Study Examines Intelligence Gap Between Humans, Animals
A university researcher has been investigating the extent of the intelligence gap between humans and some animals, saying the disparity may not be as great as we think, the Associated Press reported.
Edward A. Wasserman of the University of Iowa said Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that his latest study of animal mental ability suggests humans may not be the only animals that plan for the future.
"I suggest we humans should keep our egos in check," he added.
It seems that, like people, pigeons and baboons were able to tell which pictures showed similar items, like triangles or dots, and which showed different items, according to Wasserman, a professor of experimental psychology.
"This is the definition of a concept, and the animals passed it with flying colors," he said.
Wasserman said nonhuman primates are capable of higher-order relational learning. "The follow-up discovery – that pigeons too are capable of such higher-order relational learning – affirmed our suspicion that we’ve really established a finding of broad evolutionary significance."
Researchers from all over gathered at the symposium on "Animal Smarts," where they discussed the latest findings in the mental abilities of animals.
Nicola S. Clayton, a professor of comparative cognition at the University of Cambridge in England, said in the last 20 years there has been a major revolution in the understanding of animals.
She said not only do animals use tools, but there is even evidence that some of them save tools for future use.
"Planning ahead was once thought to be unique to humans," Clayton said. "We now know that’s not true."
Crows, for example, have been observed stashing food away for the next day and even finding ways to protect it from being stolen.
She suggested the term “˜birdbrain’ is obsolete and should be replaced by “˜brainy birds.’
Alex Kacelnik, a professor of behavioral ecology at the University of Oxford in England, called the New Caledonian crow the “master tool user of the avian world".
He said not only do these crows use tools, they can also make their own by twisting and bending pieces of wire to fish food from places they couldn’t reach on their own.
"What we are describing about the abilities of different species is that human abilities are expressed, sometimes, in other species," Kacelnik said.
Number sense seems to be among the shared evolution of many primates, according to Jessica Cantlon of Duke University.
Elizabeth Brannon has worked alongside Cantlon in studies showing how human adults and babies think about numbers without using language compared to lemurs and monkeys.
They found that after seeing the same number of objects repeatedly in different-looking groups, infants notice when the number of objects is changed. Macaques seem to have the same ability, they said.
Macaques are able to use that ability in determining whether there is enough food to remain in an area or to get a sense of how large their group is compared to competing groups.
Cantlon and Brannon are currently working to see if monkeys can recognize the concept of zero.
Wasserman said some people might be uneasy as new studies find increasing similarities between animal and human mental abilities. The goal is to learn how much thinking ability is general throughout the animal kingdom, he said.
"Why we would believe that humans alone have such capabilities is a peculiar and unfortunate arrogance. That’s one reason why I enjoy studying animals; the smarter we discover them to be, the more humble we should be."
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