Pigs show potential for ‘remarkable’ level of behavioral and mental flexibility in new study

Pigs will probably never be able to fly, but new research is revealing that some species of the Sus genus may have a remarkable level of mental and behavioral flexibility. A study published in Frontiers in psychology tested the ability of four pigs to play a simple video game with a joystick. Each animal demonstrated some conceptual understanding, despite the limited dexterity in tasks normally assigned to non-human primates to analyze intelligence.

The study involved two Yorkshire pigs called Hamlet and Omelette, and two Panepinto, Ebony and Ivory micro pigs. All four animals were trained to approach and manipulate a joystick with their snout in front of a computer monitor during the first phase of the experiment. Then they were taught to play a video game in which the objective was to move a cursor using the joystick towards up to four target walls on the screen.

Each pig performed the tasks well above chance, indicating that the animal understood that the movement of the joystick was connected to the cursor on the computer screen. The fact that these clairvoyant animals, without opposing thumbs, could succeed in the task is “remarkable”, according to the researchers.

“It is no small feat for an animal to understand the concept that the behavior it is carrying out is taking effect elsewhere. The fact that pigs can do this to any degree should give us a break to know what else they are capable of. learn and how such learning can impact them, “said author Dr. Candace Croney, professor at Purdue University and director of the Purdue Center for Animal Welfare Science. Sarah T. Boysen, known for her work on chimpanzee cognition, co-authored the study.

Scientists already know that pigs are capable of various types of learning, from the same type of basic obedience commands taught to dogs as “come” and “feel” to more complex behaviors that require them to change their behavior when the rules of the game change. One study even showed that pigs can use mirrors to find food hidden in a pen, Croney noted.

In the current study, the team used food to teach and reinforce behaviors, but they also found that social contact can strongly influence their persistence. For example, when the candy dispensing machine stopped working, the pigs continued to give correct answers using only verbal and tactile cues. And only verbal encouragement seemed to help animals during the most challenging tasks.

“This type of study is important because, as with any sentient being, the way we interact with pigs and what we do with them has an impact and importance for them,” said Croney. “So we have an ethical obligation to understand how pigs acquire information and what they are able to learn and remember, because it has implications for how they perceive their interactions with us and their environments.”

While the pigs failed to reach the skill level of non-human primates in the video task and did not meet the criteria used for primates to demonstrate complete mastery of the concept, the researchers said that the deficiencies can be partially explained by the nature of the experiment, which was designed for skilled and visually oriented mammals.

The study ended before researchers could investigate a more ambitious goal: whether such a computer interface using symbols could be used to communicate with pigs more directly, as has been done with non-human primates.

“Informing management practices and improving the welfare of pigs was and still is an important objective, but in fact, it is secondary to better assess the uniqueness of pigs out of any benefit that we can derive from them,” said Croney.

###