Insightful problem solving in an Asian elephant.

The "aha" moment or the sudden arrival of the solution to a problem is a common human experience. Spontaneous problem solving without evident trial and error behavior in humans and other animals has been referred to as insight. Surprisingly, elephants, thought to be highly intelligent, hav...

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Autores principales:	Preston Foerder, Marie Galloway, Tony Barthel, Donald E Moore, Diana Reiss
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/17587d40de0e4e9c83b6872e1d92d3d1
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:17587d40de0e4e9c83b6872e1d92d3d12021-11-18T06:47:41ZInsightful problem solving in an Asian elephant.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0023251https://doaj.org/article/17587d40de0e4e9c83b6872e1d92d3d12011-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21876741/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203The "aha" moment or the sudden arrival of the solution to a problem is a common human experience. Spontaneous problem solving without evident trial and error behavior in humans and other animals has been referred to as insight. Surprisingly, elephants, thought to be highly intelligent, have failed to exhibit insightful problem solving in previous cognitive studies. We tested whether three Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) would use sticks or other objects to obtain food items placed out-of-reach and overhead. Without prior trial and error behavior, a 7-year-old male Asian elephant showed spontaneous problem solving by moving a large plastic cube, on which he then stood, to acquire the food. In further testing he showed behavioral flexibility, using this technique to reach other items and retrieving the cube from various locations to use as a tool to acquire food. In the cube's absence, he generalized this tool utilization technique to other objects and, when given smaller objects, stacked them in an attempt to reach the food. The elephant's overall behavior was consistent with the definition of insightful problem solving. Previous failures to demonstrate this ability in elephants may have resulted not from a lack of cognitive ability but from the presentation of tasks requiring trunk-held sticks as potential tools, thereby interfering with the trunk's use as a sensory organ to locate the targeted food.Preston FoerderMarie GallowayTony BarthelDonald E MooreDiana ReissPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 8, p e23251 (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Preston Foerder Marie Galloway Tony Barthel Donald E Moore Diana Reiss Insightful problem solving in an Asian elephant.
description	The "aha" moment or the sudden arrival of the solution to a problem is a common human experience. Spontaneous problem solving without evident trial and error behavior in humans and other animals has been referred to as insight. Surprisingly, elephants, thought to be highly intelligent, have failed to exhibit insightful problem solving in previous cognitive studies. We tested whether three Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) would use sticks or other objects to obtain food items placed out-of-reach and overhead. Without prior trial and error behavior, a 7-year-old male Asian elephant showed spontaneous problem solving by moving a large plastic cube, on which he then stood, to acquire the food. In further testing he showed behavioral flexibility, using this technique to reach other items and retrieving the cube from various locations to use as a tool to acquire food. In the cube's absence, he generalized this tool utilization technique to other objects and, when given smaller objects, stacked them in an attempt to reach the food. The elephant's overall behavior was consistent with the definition of insightful problem solving. Previous failures to demonstrate this ability in elephants may have resulted not from a lack of cognitive ability but from the presentation of tasks requiring trunk-held sticks as potential tools, thereby interfering with the trunk's use as a sensory organ to locate the targeted food.
format	article
author	Preston Foerder Marie Galloway Tony Barthel Donald E Moore Diana Reiss
author_facet	Preston Foerder Marie Galloway Tony Barthel Donald E Moore Diana Reiss
author_sort	Preston Foerder
title	Insightful problem solving in an Asian elephant.
title_short	Insightful problem solving in an Asian elephant.
title_full	Insightful problem solving in an Asian elephant.
title_fullStr	Insightful problem solving in an Asian elephant.
title_full_unstemmed	Insightful problem solving in an Asian elephant.
title_sort	insightful problem solving in an asian elephant.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/17587d40de0e4e9c83b6872e1d92d3d1
work_keys_str_mv	AT prestonfoerder insightfulproblemsolvinginanasianelephant AT mariegalloway insightfulproblemsolvinginanasianelephant AT tonybarthel insightfulproblemsolvinginanasianelephant AT donaldemoore insightfulproblemsolvinginanasianelephant AT dianareiss insightfulproblemsolvinginanasianelephant
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Insightful problem solving in an Asian elephant.

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