Isabelle Laumer

Max Planck Insitute of Animal Behavior

The readiness to interact with, and explore, novel stimuli – i.e., curiosity – are cornerstones of innovation. Great apes show the broadest and most complex innovation repertoires. However, little is known about the factors that affect curiosity in wild apes. To shed light on wild apes’ curiosity, we measured the reactions of wild Sumatran oranguta...

Flexible targeted helping is considered an advanced form of prosocial behavior in hominoids, as it requires the actor to assess different situations that a conspecific may be in, and to subsequently flexibly satisfy different needs of that partner depending on the nature of those situations. So far, apart from humans such behaviour has only been ex...

Although several nonhuman animals have the ability to recognize and match templates in computerized tasks, we know little about their ability to recall and then physically manufacture specific features of mental templates. Across three experiments, Goffin cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana), a species that can use tools in captivity, were exposed to two...

One hallmark in the evolution of cooperation is the ability to evaluate one's own payoff for a task against that of another person. To trace its evolutionary history, there has recently been a surge in comparative studies across different species. In non‐human animals, evidence of inequity aversion has so far been identified in several primate spec...

Making economic decisions in a natural foraging situation that involves the use of tools may require an animal to consider more levels of relational complexity than merely deciding between an immediate and a delayed food option. We used the same method previously used with Goffin´s cockatoos to investigate the orangutans’ flexibility for making the...

Number of correct trials out of a total of 12 trials for each condition in the QAT for each individual. Binomial probabilities: * = p<0.05 (10/12 correct), ** = p<0.01 (11/12 correct); *** = p<0.001 (12/12 correct). (PDF)

Number of correct trials out of a total of 12 trials for each condition in the MT for each individual. Binomial probabilities: * = p<0.05 (10/12 correct), ** = p<0.01 (11/12 correct); *** = p<0.001 (12/12 correct). (PDF)

Results of the paired Wilcoxon tests for the first and last six trials of each condition for each test (n = 6). (PDF)

Number of correct trials out of a total of 12 trials for each condition in the TSQAT for each individual. Binomial probabilities: * = p<0.05 (10/12 correct), ** = p<0.01 (11/12 correct); *** = p<0.001 (12/12 correct). (PDF)

Results of the paired Wilcoxon tests for subjects´ performance in the ball- and stick- apparatus condition for each condition and for each test (n = 6). (PDF)

Results of the preference tests in percent (%) including all combinations (a = apple, g = grape, p = banana pellet, r = rusk; TPF = third preferred food, MPF = most preferred food). Preference test 1 was conducted before subjects entered the test, Preference test 4 was conducted after all subjects had received all test trials. Preference test 2 &3...

Names, sex and year of birth and rearing history of the six orangutans (Pongo abelii). (PDF)

Number of correct trials out of a total of 12 trials for each condition in the TST for each individual. Binomial probabilities: * = p<0.05 (10/12 correct), ** = p<0.01 (11/12 correct); *** = p<0.001 (12/12 correct). (PDF)

Number of correct trials out of a total of 12 trials for each condition in the TFT for each individual. Binomial probabilities: * = p<0.05 (10/12 correct), ** = p<0.01 (11/12 correct); *** = p<0.001 (12/12 correct). (PDF)

Betty the crow astonished the scientific world as she spontaneously crafted hook-tools from straight wire in order to lift a basket out of vertical tubes. Recently it was suggested that this species' solution was strongly influenced by predispositions from behavioural routines from habitual hook-tool manufacture. Nevertheless, the task became a par...

The spontaneous crafting of hook-tools from bendable material to lift a basket out of a vertical tube in corvids has widely been used as one of the prime examples of animal tool innovation. However, it was recently suggested that the animals' solution was hardly innovative but strongly influenced by predispositions from habitual tool use and nest b...

Innovative tool manufacture is rare and hard to isolate in animals. We show that an Indonesian generalist parrot, the Goffin's cockatoo, can flexibly and spontaneously transfer the manufacture of stick-type tools across three different materials. Each material required different manipulation patterns, including substrates that required active sculp...

Decisions involving the use of tools may require an agent to consider more levels of relational complexity than merely deciding between an immediate and a delayed option. Using a new experimental approach featuring two different types of tools, two apparatuses as well as two different types of reward, we investigated the Goffin cockatoos’ ability t...

Evidence for flexible impulse control over food consumption is rare in non-human animals. So far, only primates and corvids have been shown to be able to fully inhibit the consumption of a desirable food item in anticipation for a gain in quality or quantity longer than a minute. We tested Goffin cockatoos (Cacatua goffini) in an exchange task. Sub...