Animals and iPads: Cognition and Communication Studies

Have you ever marveled at the capability of an infant to play games on an iPad? A quick YouTube search will reveal thousands of results of this phenomena. It’s true our dependence on technology has become ingrained in us at an earlier and earlier age, but have our habits also had an effect on wildlife? Have animals also become entranced by this technological wonder? According to researchers around the world, the answer is a resounding yes.

A group of penguins from California’s Aquarium of the Pacific have become utterly attached to the games offered on the iPad. Using their beaks to play with the devices, the penguins are so transfixed by the lights and sounds illuminating from the iPad that they are too distracted to care when analyst Sara Mandel goes to examine their physical conditions.

“I can even go a step further and kind of look at him a little bit, kind of mess with his flipper,” Mandel notes as she probes her feathered friend while he plays his games in a video that captures the penguins in action. But these aren’t the only creatures that find pleasure in the bright lights of the touchscreen device. Animals from all over the world have been observed playing games and even using touchscreens to communicate with humans.

Kanzi is a male bonobo who resides in the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa. Touchscreen technology was introduced to the ape as a means of communicating with researchers. By tapping an array of 400 lexicons, Kanzi can tell researchers what’s on his mind with a simple touch of the screen. Many apes in many different research bases have learned this technique as well, allowing scientists to make new discoveries about the cognition of animals.
But perhaps the tales of apes showing signs of advanced intelligence are old news to you. Would it surprise you that cats, bears, and even tortoises have also learned to use touchscreen technology? While the spectacle of cats playing games on iPads has flooded YouTube almost as much as babies using the devices have, the development of bears and tortoises using touchscreen technology is fairly uncommon and even surprising.

Three American black bears of the Mobile Zoo in Wilmer, Alabama were taught to use the touchscreen in order to pass tests and be rewarded with food. When they touched the proper spot on the screen, they were rewarded with tasty treats. Likewise, two tortoises from the Department of Cognitive Biology at the University of Vienna showed signs of cognition when presented with a similar scenario. Each tortoise was presented with a blue dot on the screen. When selecting either the right or left dot, the tortoise would receive a reward if its choice corresponded with the correct dot. More often than not, these tortoises exhibited awareness of their choice, a huge step in the field of animal cognition.

These devices are not only used for animal amusement or cognitive research, however. Especially in the case of apes in captivity, the devices can be used to exercise their minds in the absence of wildlife obstacles in everyday life. The games, lights, sounds, and puzzles offered by the iPad add complexity to the otherwise dull life of captivity, giving the apes a chance to develop their minds and remain mentally and physically fit. Similarly, the aforementioned penguins seem to enjoy using these devices to keep in top physical condition.

Not only are iPads great distractions for humans, but their mesmerizing quality has reached into the animal kingdom. Their use for research purposes as well as entertainment purposes has had numerous benefits for animals and scientists alike as great strides have been made in the field of animal cognition since its introduction to animals. This development will only continue to benefit the scientific community as researchers probe even deeper into the animal mind.

By Carly Szabo

Image courtesy of Randomix – Flickr License