studies. Current model species include Darwin’s finches, Goffin’s cockatoos, and human children (in collaboration with Alice Auersperg vetdoc.vu-wien.ac.at/vetdoc/suche.person_uebersicht. These studies provide insights into the cognitive mechanisms underlying tool use, the development of these abilities, and their adaptive value.
(c) P. Ibanez