You observe scrub jays hiding food and notice that one particular individual only pretends to hide food.What kind of experiment could you perform to test whether this was random or in response to another signal?
A)Observe more of these behaviors in the wild and try to determine if the behaviour is random.
B)Hypothesize a set of signals that could produce this behavior and try to match the behaviours with the signals.
C)Attempt to reproduce the behaviour in captivity by using bird models and a computer simulation.
D)All of the above would be excellent experiments.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Hypothesizing a set of signals that could produce this behavior and then trying to match the behaviors with the signals would be the most effective experiment to test whether this behavior is random or in response to another signal. This would help determine if the bird is pretending to hide food as a form of deception or if it is a random behavior. Observing more of these behaviors in the wild or attempting to reproduce the behavior in captivity would not provide enough information to test whether this behavior is intentional or not.

You Observe Scrub Jays Hiding Food and Notice That One