Cognition influences how individuals interact with the environment, affecting the ecology of species. Gaining insight into the proficiency of relevant cognitive abilities provides an indication of the processes necessary for a species' survival and reproduction. Many birds have "slow" life-histories and complex social environments suggestive of high cognitive ability. Little, however, is known about the cognition of most birds with these traits, thus studying cognition in seabirds with these traits provides insight into how slow life-histories and complex social environments relate more generally to predicting cognitive ability. Object permanence is a cognitive ability shared by highly intelligent animals and is an ecologically relevant ability for many seabirds. I used a simple experimental setup in a semi-controlled environment to test object permanence in captive horned puffins (Fratercula corniculata) by hiding a reward to be retrieved, first partially and then completely. I discovered that the horned puffins performed poorly on the object permanence task when the reward was hidden completely. I discuss briefly how the slow life-histories of many seabirds probably evolved due to the stochastic conditions associated with their marine environment, which in turn may cause an energetic bottleneck that limits the allocation of resources to certain cognitive abilities.

中文翻译：

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角海雀 (Fratercula corniculata) 在物体永久性任务中的表现

认知影响个体与环境的互动方式，进而影响物种的生态。深入了解相关认知能力的熟练程度提供了物种生存和繁殖所需过程的指示。许多鸟类具有“缓慢”的生活史和复杂的社会环境，这表明它们具有很高的认知能力。然而，对大多数具有这些特征的鸟类的认知知之甚少，因此研究具有这些特征的海鸟的认知可以深入了解缓慢的生活史和复杂的社会环境如何更普遍地与预测认知能力相关。物体永久性是高度智能的动物共有的认知能力，是许多海鸟的生态相关能力。我在半控制环境中使用了一个简单的实验设置，通过隐藏要检索的奖励，首先是部分然后完全隐藏圈养有角海雀（Fratercula corniculata）中的物体持久性。我发现当奖励完全隐藏时，角海雀在物体永久性任务中表现不佳。我简要讨论了许多海鸟缓慢的生活史可能是如何由于与其海洋环境相关的随机条件而进化的，这反过来又可能导致能量瓶颈，将资源分配限制在某些认知能力上。我发现当奖励完全隐藏时，角海雀在物体永久性任务中表现不佳。我简要讨论了许多海鸟缓慢的生活史可能是如何由于与其海洋环境相关的随机条件而进化的，这反过来又可能导致能量瓶颈，将资源分配限制在某些认知能力上。我发现当奖励完全隐藏时，角海雀在物体永久性任务中表现不佳。我简要讨论了许多海鸟缓慢的生活史可能是如何由于与其海洋环境相关的随机条件而进化的，这反过来又可能导致能量瓶颈，将资源分配限制在某些认知能力上。