Okay... it may just be because it's 3am and I'm WIDE AWAKE for some reason... But I was just cooing at my ferret and thinking about how animals can be disciplined by tone of voice. You know... they can tell when you're happy with them and when you're pissed off. Why is that?? Isn't that crazy! Or... do I just need sleep?



Reply With Quote

In the late 1800s, a German high school mathematics instructor named Wilhelm Von Osten was pushing a few scientific envelopes from his home in Berlin. Among other things, he was a student of phrenology, the now discredited theory that one's intelligence, character, and personality traits can be derived based of the shape of one's head. But it was his keen interest in animal intelligence that would ultimately win him fame.
Naturally there were many skeptics, particularly after the New York Times featured the crafty horse in a front-page story. Germany's board of education asked to conduct an independent investigation into Hans' abilities, and Von Osten agreed. He was a man of science, after all, and he knew that there was no fraud to expose. The board members assembled a number of scientific minds to join the Hans Commission, including two zoologists, a psychologist, a horse trainer, several school teachers, and a circus manager. Following extensive independent testing, the commission concluded in 1904 that there was no trickery involved in Hans' responses; as far as they could tell, the horse's talents were genuine.
In the intervening years, it has been found that many animals are sensitive to such cues from their human masters. Today, the term "Clever Hans Effect" is used to describe the influence of a questioner's subtle and unintentional cues upon their subjects, in both humans and in animals. To prevent prejudices and foreknowledge from contaminating experimental results, modern science employs the double-blind method where researchers and subjects are unaware of many details of the experiment until after the results are recorded. For instance, when drug-sniffing dogs undergo training, none of the people present know which containers have drugs in them; otherwise their body language might betray the location and render the exercise useless. 
Bookmarks