4 Cognition for Foraging A hungry blue jay searches for prey along the branch of an oak tree. It scrutinizes the bark closely, ignoring the stream of noise and motion that occur around it. But when it hears a red-tailed hawk cry, it pauses and scans the scene. Seeing no threat, it resumes its search. | Illllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 4 Cognition for Foraging Melissa M. Adams-Hunt and Lucia F. Jacobs Prologue A hungry bluejay searches for prey along the branch of an oak tree. It scrutinizes the bark closely ignoring the stream of noise and motion that occur around it. But when it hears a red-tailed hawk cry it pauses and scans the scene. Seeing no threat it resumes its search. Prey are difficult to find. Moths have camouflaged wings and orient their bodies to match the patterns of the bark. Dun-colored beetles press themselves into crevices. The jay peers at the bark but does not immediately see any insects even though they are within its field of view. Its gaze passes over several moths before it detects one outlined against the brown background. It catches and eats this moth. Renewing its search the jay soon catches another moth and then another. As the jay busies itself consuming moths its gaze passes over many beetles just as large and tasty yet it does not detect them. Instead the jay eats more moths which it now finds easily until only a few remain. Introduction An observer might wonder why thejay passes over valuable beetles. Answers to this question can take several forms. According to Tinbergen s lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 106 Melissa M. Adams-Hunt and Lucia F. Jacobs classic framework there are four levels of explanation phylogeny ontogeny survival value and mechanisms of foraging behavior Tinbergen 1963 . Cognitive scientists focus on mechanisms the proximate causes of a behavior within the body of an organism. Cognition is the set of psychological mechanisms by which organisms obtain maintain and act on information about the world. Broadly these mechanisms include perception attention learning memory and reasoning. Although humans experience some cognition consciously but much .
