Pigeons were Smart as a Monkey

Previous research shows that many animals, such as honey bees and chimpanzees, can learn to calculate if trained with food rewards. Recent research shows that pigeons have the intelligence as primates.

Psychologists from the University of Otago, New Zealand, trying to find out if a pigeon-type animals are also trained, have the ability to calculate numerically similar to rhesus monkeys.

"Pigeons are the perfect subject for visual tasks because their eyesight is really good and they are really easy to train," says psychologist Damian Scarf, researchers who published his research in the latest issue of the journal Science.

Initially, Scarf and his colleagues trained three pigeons to count up the number three. On the touch screen, three pigeons were treated to a set of image objects of various sizes, shapes, and colors. For example, a set of images presents a box of yellow, two red cylinders, or three yellow rectangle.

Once the birds learn to count to three, the researchers began to show images to as many as nine other objects. On average, without trained to distinguish the highest or lowest, and be rewarded without food, pigeons are able to put pictures correctly no more than 70 percent of the time provided. Pigeons were more easily distinguish low rates and higher rates.

"When you point to the numbers,, 7 8 and 9, for the pigeon is getting hard to tell the difference between images," says Scarf.

However, overall, they begin to match the results of research studies on rhesus monkeys, although Scarf note it may take longer to train the pigeons than the monkey.

Psychologists from the University of Western Ontario, William Roberts, who was not involved in the research, said he was surprised by the results of such research. "I do not think that pigeons can do that," he said. Roberts previously examined the cognitive abilities of animals, including pigeons intelligence level. *** [LIVESCIENCE | MAHARDIKA SATRIA HADI | KORAN TEMPO 3756]