BEACHCOMBER

98 YEARS OLD AND STILL PLAYS GAMES WITH CHICKS...

LAST week, I mentioned a rather splendid piece of research which apparently showed that three- day old chickens count from left to right. Having now had a chance to talk to one of the chicks involved in the experiment, some doubts have been raised in my mind.

The experiment, as you will doubtless recall, involved training a chick to walk around a panel with a number of spots on it in order to receive a reward of food. When the chick had learnt to do this, it was given the choice of two panels, one on its left and one on its right.

The number of spots on each of these panels was the same but it was a different number from the panel in the training session. What the researchers found was that if the number was smaller than in training, the chick headed for the one on the left but if it was larger it chose the right- hand one.

So does this, I asked the chick, show that chickens count from left to right, just like humans? “Well what do you think?” she said. “It seems to me to be pretty conclusive,” I said. I believe that 70 per cent of chicks followed the pattern of going left for small numbers and right for large ones.”

“Would you have done that?” she asked.

“Hmm,” I hmmed. “Interesting question. I don’t know.”

“Exactly,” said the chick. “I didn’t know either. So I went for the panel that I thought was more likely to result in my being rewarded with food.” “Well how did you choose?” I asked. “Simple,” the chick said. “I found out all I could about the researchers and their previous work, knew that they were working on the idea of a Mental Number Line, discovered that you humans think of numbers from left- to- right, so concluded that they were more likely to reward me for doing the same and going left for small numbers and right for large ones.”

“I see,” I said. “So you weren’t so much following your natural inclination as guessing how the experimenters’ minds worked and trying to do what they hoped for?”

“Exactly,” she said. “It’s a bit like the Greek debt crisis.”

“Sorry,” I said, “I’m afraid you’ve lost me there. What does it have to do with the Greek debt crisis?”

“Well it’s all Game Theory isn’t it?” she said. “I mean, the choices made by the Greek finance minister and the European Union depend on their assessments of what the other side is going to do. It’s a classic game of bluff and counter- bluff. In our experiment, however, there was clearly one course of action that was optimal for both sides, so that’s what we went for.”

“Hang on,” I said, “I thought the Greek finance minister denied that he was using Game Theory.”

“It’s all part of Game Theory to deny it,” the chick said. “If your opponent knows what rules you’re playing under, then it’s all over. Anyway, Game Theory assumes that the players are behaving rationally and politicians rarely do that. Psychologists are much easier to predict, you know.”

I nodded and we left it at that.