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Can a horse learn cognitive skills?

Can a horse learn cognitive skills?

Clever Hans was a Russian breed horse, who could perform simple arithmetic and other intellectual tasks. The trainer had taught his horse, who would tap the answer with hoof.
Hans was said to have been taught to add, subtract, multiply, divide, work with fractions, tell time, keep track of the calendar and differentiate musical tones. Hans could read, spell and also understand German.
The owner, Von Osten would ask Hans
"If the eighth day of the month comes on a Tuesday, what is the date of the following Friday?”
Hans would answer by tapping his hoof.
How could Hans learn to answer these not so simple questions?
Photo Adaptation/Pixabay/wenphotos-1798295/
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Vivek
Vivek
Horse can't understand the arithmatic logics while Hans study the Von Osten body signs only. To tell the 11 with hoof, he has tap the legs only 2 times as per the instruction given by Von Osten which can be through multiple ways. Interesting piece is that Hans only understand his owner Von's signs only which clarify this logic

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The mistakes we make in our everyday life

• We are hardwired to make these mistakes • Few biases are simply evolutionary • These errors affect all of us including the bright ones • Experience is just not enough to overcome • but expertise is required to recognize and overcome

Few of biases as below · Anchoring - When an individual depends too heavily on an initial piece of information during decision making · Fixed pie - When we assume that our interests conflict with the other party's interests and we play adversarial · Framing - When we decide on our options differently when the options are presented with positive or negative connotations · Vividness – When we pay attention to strong features at the expense of less, that could be more impactful · Over confidence – When our subjective confidence is greater than the objective accuracy · Escalation – When initial decision is followed up with an irrational decision to justify the initial decision

Few ways to mitigate these biases are · Learn to recognize the bias · Use slow, effortful and logical thinking (System 2) · Avoid fast, automatic and effortless thinking (System 1) · Avoid negotiations which are thrust upon when not ready · Learn through use of stories, examples, exercises · Bring an outsider perspective