The learning lizard

[El_Machinae]

aka Natural Selection from Sentience to Sapience

Holy smokes, totally blew me away.

I like watching the animal psychology research, 'cause mainly it's super-fun. Lots of interesting results. Lots of shattering of our heuristics separating humans from 'other' animals.

Lots of fun results in our past. Empathic rats, canny ravens, introspective apes, jealous monkeys, octopuses with distributed computing, etc. etc.

I very much wasn't expecting this one. A reptile species that can watch to learn. It's very hard for me to imagine how this is based solely on instinct, I mean, I can, but it's not easy.

First evidence that reptiles can learn through imitation

Scientists draw an important distinction between imitation and emulation when studying the cognitive abilities of animals. In true imitation, the individual 'copying' another's behaviour not only mimics what they see, but also understands the intention behind the action. In emulation, an animal copies a behaviour without understanding its deeper significance: for example, a parrot reciting the words of its owner.

There is considerable debate about the extent to which non-primates are capable of true imitation.
...
One lizard was trained to act as a 'demonstrator', opening a wire door which covered a hole in a wooden board. The door could be moved horizontally along sliding rails to left or right by use of the head or the foot. The demonstrator was then rewarded with food (a mealworm) on the other side of the door.

The subjects were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group watched the demonstrator lizard approaching the test apparatus and opening the door with a sliding head movement.

All eight experimental subjects went on to successfully open the sliding door, pushing it to the same side they had observed. None of the control group subjects did this.

More at the link, obviously.


Personally, I will add this to my list of areas I will watch if only because of the ethical implications ...

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Well, no amount of observation will teach a snake to play guitar.