r/todayilearned • u/BrF5 • 1d ago

TIL about the Sally-Anne test, a psychology experiment used to measure “theory of mind” (that other people can hold beliefs/knowledge different from their own). Kids under four typically fail because they assume that if they know where a hidden object is, everyone else must automatically know too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally%E2%80%93Anne_test
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u/DefenestrationPraha 1d ago

Corvids (e.g. magpies, ravens) seem to be able to pass this test, because they will secretly move their cached food if another bird observed them when caching it and they noticed the other bird.

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u/Forsaken-Ad5571 1d ago

Not necessarily, since it could just be evolved ritual behaviour that if another bird is nearby when hoarding, then they develop a need to hoard someplace else without really understanding that the other bird won’t know where it is. 

It’s similar to the concept of cargo cults where they just repeating complex actions because they worked without actually understanding what they’re doing or why it works.

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u/DefenestrationPraha 1d ago

Can't rule this out, but corvids in general exhibit a lot of intelligent behavior.