You have probably heard before that pigs are pretty smart. But can you picture pigs playing video games? In an impressive demonstration of their learning abilities, four pigs in a research study managed to do just that. Let’s take a look at how the study worked and what it says about animal intelligence.
Pigs Playing Video Games Demonstrates Their Impressive Intelligence
Here is the study, which involved four pig subjects, Hamlet, Ebony, Omelette, and Ivory. The researchers taught the pigs how to play a video game by manipulating a joystick using their snouts to control a cursor.
The pigs were able to perform the task, although not at the same level of humans. But the researchers believe this may have been due in part to issues involving a lack of dexterity as well as the positioning of the pigs’ eyes.
Another aspect of the experiment that was interesting was that the machine dispensing food pellets as rewards for task performance actually malfunctioned. Nonetheless, the pigs persevered, motivated instead by the encouragement of the researchers. So, playing the game had a social aspect.
It is unlikely that your next opponent in Fortnite or Apex Legends is going to be a pig, but it is certainly amazing to know that pigs are capable of playing video games. Indeed, their performance is even more impressive when you consider the challenges imposed by their anatomy. The researchers wrote, “That the pigs achieved the level of success they did on a task that was significantly outside their normal frame of reference in itself remarkable, and indicative of their behavioral and cognitive flexibility.”
None of this is to say you should not enjoy your next strip of bacon. But as you eat it, you will have some food for thought. Pigs are highly intelligent creatures. They can learn complex tasks, and may enjoy some of the same things we do—like the social aspect of playing video games. And if pigs had greater dexterity, who knows? They might just surprise us by how competitively they could play.