Here is a test of New Caledonian crow (hereafter "crows") intelligence from the University of Auckland, NZ. Published March 26 2014.
Can crows understand water displacement and exploit it to obtain a reward?
The authors state that their results indicate crows have the same performance as 5- to 7-year old human children at solving water displacement problems.
The last water displacement problem (Figure 6) in the video shows a "U-tube apparatus" with three tubes: the first (blue) tube is connected to the central tube by a U-bend. The central tube holds the treat. The last tube (red) is not connected to any other tube. The presence of a the U-bend between the first and central tubes is hidden to the crow. The U-tube apparatus tests whether the crow is able to deduce which tube the crow puts stones into (blue or red) affects the water level in the central tube, allowing the crow access to the treat.
The video shows one successful test where the crow was able to solve the U-tube apparatus. However the authors state "NC crows performed at chance, showing no signs that they could learn the identity of the correct tube over 20 trials. Thus, they were clearly unable to use a full understanding of displacement to infer the existence of a hidden connection, nor could they solve the task using only perceptual feedback or associative rules. This suggests the possibility that, like Eurasian jays, the NC crows possess a level of causal understanding which hindered their performance on this task with counter-intuitive causal cues."
Interestingly enough on average, human children of age 8 are generally able to solve this task, but on average children from age 5-7 are not. However there are individual human children as young as 4 who are able to solve the U-tube apparatus problem reliably. So these tests give us a more detailed understanding of crow intelligence.
Also interestingly, notice that in all the tests the crows tested place a stone, then inspect the water level, and repeat this behavior. I find this curious as I would expect some humans to address a problem like this by seeing the water level affected by stone placement once, then continuing to pile stones into one tube without inspecting water level until there were no more stones or the treat in the middle tube was easily accessible. Does the crow need constant visual feedback after stone placement? or is it simply just curious or impatient to get the treat?
The video S2 shows one of the crows "Kitty" is very persistent.
Here is a 2012 video, again from the University of Auckland displaying that crows have a form of causal reasoning, which translates into crows can expect if a hidden entity could be messing with them or not.
Here is a crow training stupid humans!
Here is a crow getting medical assistance from humans! Occasionally hairless apes can be useful.
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Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
Estarra the Eternal says, "Give Shevat the floor please."
Estarra the Eternal says, "Give Shevat the floor please."
jesus christ in a dirty diaper you have ruined me Daraius
This is like the last appearance of Samara in ME3 level amounts of emotion
This is Simon/Ice King and Marceline levels of despair
This is watching Shazam getting stabbed in the stomach with a broken blade by Wonder Woman in Flashpoint amounts of shock
Estarra the Eternal says, "Give Shevat the floor please."
NARF!
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
NARF!
Estarra the Eternal says, "Give Shevat the floor please."