Body Awareness in Goffin's Cockatoos

Researchers adapted the body-as-obstacle (BAO) paradigm for birds and tested 15 Goffin’s cockatoos to evaluate whether they represent their own body as a causal impediment in a social transfer task. Subjects received a “give-me” command to hand over an object while standing on a mat; in the critical test the object was attached to the mat, requiring stepping off to succeed. Two controls were used: an unattached object and an attached-to-ground object, plus a pre-test controlling for stepping due to mat movement or discomfort. Visual cues were concealed and analyses emphasized the first session to limit learning effects.

Performance was strikingly condition-specific: cockatoos passed the pre-test (99.4% success) and stepped off the mat in 97.8% of test trials versus 0.7% in the unattached control and 39.1% in the attached-to-ground control. A binomial GLMM confirmed a highly significant effect of condition and pairwise contrasts showed the test differed from both controls; group assignment had no influence. These results constitute the first application of BAO in birds and demonstrate that Goffin’s cockatoos treat their bodies as causal obstacles, supporting the value of multimethod, sensory-appropriate approaches to comparative body awareness beyond mirror-based tests.