Surprise, the parrots know the statistics. And use it properly

They are called Blofeld, Bruce, Loki, Neo, Plankton and Taz, they are real splinters in statistics. Nothing strange, if they were not parrots. Chea (Nestor notabilis) to be precise, a species endemic to New Zealand. According to a study just published on the pages of Nature Communications, in fact, these birds are able to integrate different types of information to make choices, based on the calculation of the probabilities. In a manner that is not altogether so different from what we do as human beings, but with the architecture of the brain is completely different.

That that Amalia Bastos and Alex Taylor the University of Auckland explain you have observed in these birds is the so-called ability of statistical inference, i.e. the ability to make inferences/predictions about a population, based on the observation of a part of it. In the case in question, the predictions that the chea, were called to process had to do with the likelihood of receiving a reward (food) based on their choices. Bastos and Taylor were first of all instructed the six parrots pair of black sticks with a food reward, and some orange with no reward. After that, have placed the parrots in front of a lot of choices. In the course of some experiments the researchers used two jars that are transparent, containing different proportions of sticks in black and orange. The scientists took a rod from each jar, and kept them closed in the hands, so as to hide the color, but allowing the parrot to see from which jar were taken, and asking the parrots to choose from. In some cases in the jars was put on a sort of separation, a barrier, and allowed to fish only between some of the sticks (in fact, by altering the proportion of pick-up sticks in black and orange that could be taken by the experimenters).