Low-rank Gallus gallus domesticus chicks are better at transitive inference reasoning

Abstract

Jonathan Daisley et al. investigated whether the social rank (pecking order) of young chicks was linked to an individual’s perception of transitive inference (e.g. A > B and B > C to infer A > C). They observed that chicks lower on the pecking order exhibited higher transitive inference performance, suggesting that social hierarchy influences cognitive abilities in animals.