There's a growing body of evidence that suggests that animals are smarter than people.
Columns share an author's personal perspective and are often based on facts in the newspaper's reporting.
There's a growing body of evidence that suggests that animals are smarter than people.
Clever Hans was more than just clever. He was a brilliant horse who could solve both simple and very complicated mathematical problems. Really! The best scientists in Germany would surround him as the horse did his mathematical magic. Nope. It was not a trick or magic show. This horse truly was a quantitative genius.
It started simply enough when his owner, William Van Osten, asked him, "What is the sum of 3 plus 2; and the horse carefully tapped his hoof five times. The whole nation was completely mesmerized as Clever Hans went on to solving far more complicated problems.
This amazing horse even began to read detailed instructions on a blackboard and infallibly tapped out the right answers with one hoof every time. There was no question about it. This horse had a brain. The psychologists wondered whether it was even better than a human brain
Finally, a certain Professor Oskar Pfungst, a serious psychologist, found that Clever Hans was not really doing mathematics at all. While so many psychologists were observing him, he was carefully observing them. He was simply observing human behavior. The horse noted subtle, unconscious gestures like nods of the head, the holding of breath, and even the cessation of nodding when the correct count was reached – were accurately read by the horse as cues to stop tapping.
Clever Hans may not have been able to do math, but he certainly knew how to observe and interpret human behavior than humans were at understanding horses or, for that matter, other humans.
Here's another one.
Anybody who lives with a cat can tell you that they have inscrutable minds. Psychology students are familiar with a 1979 study in which cats were placed in a glass-fronted puzzle-box and trained to find their way out by jostling a vertical rod at the front of the box which caused the door to open. Yet, before opening the door, the cats rubbed their heads, and turned in circles, before opening the door.
Scientists pondered whether this magical sequence of motions was necessary before they opened the door.
Later, though, it was discovered that this behavior only occurred when a human being was visible to the cats. Without people around, the cats did nothing but take naps. In the end, the cats were simply coming up with a creative way to greet people.
Consider bees. One study about bees tells the story of two female psychologists who raise honeybees in Northern California. They left their car on a side road, got themselves suited up in protective gear, and walked across the fields to have a look at the hives. For some reason, the bees were in a furious mood that day. The bees attacked in platoons. They settled in them from all sides.
One of the psychologists advised the other to walk very slowly and to the right. The idea was that the bees would give up sooner or later. It turned out to be good advice and they walked and walked until they were bee-free. Then they circled the fields, and went back to the car, and found the bees there, waiting for them.
People aren't always as interesting as animals, but they are also sort of interesting. They say that a human being cannot tell a lie without setting off some kind of smoke alarm. So, does this mean we are a moral specie designed to be truthful to each other?
Come to think of it, animals, even plants, lie to each other all the time. Does this mean that humans have evolved to a point where we can't lie without being detected? Perhaps we would do better to stick to less complicated animals. Have you ever heard the story of a German horse named Clever Hans who could solve complicated math problems?
Frank Mazzaglia can be reached at frankwrote@aolcom.
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