{"id":769,"date":"2013-04-02T09:02:53","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T14:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/?p=769"},"modified":"2013-04-02T09:02:53","modified_gmt":"2013-04-02T14:02:53","slug":"is-it-a-trick-or-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/2013\/04\/02\/is-it-a-trick-or-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"Is It a Trick… or Intelligence?"},"content":{"rendered":"

How smart are animals?\u00a0 Are some of the organisms that we call ‘dumb animals’ actually capable of complex cognitive skills?<\/p>\n

The trick is to figure how a test that will determine the difference between a memorized response and actual cognitive skills.\u00a0 This is a task that I actually have to deal with.\u00a0 Can I write a test question such that there isn’t a canned response?\u00a0 What evidence will be presented by the tester to determine that they actually have a particular piece of knowledge or a skill?<\/p>\n

For example let’s say I ask this question.<\/p>\n

How many oxygen molecules are released by the photosynthesis reaction that generates one glucose molecule?<\/p>\n

CO2<\/sub> + H2<\/sub>O –> O2<\/sub> + C6<\/sub>H12<\/sub>O6<\/sub><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A student could balance the equation and get the right answer.\u00a0 Because this is such a common reaction used in schools, another student may have just memorized the right answer.<\/p>\n

By asking the question this way, I really don’t know if they have the skill of balancing a complex chemical equation or if they know about photosynthesis.\u00a0 This is a poor question.<\/p>\n

If I want to know if they know anything about photosynthesis, then I should eliminate the equation.\u00a0 If I want to know if the student can balance an equation, then I need to present something that is unlikely to have been used in their chemistry class.<\/p>\n

It’s even worse when examining the intelligence of animals.\u00a0 They (in general) can’t talk to us.\u00a0 They can’t explain what they are thinking when they do something… of course, if they could explain it, then that would show intelligence and this would be a moot point.<\/p>\n

This video from Nova shows <\/a>how scientists are figuring out the difference between rote memorization and true cognitive ability.\u00a0 The whole series is quite excellent and I’ll just hit some highlights.<\/p>\n

Chaser is a border collie, a breed well known for herding sheep.\u00a0 Chaser’s herd is a pile of a thousand stuffed animals.\u00a0 According to her owner, a psychology professor, she knows the name of every single one of them.<\/p>\n

Neil Degrasse Tyson tested Chaser by randomly selected 9 stuffed animals and then asking Chaser to get them.\u00a0 Eighteen trials later, Chaser hadn’t made any mistakes.\u00a0 So Tyson put a stuffed animal (a Darwin doll) in the mix.\u00a0 Chaser had never seen it before and had never heard the name “Darwin” before either.<\/p>\n

When Chaser heard the command “Find Darwin”, she went to the pile, but seemed confused.\u00a0 Tyson repeated the command and Chaser returned with the Darwin doll.<\/p>\n

The dog had inferred that an unknown name corresponded with an unknown doll.<\/p>\n

A scientist in the Caribbean is doing some research with dolphins.\u00a0 She has trained them to place a weight in a bucket.\u00a0 When enough weights are in the bucket a fish will fall out of a door.\u00a0 The dolphins quickly figured out that they could pick up several weights at once, instead of one at a time.<\/p>\n

In another test, dolphins are taught to ‘create’.\u00a0 They have to create a new trick, one that they haven’t done before.\u00a0 Then the trainers give the command “together” and “create” to a pair of dolphins.<\/p>\n

The dolphins dive and underwater microphones record the sounds.\u00a0 The dolphins are communicating.\u00a0 Both rise to the surface simultaneously, roll over onto their backs, and lift their tails.<\/p>\n

How could they coordinate something like that without complex communication?<\/p>\n

So yes, it is possible to craft a test that can determine cognitive ability rather than rote memorization.\u00a0 It’s not easy, but it can be done.\u00a0 And the results are quite interesting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How smart are animals?\u00a0 Are some of the organisms that we call ‘dumb animals’ actually capable of complex cognitive skills?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,6],"tags":[364,366,363,365],"class_list":["post-769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-2","category-science","tag-cognitive-ability","tag-experiment","tag-intelligence","tag-test"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}