This starts to provide us
benchmarks for both human and animal intelligence that is overdue. Once a series of testing protocols can be
developed, it becomes possible to then test a range of animals in terms of
relative intelligence. Obviously the
first test was to determine when human intelligence surged ahead.
In fact we need to apply this far
more broadly to the human population. We
know that education strengthens and enhances human intelligence. Pretty obviously we need to do much better
with a portion of that population who specifically fail to be engaged. Perhaps having to be compared against animal
standards could reinforce the utility of been engaged in the learning process.
In fact, been able to pass the
test protocol for the seven year child level is a compelling learning
opportunity whose message is plain.
Birds smarter than seven year old kids
No matter how bright you think your child is, until the age of seven,
children are no brainier than the birds.
Researchers at the University
of Cambridge during
simple experiments found out that birds did just as well as children up until
the age of seven, The Daily Mail reported.
By pitting birds against boys and girls using tests inspired by the
Aesop’s fable in which a thirsty crow is able to drink from a pitcher after
using pebbles to raise the water level to within its reach.
In two of the three tests the birds, Eurasian jays, did just as well as
the seven-year-old children.
After this, the human mind proved superior to the bird brain.
The experiments built on earlier work in which jays quickly learned
that adding stones to a cylinder half-filled with water would bring a tasty
treat floating on the surface within reach of their beaks.
###
Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius). Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
In a second task the jays, colourful members of the crow family and
about the same size as jackdaws, realized it was better to use pebbles, which
sink, than corks, which float.
When Cambridgeshire children, aged four to ten, were set similar tasks,
they did as well as the jays on the first, up to the age of seven.
From the age of eight, the pupils learned more quickly than the birds.
The pattern was similar with the second task, except four-year-old children did
worse than the jays.
However, a third, more complex, task separated the youngsters from the
birds.
It again involved dropping objects into water to raise its level. But
this time, a U-shaped tube was used, with the join at its bottom hidden; giving
the impression it was two separate tubes.
This appeared to confuse the birds. However, the children did as well
as before. The researchers said this shows children are better at putting
preconceptions aside.
Lucy Cheke, a PhD student, said: “It is a child’s job to learn about
the world. They can’t do that if they’re limited by a preconceived idea about
what is or is not possible. For a child, if it works, it works. The birds,
however, found it much harder to learn what was happening because they were put
off by the fact it shouldn’t be happening.”
2 comments:
Yea sure I see birds using thousand word vocabularies all the time. I wonder what the agenda is?
“It seems very clear that TEPCO knew that an earthquake and/or a tsunami would probably damage the reactors and result in a meltdown.
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