The Dolphin Institute - Dolphin Research Summaries

Based on the observations of dolphins in the wild and of the extensive studies of their characteristics in the laboratory, what can conclude about the intelligence of the bottlenosed dolphin. As mentioned earlier, Jerison (19859 identified the bottenosed dolphins as having comparable encephalization to that of humans. Theoretically, such a large amount of residual brain tissue suggests a large capacity for information processing. The studies reviewed above start to reveal the nature of that information processing, including memory capabilities, conceptualization, and versatility of behavior to effect solutions in complex tasks. One thing that immediately stands out when considering the entire corpus of data is that when given problems which can be solved by memorizing the responses to specific instances or by extracting generalized rules, the dolphin appears to employ the latter strategy (see Hunt, 1983, for how the ‘choice’ of the type of mental representation used to solve a problem relates to intelligence in humans). Similarly, when given novel problems in its language system involving the manipulation of mental symbols the dolphin chooses to either extract sensible sequences from insensible strings or to construct sensible sequences from non-adjacent symbols. Overall, these behaviors imply a high degree of cognitive relationships between classes of arbitrary stimuli. Given that we know about the life of the dolphin in the wild, such flexibility and understanding would appear to be highly adaptive and intelligent.

Herman, L. M. & Pack, A. A. (1994). Animal intelligence: Historical perspectives and contemporary approaches. In R. Sternberg (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Human Intelligence., 86-96. New York, NY: Macmillan.

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