On page 31 of the latest Parenting magazine it says this: 4–The average age at which a child is finally smarter than a pigeon, according to scientists at Keio University in Japan
What do you guys think, or dare I even ask?
I personally think my 1 year old has been smarter than a pigeon for a long time.
It must be one of the dumbest things that I have read in a while.
Yeah what’s so smart about a pigeon anyway?! I can only say I’m very proud of my baby! I’m amazed at his abilities!
lol
Thanks for that Nikki. :biggrin:
I guess the people at Parenting magazine thought the findings of the study were pretty funny, and that they would give their readers a (cheap) laugh. But of course, that first question that springs to mind is: "Smarter at what??"
The experiment was not about overall intelligence, but rather timing an individual’s ability at self-recognition. i.e.:
In this experiment, pigeons could discriminate video images that reflect their movements even with a 5-7 second delay from video images that don’t reflect their movements. This ability is higher than an average 3-year-old human’s. According to a research by Prof. Hiraki of the University of Tokyo, 3-year-olds have difficulty recognizing their self-image with only a 2 second delay.
The pigeon may be better at self-recognition than the baby human (but what a long way the baby human has to go! The pigeon… not so much ;)) - but that doesn’t mean the pigeon is smarter. You only have to spend a little time chatting to an average 3-year-old to be convinced of that. Surely the ability to speak and understand language deserves the “smart” tag more than the ability to recognize oneself at speed (did you notice? The 3-year-old can still recognize himself… just not as quickly).
The findings of the study are not that surprising actually, when you consider that babies’ brains process information very inefficiently. The very young brain just has too many neural pathways and not enough experience to know exactly which direction to send information in. This is after all why the process of pruning takes place (see http://www.brillbaby.com/early-learning/science-early-learning.php). Apparently, the processing speed of the human brain peaks at around age 12. So give the 3-year-old a break!
I’m sure the scientists who conducted this experiment never meant anyone to conclude that a pigeon is smarter than a 3-year-old human. It’s just that the media jump on findings like this and spin them in such a way that will catch the reader’s attention.
It certainly caught all of our attention! lol
Wow! I must have completely missed that in my copy of Parents–how absolutely ridiculous!
Those birds can’t talk or calculate (that we know of) or speak multiple languages or become potty trained…all measured of intelligence in our world.
Thanks for posting that!
Ha! That’s the one of the silliest things I’ve heard when it comes to studies. Of course, as stated above, the question is HOW are pigeons supposed smarter. If the case is indeed that they are simply better at self-recognition, I dare say that this is a very poor definition of smart. As for other measures of intelligence, I bet my daughter could beat a pigeon any day! 
oh my god. how do they compaier our loving babies with dumb pegions. this is the silly and dumb thing i ever heard.
which I why I don’t subscribe to this magazine - ridiculous!
it’s sad to think that this further blinds unknowing parents to the fact that their babies are geniuses – VERY SAD
MAybe the article should have read
Is the editor of this magazine smarter than a pigeon? lol
Honestly what were they thinking when he/she allowed this one to go to print!!! :nowink:
Children are smaller than the editors of the magazine.But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t smart or not gud at thinking.children knows how to identify their parents and ppl who take care of them but does the pigeons know how to identify the ppl who care for it.i don’t think so.
children are smart and cuter than the editors of the magazine.Isn’t it.
That is so sillly! I always have to wonder what is the purpose of such a study & where did the funding come from.
Well I think it is silly to compare a pigeon and a baby! Pigeons are very smart at what they do. Babies can’t fly! A baby can’t be trained to fly a message to a specific location, likewise a pigeon can’t speak. I would think it would be very hard to compare the intelligence level of such different species. Just like different people excel at different things. Different species have their own distinct abilities at which they excel. Try turning a baby loose with a message and have him repeatedly deliver it to the same location across town,
kkkkk.
lol
there are some people have time to study about pigeon… :rolleyes: lol