Ingenious horse Bashny.Net

This story is about a very smart horse named Hans, who in 1904 shocked the entire scientific community for its ability to answer questions. World held: really found the animal, such as intelligent as a man?




In the photo - Clever Hans during street performance.

If we believe the existing description of the time, the Hans could add, subtract, multiply and divide numbers, calculate with fractions, to determine the exact time, date in the calendar, and even read.
All questions answered Hans number of hooves on the ground. Among the questions were like: "How much is 12 + 12?", "If the eighth day of the month falls on a Tuesday, in what day in a row will be next Friday?". Hans could ask questions not only his master - Austin background orally, but also in writing.



Hans "answers" to questions.

But skeptics are not asleep, and believe that the answer does not give Hans, and people from the crowd, and especially its owner Wilhelm von Osten. Hans just noticed involuntary human response, manifested in solving the problem. After a very long known that a person's feelings can be read by involuntary eye movements, changes in pupil size, the change in respiratory rate.

Psychology professor Oscar Pfungst began his studies and became thoroughly investigate the movement that makes a person asking questions Hans.

Should isolate the horse from people even a simple sheet - Tupelo horse instantly, and lied to all tasks. Cleaned sheet - umnel again. As a result of numerous experiments it was found out that the answer is influenced by many factors: Does Hans examiner how great the distance between man and horse, put blinders on a horse there. Clever Hans successfully to notice the subtle facial expressions, posture tension, and even the beating of the veins in the neck of the examiner. If the experimenter himself knew the answer, the horse responds correctly in 98% of cases, and if the answer is unknown to Ask - correct answers were no more than 10%.



Hans and typewriter.

The answer was found and the scientific community was so offended by the fact that it fooled a horse that stopped all experiments related to the search for intelligence in animals. Many universities still lead the case with a horse named Hans, as a caricature example of scientific fraud.

This clever horse to understand the behavior of people so well that I could some time to appear equal to man.