sciencemag.org SCIENCE 126 14 JULY 2017 • VOL 357 ISSUE 6347 PHOTO: HELENA OSVATH By Markus Boeckle and Nicola S. Clayton T he human brain stores memories of past events to guide decision-making about current and future events. Re- searchers long assumed that animals do not use memories in this way but rather exist in a constant stream of present needs, unable to plan for the future (1). Studies on nonhuman primates and cor- vids challenge this view and show that some species can plan for the future at least as well as 4-year old children (2, 3). These results suggest that planning for the future is not uniquely human and evolved independently in distantly related species to address com- mon problems (4). On page 202 of this issue, Kabadayi and Osvath (5) show that ravens anticipate the nature, time, and location of a future event based on previous experiences. The ravens’ behavior is not merely prospec- tive, anticipating future states (6); rather, they flexibly apply future planning in behav- iors not typically seen in the wild. Although some corvids make and use tools as part of their ecological predispo- sition, ravens are considered a non–tool- using corvid and are not known for trading items for food. However, they are known to cache food in nature and can use tools in experiments (see the photos). In their study, Kabadayi and Osvath test ravens’ abilities to plan for future tool use and trading, rather than for food caching (a behavior that might be considered as an adaptive specialization to gather food in order to eat it at a future date). They thus provide compelling evidence against the argument Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. Email: markus.boeckle@gmail.com; nsc22@cam.ac.uk INSIGHTS PERSPECTIVES COGNITION A raven’s memories are for the future Ravens can plan for expected future events based on past experiences Published by AAAS on July 17, 2017 http://science.sciencemag.org/ Downloaded from