Psychology

The Purpose and Procedures of the Experiment

Rufous hummingbirds are among the interesting species of animals. Animals perform basic function by following what we call as circadian rhythm. The free rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus Rufus) generally known as wild nectivores is subjected under an experiment to identify timing ability or an episodic-like memory capability. In the experiment 8 artificial flowers containing sucrose solution were then set up. Three male rufous birds are then trained to forage on these flowers. Four of the flowers are replaced or replenished every 10 minutes and the other four was every 20 minutes.
 Findings Demonstrated in Figures 2 and 3

Figure 2 is a bar graph that showed the results or findings regarding the Post Reinforcement Pauses or PRPs in 5 minute bins around 11 to 13 sessions for the 3 birds. It showed that the hummingbirds can distinguish 10 minutes from 20 minutes flower. They have learned the relative refill schedule and more remarkable are their ability to update the changes in information and patterns. Figure 3 showed a linear graph of the findings regarding Revisit Interval. They have shown that the birds revisited the 20 minutes flower less frequently than the 10 minutes flower. It showed that the birds recognized the time interval and knows the timing or the right time to visit the flower during each session.

Most Interesting Fact about the Study
So what does the experiment suggest What are the important findings According to this study the most interesting fact about this is the birds ability to track changes which showed that they have a form of memory more complicated than circadian rhythms and they possess fundamental aspects of episodic memory something which is found only in humans and primates. Free rufous hummingbirds did show that they can recall the 3 important components like where, when and what of things which is found to be exceptional.