Recently, scientists have found more and more evidence that animals are much more intelligent than previously thought. For example, horses have never been considered “geniuses” in the animal kingdom, but in a recent study they demonstrated an unexpected level of intelligence. When performing tasks for scientists, the horses used strategic thinking, analyzing the costs and benefits of getting more treats. In addition, the animals instantly understood the changing rules of the game.
Scientists were surprised by the mental abilities of horses. Photo source: iflscience.com
Horses have high mental abilities
Researchers conducted an experiment with twenty horses aged 11 to 22 years. The animals were given a treat for touching a target in the form of an A3 card. After completing the task correctly, the horses heard a whistle and received a treat.
Then the scientists complicated the task and added a visual “stop” signal in the form of an LED bicycle light attached to the trainer’s belly. When the stop signal was on, the horses did not receive treats or hear the whistle. The period of the “stop” signal was always different so that the horses would not have any doubts that it was not a matter of predictable time intervals, but rather that the light was the “prohibitory” signal.
In the first part of the experiment, the horses did not respond to the visual signal. They continued to tap their noses on the card and greedily ate the treat when the flashlight turned off and they received the treat. This behavior could be attributed to the horses' inability to understand the rules of the game. However, the scientists suggested that the horses did not respond to the “stop” signal because they lacked behavioral inhibition. In other words, they were too impatient.
The horses quickly figured out how to correctly complete the task to get treats. Photo source: hightech.fm
To test this, the researchers decided to make the task more difficult — they introduced a timeout. If the horse touched the card while the flashlight was on, the trainer would take a ten-second break. At that point, he would step back, look down, and lower the target, thereby depriving the animal of the opportunity to earn a treat. In other words, the scientists introduced a “fee” for mistakes.
As the researchers themselves report, they expected the horses to improve their results after several repetitions of the task. However, the horses learned the rules after the first unsuccessful attempt, and became attentive to the visual “stop” signal, as the authors report in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science. This suggests that the scientists’ assumption was correct — the horses initially understood the prohibiting signal, but simply did not want to respond to it.
Horses are able to plan their actions
According to the researchers, during the first part of the experiment, the horses hit the target indiscriminately, as they were regularly given a treat. Therefore, they did not even have to make an effort to assess the significance of the light. But as soon as a penalty for errors was introduced, they changed their tactics. This suggests that the horses used a “cost-benefit” approach, which means they have the ability to plan in advance.
Horses have demonstrated the ability to think and predict the future. Photo source: sedla.ru
The horses' behavior also suggests that they are able to predict the future and change their behavior accordingly to achieve a goal. In this case, their goal was to get more treats. This means that horses have far more mediocre mental abilities than was previously assumed. Scientists believe that they use a form of learning called “model-based learning.” This form was previously considered too complex for horses.
The discovery came as a surprise, as it is known that horses have a poorly developed prefrontal cortex. Scientists have long believed that it is thanks to this part of the brain that humans have this type of thinking. From this it can be concluded that horses use another part of the brain instead of the prefrontal cortex to achieve a similar result.
Are scientists wrong about the mental abilities of animals?
From all of the above, it follows that scientists should not draw conclusions about the intelligence of animals only on the basis of the characteristics of their brains. And this applies not only to horses and not even just to mammals. It's possible that scientists are also wrong about bees, birds, and other creatures. Let us recall that earlier scientists were surprised by the behavior of bumblebees, which, as it turned out, are capable of using a “collective” mind. And crows have recursive thinking, which was considered unique to humans.
Scientists may be wrong about the intelligence of not only animals, but also insects, such as bumblebees. Photo source: techinsider.ru
However, our own intelligence did not arise on its own, but as a result of a rich evolutionary history. Therefore, we probably share many features of thinking with other species. In general, understanding how animals think, we can better understand them, which can make interactions with them, such as training, more effective.
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Finally, we remind you that people have been living side by side with horses for a very long time – about 5,500 years ago. However, they were originally bred not for riding, but for meat. It is not known exactly when riding horses appeared, since different studies show different results. According to one study, this could have happened 5,000 years ago, which we talked about earlier.