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After working a while with animal behavior and neuro-research, I tend to ask myself if there is proof an animal can't do something rather than if they can. They
by Lost_BiomedE 14y ago
After working a while with animal behavior and neuro-research, I tend to ask myself if there is proof an animal can't do something rather than if they can. They usually learn slower than humans, depending on animal and task, but they can learn complex tasks. What they fail at usually tends to be due to physical limitations such as visual acuity. I don't think we have found the limits of what many animals can do but we are raising the bar slowly. It takes a lot of thought and work to design an experiment with a complex task correctly.
Of Note: Pigeons can classify a Picasso from a Monet at an expert level and peck their answer within 300ms: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1334394/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1334394/. They were tested on assembly lines to pick out defective parts. They did better than humans but were not used due to decreased moral of other humans on the line. This was done in the early 60's I believe. Here is an article on it in the New Scientist (1962) http://books.google.com/books?id=HxU-9UeDCI0C&pg=PA498&lpg=PA498&dq=Pigeon+assembly+line&source=bl&ots=cQ7vOtf7Kg&sig=V6Ro8Mvx3yjs_l7nJYY8bJR1EBo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=liBOUdaAFI3TqQHYooDgBg&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Pigeon%20assembly%20line&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=HxU-9UeDCI0C&pg=PA498&#...
- vacri 14y agoProof that you can't do something is harder to get than proof that you can. It's hard to prove that an animal can't make a hammer drill, for example.
- darkxanthos 14y agoPlease link me to a study or web article. That's amazing. EDIT: I see the links now! Thanks!
- xk_id 14y agoLink to the study about pigeons' discrimination between Picasso and Monet paintings: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1334394/pdf/jeabehav00221-0041.pdf http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1334394/pdf/jeab... Still looking for a source for the assembly lines tests.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- Draco6slayer 14y agoIt's probably rude, but I think that the fact about the decreased morale is somewhat hilarious. Just picture the situation where you have a whole bunch of assembly line workers being ousted by pigeons. What would it feel like to know that a bird is better at your job than you? It's just absurd.
- DavidSJ 14y agoSomehow it offends one's dignity less to be ousted by a robot.
- perchance 14y agoPigeons have also been shown to have atleast rudimentary capability for solving the Traveling Salesman Problem: http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/~psychgso/gradlunchtime1011/lubyk.pdf http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/~psychgso/gradlunchtime1011/lub... http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10071-011-0463-9 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10071-011-0463-9