2023 Author: Bryan Walter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 22:24
Scientists have found that ducklings can notice the similarity of objects on a certain basis and transfer the found analogies to other objects. The article of scientists was published in the journal Science.
It is known that after hatching, ducklings begin to follow their mother everywhere - this process is called "the following reaction" and it is a form of imprinting. However, chicks can mistake for a parent any other moving object, for example, a robot or human legs, and will recognize it regardless of whether it flies, walks or swims.
Scientists decided to check whether the chicks remember only the appearance of the mother, or whether they are able to recognize abstract analogies of the same type - different. This skill is typical for humans and a small number of animals. To do this, the researchers placed the eggs, from which the ducklings were to hatch, in a dark room. After the chicks were born, they were transferred to lighted aviaries, where pairs of objects that were similar in color or shape moved in a circle in front of them.
Some time after the duckling began to follow its "parent", it was returned to a dark room, and then it was again placed in a lighted enclosure, where not one, but two pairs of objects were moving in a circle. One pair had similarities in the same way as the first "mother" of the duck, and the second did not.
The duckling had to choose whom to follow through the enclosure. As a result of the experiment, out of 113 ducklings, 77 followed objects that were similar in color or shape, rather than objects that had their original shape or original color. That is, if the first time the chicks saw two balls, then the second time they followed not the ball and the top hat, but two cylinders.
According to scientists, this indicates that ducklings can logically reason about the similarities and differences of objects and detect relatively abstract relationships in the world around them. This ability, as the researchers note, was observed only in monkeys, crows and parrots. However, they doubt that the ability to "reason abstractly" can be developed in older individuals, since the process, as the authors of the work believe, is directly related to the moment of imprinting.
