Pigeons can read?

The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published a study showing that pigeons can be taught to recognize words. Researchers from the University of Otago in New Zealand and the Ruhr-Universität in Bochum are responsible for the study.

Scientists have found for the first time that pigeons can be taught to recognize someóof which the wordów. Such abilities have been previously observed in other animals, primarily primates. During the experiment, these birds correctly rósomeóre words in the English language from randomly arranged letters.

The experiment involved displaying four-letter words on a screenóand randomly arranged four letters. The pigeons were encouraged in the study by feeding them food after typing. The screen also displayed a symbol thatóry gave the option of choosing it when random letters were displayed on the screen.

Over the course of the study, the researchers gradually added new. In this wayób pigeons have enlarged the resourceób wordóin whichóry will ultimately resultófrom 26 to 58 wordsów. The researchers also checked whether the birds had correctlyóThey are able to recognize words or simply memorize them. The rate of hitting new items exceeded the random selectionór. Birds have learned that someóre pairs of letters in the English language, such as „en” or „al”, are very often components of whole wordsów.

We hope that the wkrótce pigeons will also read the Journal of Science.