>To test whether crows know and can analyze the contents of their brains, neurobiologist Andreas Nieder of the University of Tübingen in Germany trained two birds to peck a red or a blue target on a panel, depending whether they saw a faint light. Nieder kept varying the “rule,” with the birds told which color meant what — red = saw it, or blue = saw it — only after the flash. That required the crows, Glenn and Ozzy, to keep monitoring their brains; they had a second or two to figure out what they had seen and tell Nieder by choosing the corresponding target.
... I don't actually understand what this means. Am I dumb or is this just badly written? Can someone explain? What is Nieder actually doing here, and how does it test whether the crows are introspecting? How are they "told" which color meant what?
If there was a faint light, and the red target appears, the birds were taught (how?) to peck it. If there was light and a blue target appears, don't peck it. If there was no light, and the blue target appears, peck it, and if the target is red, don't peck it.
So peck a red target = "I saw a light", peck a blue target = "I didn't see a light". If the opposite color target appears to what you need to peck, don't peck it.
Or: Target is red, did I see a light? If yes, peck it. Target is blue. Was there a light? If there wasn't, peck it.
I didn't continue reading the paper, but I guess the researchers concluded since they crows could answer the "Did I see a light?" question correctly most (i.e. statistically significant amount) of the times, it shows they can ponder the contents of their brains.
So how does this mean they can "ponder the contents of their own brains"? I'm pretty sure you could train even a very stupid creature to perform this task.
Isn't that effectively just a simple short term memory test? How does that tell us anything about whether crows can "ponder the contents of their minds"?
I don't know but I'm utterly amazed at the sheer number of anecdata comments here all completely ignoring the title's premise which is worded in a way that makes you think "what did you do, simulate a bird brain from scratch?"
... I don't actually understand what this means. Am I dumb or is this just badly written? Can someone explain? What is Nieder actually doing here, and how does it test whether the crows are introspecting? How are they "told" which color meant what?