Evening star., 1940-03-07

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Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
BY Thomas r. Henry.
A battery Of puppy intelligence tests
has been devised by Department of
Agriculture scientists.
At the animal experiment station at
Beltsville, Nd, they are breeding dogs
for brains. One objective is to estab-
lish a strain Of smart sheep-herding
animals and another to shed some light
on the heredity Of intelligence.
One of the great difficulties has been
to separate ability to think" from
purely instructive behavior. For in
stance, 1t is explained by DR.. w. M.
Dawson who is in charge of the study,
all breeds Of sheep dogs will try to
head of q flock. They apparently have
an irresistible impulse to do so, passed
down to them from wolf ancestors who
attacked animals in fiocks. It is really,
DR.. Dawson says, an expression of the
killer instinct. 1t is so strong that such
dog hardly can help trying to get in
front OF any moving object, such as a
train or automobile, and often is killed.
Such behavior hardly can be considered
intelligent, Mr.. Dawson points out, al
though variations of it to meet changed
circumstances may be evidence of
brains at work.
For many generations. he says, dogs
have been bred as blue ribbon winners.
They have been judged on color, size
and shape Of ears, form Of body, and
similar criteria which have no real
relation to their mental abilities. The
that some of the blue ribbon families
whose pups bring fancy prices produce
a good many canine morons.
Another outstanding difficulty has
been to separate dog intelligence from
emotion. Pups vary enormously in
courage, Mr.. Dawson says, and some
times very bright animal will appear
the most stupid of the lot because it is
so timid On the other hand, as among
men, a bold front may cover a lot of
stupidity.
Four breeds of dogs are being used
pulls, or Hungarian sheep dogs; Ger
man shepherds, collies and elbows. The
latter is not natural sheep herder
but has some characters which might
be valuable in such work, including
lot of courage Recently the Turkish
ambassador has presented the Govern
ment with pair of Turkish sheep dogs
powerful, shaggy creatures weighing
from 80 to 100 pounds-which are sup
posed to be highly intelligent. The
first four are being bred together in all
sorts of combinations in an effort to
separate and then re-combine the best
qualities of each. The Turkish dogs
are not being used in any combinations
as yet, but an effort will be made to
establish the race in the United States.
The puppy gets his first intelligence
test upon which he is marked as if he
were an infant in kindergarten, when
he is months old. It consists merely
of standardized observations on his re-
actions to being led with leash. At
months he is given the whistle test
and marked on the time required for
him to learn to lie down at one sound of
a whistle and stand up at two blasts
Both these tests are of ability to learn,
which may be quite a different thing
from ability actually to think the way
out of new situations.
When he is year old the pup gets
the stranger test" He is placed in
room, vacant except for single chair.
A stranger" enters. He is always the
same stranger, one Of the scientists at
another Beltsville laboratory The
puppy, however, never has seen him
before. This man has trained himself
always to keep the same facial express
sion and to simulate, at least, the same
state of mind in every experiment. The
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man knocks at the door. Three seconds
later he says: II am coming in" After
another lapse Of three seconds he enters,
remains silent for a moment, and then
calls to the dog. The chair is in the room
partly for his protection. Some of the
year-old puppies are rather fierce on
their first encounter with an unknown
person. The test consists essentially in
measuring the time required for the
stranger to make friends with the dog
to the point where it will allow itself
to be patted on the head.
But during the test hidden observer
takes notes on dozen or more factors
in the dogs behavior which have a
bearing on his adjustment to a new
situation. 1t is a test both of the
animals brains and of his emotions.
Here also the marks" are rigidly
standardized. The final test comes when
the dog is 13 months DID, He is placed
in a wire cage with four wooden doors.
Three of these doors are locked. The
fourth can be pushed open. It is never
the same door in two successive tests.
Outside, within sight of the hungry
dog, is some meat. He is first shown that
one door always can be opened. The
animal is marked" on the number of
trials above two which he requires to