Big Blue Car : Clever Hans

Video for the track Clever Hans, taken from the album 'Happy Yet?'.

Click here for more information and a listen to the whole album:
https://bigbluecar.net/album-happy-yet

The Psychology of Horse-play...
Hans was an Orlov Trotter (a horse) in the early 1900's. It was said that his owner (a part time maths teacher) had taught Hans arithmetic and that Hans could tap out numeric answers with his hooves.

Future studies showed there was such a thing as an 'unconscious cueing' effect which skewed evaluative information set by questioners to their participants. In this case though it was said to be the owner of Hans who was unconsciously prompting. This helped Hans deliver the correct answers; a phenomenon often called the 'Clever Hans Effect'.

But in reality Hans was playing the lot of them - even the Psychologists. Hans liked the attention, he loved the celebrity - and of course the extra hay. He also had a photographic memory and extremely keen eyesight, easily picking out minute details of his (largely) human audience. A hidden skill he used and kept for himself alone.