Animal Intelligence (Round One)

The years following Charles Darwin's introduction of the theory of evolution were filled with speculations on humans and their place in nature.  Since humans were just another type of animal, why couldn't animals be capable of reasoning and intelligence as well?  Wilhelm Von Osten, a German schoolteacher and phrenologist, determined to put this thesis to the test, began an ambitious program of educating three remarkable students: a cat, a bear, and an Arab stallion named Clever Hans whom he had bought in 1900.  While the cat and the bear failed to live up to Von Osten's expectations (the bear's reaction to flunking out is not recorded), Clever Hans became his prized pupil and quickly became a media star. Having taught the horse to recognize the numbers from one to nine, Von Osten would present arithmetic problems on a chalkboard and Clever Hans would tap out the correct answer.  The German Board of Education set up a commission to examine the horse's abilities in detail but no signs of deception were found.  Clever Hans was estimated to have the intelligence of a fourteen-year old schoolboy. 

Despite world-wide fame, scientists examining Clever Hans remained skeptical.  Following an extensive series of tests, Oskar Pfungst, a German psychologist, made an interesting discovery:  Clever Hans could only answer a question if the questioner knew the answer as well.  It was based on this observation, and a careful study of the horse's behaviour, that Pfungst came to realize what was happening.  The horse was not responding to the questions posed to him, but to the facial expressions and posture of the questioner.  Based on what he observed, Pfungst carried out laboratory studies in which he answered questions in the same way that Hans did by simply watching the postural cues given off by various questioners.  There is no indication that Von Osten was in any way aware of what Hans was doing and he flatly rejected Pfungst's findings (no doubt dismissing him as a neigh-sayer), preferring to continue showing off the horse (who still had a loyal following of fans). 

It was on the basis of Pfungst's findings that the Clever Hans Effect was first proposed and which led to the establishment of double-blind research designs to minimize the effect of experimenter bias on research subjects. Both von Osten and his horse vanish from history afterwards, their reputations never quite recovering from Pfungst's revelations.  Clever Hans was largely forgotten, until...