Concept learning in pigeons. Sometimes they are smarter than humans — Transcript

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1. 0:02professor John Pierce of Cardiff
2. 0:03University in Wales examines the mind of
3. 0:06the humble
4. 0:07pigeon the pigeon learns that pecking at
5. 0:10pictures of trees brings food while
6. 0:13pecking other pictures does
7. 0:17not
8. 0:22food no food
9. 0:34food no food the pigeon learns the 30
10. 0:37pictures of trees that mean food now the
11. 0:40critical part of the
12. 0:42test Professor Pierce gives the pigeon a
13. 0:45new set of images to recognize this
14. 0:48picture that it's never seen before the
15. 0:50pigeon must have a concept of trees in
16. 0:53its head so do pigeons have
17. 0:56Concepts the answer is yes the pigeon
18. 1:00Compares this picture with its mental
19. 1:02concept of a tree and correctly rejects
20. 1:05the
21. 1:09fern to further test the pigeon's
22. 1:12understanding of Concepts scientists
23. 1:14showed them pictures by Picasso and
24. 1:17Monae they quickly learned that only
25. 1:20Picasso meant food
26. 1:22[Music]
27. 1:32but could they form a concept of
28. 1:34Picasso's painting style the scientists
29. 1:36presented the pigeons with pictures they
30. 1:38hadn't seen before they pecked at the
31. 1:41new
32. 1:43Picasso and rejected the
33. 1:47Monae maa's style is more like Picasso's
34. 1:50than Monet so he got pecked art students
35. 1:53often confuse matis and Picasso too it
36. 1:56seems that pigeons do have Concepts and
37. 1:58rather similar to our own could their
38. 2:01minds really work like ours to test that
39. 2:04Professor ferce has given his pigeons
40. 2:06and his students the same problems so
41. 2:09what I want to do in today's practical
42. 2:11is to give you a feel for the sort of
43. 2:13experiments I've been doing with my
44. 2:14pigeons and what I want you to do in
45. 2:17fact is to solve or try to solve some of
46. 2:19the problems that I've given my
47. 2:22pigeons what I'm going to do is I'm
48. 2:24going to show you a set of patterns on
49. 2:26these television screens some of the
50. 2:28patterns will be followed by tone and
51. 2:30some will be followed by nothing the
52. 2:32test is to predict which pattern is
53. 2:34followed by a tone and which is not join
54. 2:38the students and the pigeons and try and
55. 2:40work it out for yourself is this
56. 2:41followed by a
57. 2:44tone what about
58. 2:46this and finally this pattern how did
59. 2:50you do compared to the students in the
60. 2:54pigeons the pigeon may know a Picasso
61. 2:57from a Monae but it can't solve this
62. 2:59test it pecks hopefully at all the
63. 3:01patterns not realizing the answer is
64. 3:04simple equal
65. 3:07to now try to predict the answers in
66. 3:10this next
67. 3:24experiment if you're struggling you're
68. 3:27not alone
69. 3:30how many of you think you've got the
70. 3:31solution to the problem oh dear that's
71. 3:33not many do some of you think you might
72. 3:35have got
73. 3:36it no okay well I don't want to put any
74. 3:39pressure on you but by this stage my
75. 3:42pigeons are normally doing quite
76. 3:45well and the
77. 3:47answer small area of color
78. 3:52tone large area no
79. 3:56tone the pigeons find this test easy
80. 3:59they quickly discern the visual
81. 4:01distinction between large and small
82. 4:04areas we however search for meaning for
83. 4:07relationships so we failed to see The
84. 4:10Simple
85. 4:12Solution the pigeons can't grasp the
86. 4:15concepts of equal to or greater than
87. 4:18this is the realm of abstract thought
88. 4:21and it may be beyond the pigeon mind