Researchers at Harvard recently conducted an odd experiment in visual memory. They selected 21 Harvard undergrads and 21 6- to 8-year-old children, and pitted them all against an African grey parrot in an elaborate version of a shell game:
Tiny colored pom-poms were covered with cups and then shuffled, so participants had to track which object was under which cup. The experimenter then showed them a pom-pom that matched one of the same color hidden under one of the cups and asked them to point at the cup. (Griffin, of course, used his beak to point.) The participants were tested on tracking two, three, and four different-colored pom-poms. The position of the cups were swapped zero to four times for each of those combinations. Griffin and the students did 120 trials; the children did 36.
The game tests the brain’s ability to retain memory of items that are no longer in view, and then updating when faced with new information, like a change in location. This cognitive system is known as visual working memory and is the one of the foundations for intelligent behavior.
As the Harvard Gazette reports, Griffin the parrot kicked the all the little kids' asses, and "performed either as well as or slightly better" than the Harvard students in 12 of the 14 trial types.
Take from that what you will.
When a bird brain tops Harvard students on a test [Juan Siliezar / The Harvard Gazette]
