1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,620 Unit 4. Instinct or Intellect? Page 95. Reading 1. 2 00:00:07,960 --> 00:00:14,000 Extreme Perception and Animal Intelligence by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:20,380 from Animals in Translation. Many animals have extreme perception. 4 00:00:21,500 --> 00:00:27,000 Forensic dogs are three times as good as any x-ray machine at sniffing out contraband, 5 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:32,200 drugs, or explosives, and their overall success rate is 90%. 6 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:37,560 The fact that dogs can smell things a person can't doesn't make him a genius, 7 00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:44,580 it just makes him a dog. Humans can see things dogs can't, but that doesn't make us smarter. 8 00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:50,480 But when you look at the jobs some dogs have invented for themselves using their advanced 9 00:00:50,480 --> 00:00:56,360 perceptual abilities, you're moving into the realm of true cognition, which is solving a 10 00:00:56,360 --> 00:00:56,980 problem unknowingly. 11 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:04,640 The seizure alert dogs are an example of an animal using advanced perceptual abilities 12 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:12,040 to solve a problem no dog was born knowing how to solve. Seizure alert dogs are dogs who, 13 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:19,900 their owners say, can predict a seizure before it starts. There's still controversy over whether 14 00:01:19,900 --> 00:01:25,480 you can train a dog to predict seizures, and so far people haven't had a lot of luck trying. 15 00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:26,980 But there are a lot of dogs who can predict a seizure before it starts. 16 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:29,700 But there are a number of dogs who have figured it out on their own. 17 00:01:30,860 --> 00:01:36,640 These dogs were trained as seizure response dogs, meaning they can help a person once a seizure has 18 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:43,380 begun. The dog might be trained to lie on top of the person so he doesn't hurt himself, or bring 19 00:01:43,380 --> 00:01:49,880 the person his medicine or the telephone. Those are all standard helpful behaviors any dog can 20 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:56,360 be trained to perform. But some of these dogs have gone from responding to seizures to perceiving 21 00:01:56,360 --> 00:01:56,980 signs of a seizure. So, if you're a dog that's been trained to lie on top of a person, you can 22 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:03,280 predict a seizure ahead of time. No one knows how they do this because the signs are invisible to 23 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:10,980 people. No human being can look at someone who is about to have a seizure and see, or hear, smell, 24 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:18,400 or feel what's coming. Yet one study found that 10% of owners said their seizure response dogs 25 00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:25,380 had turned into seizure alert dogs. The New York Times published a terrific article about a woman 26 00:02:25,380 --> 00:02:26,700 named Connie Stanley. 27 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:34,060 In Florida, who has two huge Bouvier de Flandre dogs who predict her seizures about 30 minutes 28 00:02:34,060 --> 00:02:40,680 ahead of time. When they sense Ms. Stanley is heading into a seizure, they'll do things like 29 00:02:40,680 --> 00:02:47,400 pull on her clothes, bark at her, or drag on her hand to get her to someplace safe so she won't get 30 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:55,900 hurt when the seizure begins. Ms. Stanley says they predict about 80% of her seizures. Ms. Stanley's 31 00:02:55,900 --> 00:02:56,980 dogs apparently react to seizures. Ms. Stanley's dogs apparently react to seizures. Ms. Stanley's dogs 32 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:02,860 were trained as seizure alert dogs before they came to her. But there aren't many dogs in that 33 00:03:02,860 --> 00:03:09,600 category. Most seizure alert dogs were trained to respond to seizures, not predict seizures. 34 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:17,820 The seizure alert dogs remind me of Clever Hans. Hans was the world-famous German horse in the 35 00:03:17,820 --> 00:03:24,720 early 1900s whose owner, Wilhelm von Austin, thought he could count. Herr von Austin could 36 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:26,460 ask the horse questions like, 37 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:33,980 what's seven and five? And Hans would tap out the number 12 with his hoof. Hans could even tap out 38 00:03:33,980 --> 00:03:39,800 answers to questions like, if the eighth day of the month comes on Tuesday, what is the date for 39 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:46,840 the following Friday? He could answer mathematical questions posed to him by complete strangers, too. 40 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:54,560 Eventually, a psychologist named Oskar Funxt managed to show that Hans wasn't really counting. 41 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:56,780 Instead, Hans was 42 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:04,160 observing subtle, unconscious cues the humans had no idea they were giving off. He'd start tapping 43 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:10,180 his foot when he could see it was time to start tapping. Then he'd stop tapping his foot when he 44 00:04:10,180 --> 00:04:17,020 could see it was time to stop tapping. His questioners were making tiny, unconscious movements 45 00:04:17,020 --> 00:04:23,780 only Hans could see. The movements were so tiny, the humans making them couldn't even feel them. 46 00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:26,980 Dr. Funxt couldn't see them. 47 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:32,380 He couldn't see the movements either, and he was looking for them. He finally solved the case by 48 00:04:32,380 --> 00:04:38,220 putting Hans' questioners out of view and having them ask Hans questions they didn't know the 49 00:04:38,220 --> 00:04:45,100 answers to themselves. It turned out Hans could answer questions only when the person asking the 50 00:04:45,100 --> 00:04:51,800 question was in plain view and already knew the answer. If either condition was missing, 51 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:53,740 his performance fell apart. 52 00:04:53,740 --> 00:05:00,540 Psychologists often use the clever Hans story to show that humans who believe animals are 53 00:05:00,540 --> 00:05:06,860 intelligent are deluding themselves. But that's not the obvious conclusion as far as I'm concerned. 54 00:05:07,860 --> 00:05:13,280 No one has ever been able to train a horse to do what Hans did. Hans trained himself. 55 00:05:14,220 --> 00:05:19,760 Is the ability to read a member of a different species as well as Hans was reading human beings 56 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:23,720 really a sign that he was just a dumb animal who'd been classed as a human being? 57 00:05:23,740 --> 00:05:34,740 I think there is more to it than that. What makes Hans similar to seizure alert dogs is that both Hans 58 00:05:34,740 --> 00:05:42,900 and the dogs acquired their skills without human help. As I mentioned, to my knowledge, so far no 59 00:05:42,900 --> 00:05:50,360 one has figured out how to take a raw dog and teach it how to predict seizures. About the best a trainer 60 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:53,720 can do is reward the dogs for helping when a person is in a situation where they're not able to do 61 00:05:53,720 --> 00:06:02,740 their job properly. 62 00:06:02,740 --> 00:06:08,480 In an experience I had with another dog, Hans, I found that the dogs are more likely to think 63 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:12,260 they're doing the right thing and might be doing it more effectively. They're more likely to think 64 00:06:12,260 --> 00:06:16,720 that they're the right thing to do so they know independent behavior and it's the right thing to do. 65 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:20,840 For me, the dog's ability to show intelligence is a miss subject. I've seen Chris and Chris's 66 00:06:20,840 --> 00:06:22,720 experience with dogs that have such a skill and they're against it. I thought it would be 67 00:06:22,720 --> 00:06:23,720 better to let them get away from their dog and then treat it differently. Now I think that this 68 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:31,020 probably of Hans, too, a sign of high intelligence or high talent, is the fact that they didn't have 69 00:06:31,020 --> 00:06:37,740 to do what they did. It's one thing for a dog to start recognizing the signs that a seizure is 70 00:06:37,740 --> 00:06:45,440 coming. You might chalk that up to unique aspects of canine hearing, smell, or vision, like the fact 71 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:52,040 that a dog can hear a dog whistle while a human can't. But it's another thing for a dog to start 72 00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:58,100 to recognize the signs of an impending seizure and then decide to do something about it. 73 00:06:58,700 --> 00:07:04,420 That's what intelligence is in humans. Intelligence is people using their built-in 74 00:07:04,420 --> 00:07:10,400 perceptual and cognitive skills to achieve useful and sometimes remarkable goals.