Thinking chickens: a review of cognition, emotion, and behavior in the domestic (...)

[Diomedea exulans]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5306232/

Thinking chickens: a review of cognition, emotion, and behavior in the domestic chicken

Lori Marino

Abstract
Domestic chickens are members of an order, Aves, which has been the focus of a revolution in our understanding of neuroanatomical, cognitive, and social complexity. At least some birds are now known to be on par with many mammals in terms of their level of intelligence, emotional sophistication, and social interaction. Yet, views of chickens have largely remained unrevised by this new evidence. In this paper, I examine the peer-reviewed scientific data on the leading edge of cognition, emotions, personality, and sociality in chickens, exploring such areas as self-awareness, cognitive bias, social learning and self-control, and comparing their abilities in these areas with other birds and other vertebrates, particularly mammals. My overall conclusion is that chickens are just as cognitively, emotionally and socially complex as most other birds and mammals in many areas, and that there is a need for further noninvasive comparative behavioral research with chickens as well as a re-framing of current views about their intelligence.

[King Grub]

https://i.imgur.com/AI8DFJx.jpg

[Diomedea exulans]

https://tortueman.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/306-poulet-mutant1.jpg

[Järvskan]

Conclusions

1. Chickens possess a number of visual and spatial capacities, arguably dependent upon mental representation, such as some aspects of Stage four object permanence and illusory contours, on a par with other birds and mammals.

2. Chickens possess some understanding of numerosity and share some very basic arithmetic capacities with other animals.

3. Chickens can demonstrate self-control and self-assessment, and these capacities may indicate self-awareness.

4. Chickens communicate in complex ways, including through referential communication, which may depend upon some level of self-awareness and the ability to take the perspective of another animal. This capacity, if present in chickens, would be shared with other highly intelligent and social species, including primates.

5. Chickens have the capacity to reason and make logical inferences. For example, chickens are capable of simple forms of transitive inference, a capability that humans develop at approximately the age of seven.

6. Chickens perceive time intervals and may be able to anticipate future events.

7. Chickens are behaviorally sophisticated, discriminating among individuals, exhibiting Machiavellian-like social interactions, and learning socially in complex ways that are similar to humans.

8. Chickens have complex negative and positive emotions, as well as a shared psychology with humans and other ethologically complex animals. They exhibit emotional contagion and some evidence for empathy.

9. Chickens have distinct personalities, just like all animals who are cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally complex individuals