Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Baby Chicks Have Innate Mathematical Skills

Posted by kdawson on from the not-that-kind-of-chicks dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "Chicks can add and subtract small numbers shortly after hatching, says Rosa Rugani at the University of Trento. Rugani reared chicks with five plastic containers of the kind found inside Kinder chocolate eggs. This meant the chicks bonded with the capsules, much as they do with their mother, making them want to be near the containers as they grew up. In one test, the researchers moved the containers back and forth behind two screens while the chicks watched. When the chicks were released into the enclosure, they headed for the screen obscuring the most containers, suggesting they had been able to keep track of the number of capsules behind each by adding and subtracting them as they moved. It is already known that many non-human primates and monkeys can count, and even domestic dogs have been found to be capable of simple additions but this is the first time the ability has been seen in such young animals, and with no prior training in problem solving of any kind."

22 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Who would have thought by qoncept · · Score: 4, Funny

    They also stress the fundamentals of basketball even though they no can dunk.

    --
    Whale
  2. Alternate hypothesis by srussia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They can smell plastic/chocolate residue really good.

    --
    Set your phasers on "funky"!
    1. Re:Alternate hypothesis by DMUTPeregrine · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The problem is that most birds are already known to have very poor senses of smell. Chickens included. So it seems unlikely that they would be smelling plastic from behind the screens that accurately and that far away.

      --
      Not a sentence!
    2. Re:Alternate hypothesis by Chyeld · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ok then, the study wasn't flawed.

      They did attempt several methods of 'throwing' the chicks off. It didn't work.

      There was no 'trail' for the chicks to follow.

      They accounted for the "maybe they just 'sensed' where the most eggs are", they covered their bases.

      If you had actually read about the study rather than spouting bullshit based on the summary, you'd have known that.

      In a series of simple maths tests, Rugani's team attached a fishing line to each of the plastic capsules and used it to move them behind two screens that the chick could see from behind a clear plastic door. When all of the containers had been hidden, the chick was set free to investigate.

      Rugani's team found that when the chicks went in search of the capsules, they peered first behind the screen that concealed the larger number of containers.

      In a more difficult test, the researchers moved the containers back and forth behind the two screens while the chicks watched. When they were released into the enclosure, the chicks still made for the screen obscuring the most containers, suggesting they had been able to keep track of the number of capsules behind each by adding and subtracting them as they moved.

    3. Re:Alternate hypothesis by tonyreadsnews · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's because most cows only have a 1 byte counter in them.

      You have to get the ones that were abducted (but not eaten) by aliens which have been upgraded.

  3. That's nothing by Centurix · · Score: 4, Funny

    We have duck called Mersenne that quacks in primes.

    --
    Task Mangler
  4. Re:Chic(k) computing by JustOK · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yah, like geeks can get any type of chick, Turing or otherwise, turned on.

    --
    rewriting history since 2109
  5. Re:Chic(k) computing, oblig by JamesP · · Score: 5, Funny

    Imagine a bewolf cluster of these.

    And if you need more power, you just need to pick up more chicks.

    --
    how long until /. fixes commenting on Chrome?
  6. Hot chicks are good at math? by GPLDAN · · Score: 4, Funny

    Did somebody say hot chicks? That are good at math?

    I knew you Slashdot guys were cool...

  7. cool, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    can they count before they're hatched?

  8. Re:Chic(k) computing by jgtg32a · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hopefully these guys work out better than ducklings, because it was too easy to get stuck in inf loops with ducklings

    http://xkcd.com/537/

  9. Next experiment... by ajlitt · · Score: 4, Funny

    Convince the chicks to put the containers in the incinerator.

  10. News flash by momerath2003 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Chicks dig math. Slashdot rejoices until they RTFA.

    --
    I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
    1. Re:News flash by Kyont · · Score: 5, Funny

      Slashdot rejoices until they RTFA.

      So... the rejoicing continued indefinitely?

      --
      You shall see a cow on the roof of a cotton house.
  11. Seems like a jump to conclusions. by Beelzebud · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What's to say the chicks just aren't recognizing a simple pattern? Just because they could see that the larger group had moved from one side to the other doesn't mean they were counting, it just means they recognize the pattern, and went to the one they were familiar with.

  12. Why no Kinder eggs in the USA by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

    Kinder Surprise isn't sold in the United States because FDA food safety regulations prohibit the importation or sale of candy that encloses something inedible. The closest counterpart in the United States is probably Wonder Ball, a Nestle product with hard candy inside a hollow ball of milk chocolate.

  13. Re:Is this really "counting" by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The difference is semantic. Obviously they're not doing arithmetic as we usually think of it, but if they're able to keep track of shifting quantities that's math.

    --
    ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
  14. Re:This calls for something. by CannonballHead · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't see what real, actual chickens have to do with KFC. ;)

  15. False assumption? by memorycardfull · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Associating a certain screen with more incidents of objects recently disappearing behind them doesn't necessarily indicate the ability to add or subtract. The idea that moving the objects back and forth is confusing to the chicks and thus requires math to sort out the answer might be a false assumption. If the chick is responding to the stimulus of objects disappearing behind a screen, and the effect of the stimulus is cumulative as more objects disappear behind the screen and the effect of this stimulus is strongest for the most recent stimuli and decreases over time I think that the result would be what is observed in the experiment. I think what is more interesting about this experiment is that the chicks have an innate sense of object permanence which is an ability human beings are not born with.

  16. !News by Thelasko · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's already proven that chicks can do math.

    --
    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
  17. Re:Is that technically addition and subtraction? by LordKronos · · Score: 4, Informative

    It says the containers were placed behind screens. The chicks were able to see them moving between screens, but were not able to see how many were behind the screens. Thus their instinct to go to the larger group can only kick in if they know which group is larger. If they can't see the groups, then the only way they can know which is larger is to count and remember, or to use some other sense.

  18. My Dog Can Do Calculus by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Whenever I throw something and my dog catches it, he's inherently working out the position of the object and its velocity in order to catch it.

    --
    Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!