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Cognitive science

Rank inferred by reason

Nature volume 430, pages 732–733 (2004)Cite this article

Pinyon jays seem to work out how to behave towards an unfamiliar jay by watching it in encounters with members of their own flock. The findings provide clues about how cognition evolved in social animals.

Susan is taller than Billy. Peter is taller than Susan. Who is taller, Billy or Peter? Knowledge about pairs of objects linked by relationships such as ‘taller’ or ‘stronger’ permits conclusions to be drawn about novel pairs (here, Billy and Peter) — a process known as transitive inference. Monkeys, rats and some birds can solve transitive-inference tasks in the laboratory1, but why would this ability evolve? A plausible answer is that transitive inference is an evolutionary adaptation in certain kinds of social group. For example, suppose I know from bitter experience that Bob always beats me in contests (that is, he dominates me). I now observe some new individual, Andy, dominating Bob. If I reason, “Andy dominates Bob, and Bob dominates me, therefore Andy will dominate me”, I can avoid fights by deferring to Andy when we meet. But there has been no well-controlled evidence that animals actually use transitive inference in social situations. In the study reported on page 778 of this issue, Paz-y-Miño and colleagues2 provide this.

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  1. the Departments of Psychology and Zoology, University of Toronto, Toronto, M5S 3G3, Ontario, Canada

    Sara J. Shettleworth

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  1. Sara J. Shettleworth
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Shettleworth, S. Rank inferred by reason. Nature 430, 732–733 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/430732b

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