SPATIAL MEMORY OF FOOD-STORING TITS (PARUS-ATER AND PARUS-ATRICAPILLUS) - COMPARISON OF STORING AND NONSTORING TASKS

Experiment 1 showed that after 1.5-2 hr black-capped chickadees Parus atricapillus and coal tits P. ater are better at discriminating between sites where they have stored a seed and ones simply visited than at discriminating between sites where they have seen a seed behind a window and ones visited. In Experiment 2, the authors compared chickadees' accuracy of return after 1.5 hr to either seeds behind windows or seeds without windows in front of them. The probability of returning to seeds behind windows was lower than that of returning to stored seeds, but stored seeds and seed without windows were visited with equal probability. In Experiment 3, neither stored seeds nor seeds without windows were forgotten after 26 hr. Memory for stored food is likely to be subserved by the same memory-system as that for encountered food. -from Authors