Elephants Pass Detour Test, Show Strong Inhibitory Control
Asian elephants resisted impulses to reach directly for food in a classic psychology experiment, demonstrating restraint comparable to or exceeding human performance.
What to know
- Asian elephants passed the detour paradigm test, a classic psychology experiment measuring inhibitory control, by consistently taking a learned detour route rather than reaching directly at visible fruit.
- The elephants showed no difference in response time when the barrier became transparent, suggesting they were not fooled by visual access to the food and demonstrated very strong impulse restraint.
- The research is the first to apply this classic psychology test to elephants, revealing inhibitory control capabilities comparable to or exceeding those of many humans.
“This may provide evidence that elephants exhibit very strong inhibitory control; however, it may also indicate that the transparent surface did not elicit a strong prepotent response.”
Sydney Hope and Joshua Plotnik, Lead researchers · ScienceAlert ↗ · Sep 11
Sydney Hope Psychologist, City University of New YorkJoshua Plotnik Psychologist, City University of New YorkGolden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation Research partner in Thailand
How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlesposts
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Elephants demonstrate curiosity and strong inhibitory control
Once their trunks were inside the perspex box, elephants spent more time exploring its interior, displaying curiosity about the transparent material. The researchers interpreted this as evidence of very strong inhibitory control, though they noted it could also indicate the transparent surface did not elicit a strong prepotent response.
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Elephants Passed a Classic Psychology Test With More Restraint Than Many Humans https:// flipboard.com/@sciencealert/el ephants-passed-a-classic-psychology-test-with-more-restraint-than-many-humans-9cou78crl6597pit?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub Posted into Nature @ nature-ScienceAlert
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Fastest way to a daylong depression is any article about these magnificent beasts.
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background
Elephants show no difference in latency when facing transparent barrier — Analysis of recorded attempts revealed that when faced with the transparent surface after being trained to detour around an opaque barrier, the elephants did not show any difference in latency to enter the opening and quickly continued to detour around the transparent barrier, suggesting they were not fooled by the transparent material.
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Researchers test Asian elephants with detour paradigm
Sydney Hope and Joshua Plotnik of City University of New York, collaborating with the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation in Thailand, conducted the first study using the classic detour paradigm to measure inhibitory control in Asian elephants. Sixteen elephants aged 4 to 60 years were presented with fruit in a transparent box and had to resist reaching directly toward the visible food, instead taking a learned detour route around the box.
“The test trials should have been more difficult because, to reach the food reward, elephants needed to inhibit the impulse to reach straight toward the food that they could see and smell in front of them and, instead, continue to detour around the box.”
— Sydney Hope and Joshua Plotnik -
first by ScienceAlert, 12d ago
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