Pfister's Hen

The Chicken as Visual Researcher

Pfister's hen is wearing prism's to deviate light. The experiment set out to find if the chicken, like humans, is able to correct an upside down world. It is. However, as a friend asked, is that a good or a bad sign, or can the chicken be considered smarter if it does it more quickly than us humans? Animals were used extensively in experimental research on the physiology of perception. In the literature from the 1950s and 1960s which I have been consulting those animals are always treated as 'things', as soulless non-entities. Yet maybe some animals showed some enthusiasm for the tasks.

The Chicken as Visual Researcher
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