Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-kw2vx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-28T06:36:58.987Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mapping Out the Landscape: A Multi-dimensional Approach to Behavioral Innovation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2022

Rachael L. Brown Open the ORCID record for Rachael L. Brown [Opens in a new window]
Rachael L. Brown*
Affiliation:
Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences School of Philosophy, RSSS College of Arts and Social Sciences Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
*
Email: rachael.brown@anu.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Transformations in the “behavioral innovativeness” of species—broadly, the capacity to generate new or novel behaviors—have been associated with significant evolutionary shifts in cognition by both philosophers and scientists. Whilst intuitively and theoretically appealing, this assumption lacks strong empirical support. One barrier is the absence of a good measure of behavioral innovation. This paper offers a solution to this problem by breaking down innovation into its components and presenting a novel multi-dimensional framework for characterising and comparing putative cases of behavioral innovation.

Type
Symposia Paper
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 89 , Issue 5 , December 2022 , pp. 1176 - 1185
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aplin, Lucy M., Sheldon, Ben C., and Morand-Ferron, Julie. 2013. “Milk Bottles Revisited: Social Learning and Individual Variation in the Blue Tit, Cyanistes Caeruleus.” Animal Behaviour 85 (6):1225–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ANBEHAV.2013.03.009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arbilly, Michal, and Laland, Kevin N.. 2017. “The Magnitude of Innovation and Its Evolution in Social Animals.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 284 (1848):20162385. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boden, Margaret A. 2004. The Creative Mind : Myths and Mechanisms. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carr, Kayleigh, Kendal, Rachel L, and Flynn, Emma G. 2016. “Eureka!: What Is Innovation, How Does It Develop, and Who Does It?” Child Development 87 (5):1505–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, J., and Hinde, R. A.. 1949. “The Opening of Milk Bottles by Birds.” British Birds 42:347–57.Google Scholar
Hinde, R. A., and Fisher, J.. 1951. “Further Observations of the Opening of Milk Bottles by Birds.” British Birds 44:392–96.Google Scholar
Hunt, Gavin R., and Gray, Russell D.. 2004. “The Crafting of Hook Tools by Wild New Caledonian Crows.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 271:S88–S90. https://doi.org/10.1098/RSBL.2003.0085.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kawai, Masao. 1965. “Newly-Acquired Pre-Cultural Behavior of the Natural Troop of Japanese Monkeys on Koshima Islet.” Primates 6 (1):1–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01794457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kummer, Hans, and Goodall, Jane. 1985. “Conditions of Innovative Behaviour in Primates.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences 308 (1135):203–14.Google Scholar
Overington, Sarah E., Cauchard, Laure, Ann Côté, Kimberly, and Lefebvre, Louis. 2011. “Innovative Foraging Behaviour in Birds: What Characterizes an Innovator?” Behavioural Processes 87 (3):274–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.BEPROC.2011.06.002.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramsey, Grant, Bastian, Meredith L., and Van schaik, Carel. 2007. “Animal Innovation Defined and Operationalized.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 30 (4):393–407. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X07002373.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reader, Simon M., and Laland, Kevin N.. 2002. “From the Cover: Social Intelligence, Innovation, and Enhanced Brain Size in Primates.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 99 (7):4436. https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.062041299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reader, Simon M., and Laland, Kevin N.. 2003. “Animal Innovation: An Introduction.” In Animal Innovation, edited by Simon, M. Reader and Laland, Kevin. N., 3–35. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/ACPROF:OSO/9780198526223.003.0001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reader, Simon M., Morand-Ferron, Julie, and Flynn, Emma. 2016. “Animal and Human Innovation: Novel Problems and Novel Solutions.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 371 (1690):20150182. https://doi.org/10.1098/RSTB.2015.0182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rutz, Christian, Shoko Sugasawa, Jessica E. M. van der Wal, Barbara C. Klump, and St Clair, James J. H.. 2016. “Tool Bending in New Caledonian Crows.” Royal Society Open Science 3 (8):160439. https://doi.org/10.1098/RSOS.160439.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shettleworth, Sara J. 2012. “Do Animals Have Insight, and What Is Insight Anyway?” Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology 66 (4):217–26. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Starzak, Tobias Benjamin, and David Gray, Russell. 2021. “Towards Ending the Animal Cognition War: A Three-Dimensional Model of Causal Cognition.” Biology and Philosophy 36 (2):1–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10539-021-09779-1/FIGURES/2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Alex H., Knaebe, Brenna, and Gray, Russell D.. 2012. “An End to Insight? New Caledonian Crows Can Spontaneously Solve Problems without Planning Their Actions.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279 (1749):4977–81. https://doi.org/10.1098/RSPB.2012.1998.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tebbich, Sabine, Griffin, Andrea S., Peschl, Markus F., and Sterelny, Kim. 2016. “From Mechanisms to Function: An Integrated Framework of Animal Innovation.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 371 (1690):20150195. https://doi.org/10.1098/RSTB.2015.0195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tebbich, Sabine, Sterelny, Kim, and Teschke, Irmgard. 2010. “The Tale of the Finch: Adaptive Radiation and Behavioural Flexibility.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 365 (1543):1099–1109. https://doi.org/10.1098/RSTB.2009.0291.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weir, Alex A.S., Chappell, Jackie, and Kacelnik, Alex. 2002. “Shaping of Hooks in New Caledonian Crows.” Science 297 (5583):981. https://doi.org/10.1126/SCIENCE.1073433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weir, Alex A.S., and Kacelnik, Alex. 2006. “A New Caledonian Crow (Corvus Moneduloides) Creatively Re-Designs Tools by Bending or Unbending Aluminium Strips.” Animal Cognition 9 (4):317–34. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10071-006-0052-5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed