The Clever Hans Phenomenon from an Animal Psychologist's Point of View

Hediger, H.

doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1981.tb34459.x

Cited by 26 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Experimenter cueing is important to control because some have argued that animals can use subconscious human cues to solve cognitive tasks, as in the Clever Hans phenomenon (e.g., Beran, 2012; Hediger, 1981). Several experimental design features make this an unlikely possibility in the current experiment.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precocious quantitative cognition in monkeys

2015

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Basic quantitative abilities are thought to have an innate basis in humans partly because the ability to discriminate quantities emerges early in child development. If humans and nonhuman primates share this developmentally primitive foundation of quantitative reasoning, then this ability should be present early in development across species and should emerge earlier in monkeys than in humans because monkeys mature faster than humans. We report that monkeys spontaneously make accurate quantity choices by 1 year of age in a task that human children begin to perform only at 2.5 to 3 years of age. Additionally, we report that the quantitative sensitivity of infant monkeys is equal to that of the adult animals in their group and that rates of learning do not differ between infant and adult animals. This novel evidence of precocious quantitative reasoning in infant monkeys suggests that human quantitative reasoning shares its early developing foundation with other primates. The data further suggest that early developing components of primate quantitative reasoning are constrained by maturational factors related to genetic development as opposed to learning experience alone.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precocious quantitative cognition in monkeys

2015

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“…In addition to the questions concerning which capacities are being examined during testing for object permanence, another question arises as to whether the procedures assess existing capacities or, instead, actually teach the concept (see Cornell, 1978;Hediger, 1981;Thomas & Walden, 1985). It is, for example, possible that (1) subjects could learn the task from observing the experimenters' behaviors, (2) the repetitions of the tasks and even the mistrials allow subjects to engage in trial-anderror learning of each task (note Dore & Dumas, 1987), or (3) the tasks provide a step-by-step program for teaching the concept.…”

Section: Effects Of Training and Learning On Success In Object-permanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Object permanence in four species of psittacine birds: An African Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus), an Illiger mini macaw (Ara maracana), a parakeet (Melopsittacus undulatus), and a cockatiel (Nymphicus hollandicus)

Pepperberg¹,

Funk²

1990

Animal Learning & Behavior

114

121

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“…It was a productive failure because it succeeded in pointing out a possible flaw in all similar studies: the tendency to disregard the ability that experimental apes do have, which allows them to encourage the self‐deception of their experimenters. In a similar way, semiotician Thomas Sebeok, another notable critic of ape language studies, likens nonhuman sign language to a form of Clever Hans trickery (see Hediger 2010). Experimenters are so intent on communicating across human–nonhuman barriers that they overinterpret animal behavior.…”

Section: Primates Face To Facementioning

confidence: 99%

Technically Speaking: On Equipping and Evaluating “Unnatural” Language Learners

Reno

2012

American Anthropologist

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This article compares different communicative trials for apes in captivity and children with autism in order to investigate how ideological assumptions about linguistic agency and impairment are constructed and challenged in practice. To the extent that Euro-American techniques of "unnatural" language instruction developed during the Cold War era have been successful, it is because communicative interactions are broken down into basic components and would-be language learners are equipped with materials, devices and habits that make up for their distinct bio/social deficits. Such linguistic equipment can present a challenge to the ideological presumption of a subject inherently gifted with the rudiments of talk, that is, the human as naturally speaking. However, this ideology can reassert itself if the active contribution of unnatural language learners to their technoscientific trials is downplayed. In order to counter this tendency, I propose that speech acts be reimagined as part of a more encompassing semiotic ensemble. [language development, semiotics, materiality, posthumanism, linguistic ideology]

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The Clever Hans Phenomenon from an Animal Psychologist's Point of View

Cited by 26 publications

References 3 publications

Precocious quantitative cognition in monkeys

Precocious quantitative cognition in monkeys

Object permanence in four species of psittacine birds: An African Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus), an Illiger mini macaw (Ara maracana), a parakeet (Melopsittacus undulatus), and a cockatiel (Nymphicus hollandicus)

Technically Speaking: On Equipping and Evaluating “Unnatural” Language Learners

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