Pigs have the potential for a “remarkable” level of mental and behavioral flexibility in a new study

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

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

Each pig performed the tasks far beyond 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 long-sighted animals, without opposable thumbs, could succeed in this task is “remarkable,” according to the researchers.

“It is not a small thing for an animal to understand the concept that its behavior has an effect elsewhere. That pigs can do this to any extent should give us a break as to what else they are capable of learning and how such learning can impact them, “said lead author Dr. Candace Croney, a professor at Purdue University. and director of the Purdue Center for Animal Welfare, Sarah T. Boysen, known for her work on the knowledge of chimpanzees, co-authored the study.

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

In the current study, the team used food to teach and reinforce behaviors, but also found that social contact could strongly influence their persistence. For example, when the treatment that distributed the machine did not work, the pigs continued to respond correctly using only verbal and tactile cues. And only verbal encouragement seemed to help the animals during the most challenging tasks.

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

While pigs could not match the skill level of nonhuman primates in the video task and failed to meet the criteria used for primates to demonstrate full mastery of the concept, the researchers said the shortcomings could be partially explained by the nature experiment, which was designed for dexterous, visually oriented mammals.

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

“Informing management practices and improving pig welfare has been and still is a major goal, but indeed, it is secondary to better appreciating the uniqueness of pigs beyond any benefit we can derive from them,” Croney said.

###