Pigs Got Game
As part of her doctoral study, Croney hopes to quantify the cognitive level of pigs by encouraging them to do something that many parents wish their children wouldn’t do so often–play video games. However, the pigs won’t be playing arcade favorites like Mario World or Mortal Kombat, at least not at first. “We start with a very simple task,” Croney says. “The computer screen has a series of different icons, or shapes, on one side and a single shape on the other. First, we try to get the pig to move the single shape across the screen to touch the one that matches it. Once the pig accomplishes that, we move on to more complex tasks. Pigs are known to be smart animals, and we expect them to do more than recognize symbols. Our tests are similar to many used in child cognitive psychology. They’ll give us an idea of how advanced pigs are in mental development.” […]
The research team, which includes several undergraduates in animal bioscience, also had to design a special food delivery system. “Food is used as a reward to motivate the pigs to play the game,” says Croney. “When the pigs correctly move the object on the screen, a bell rings, telling the pig that it’s about to get a reward. Then a treat drops through a tube right into the pig’s cup.” The researchers also have installed a videotape system to record each experiment from four angles, which can be played back on screen simultaneously. “The videotapes help us carefully analyze the pigs’ behavior while they are using the joysticks,” Croney says.
Predictably enough, the Engadget thread on the subject had lots of comments to the effect of “Ha ha there are people who think about animals’ intelligence I shore loves eatin’ me some pigs!”
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