Dolphin Frustration

When I was working at the Human Dolphin Foundation, Dr. John Lilly told me this story. A researcher came to investigate dolphin intelligence. He had an apparatus with two paddles and red and green light. The dolphin was supposed to hit the left paddle the green light went on and the right paddle when the red light went on. Lilly warned the researcher this would be far too boring. It would need at least a dozen lights. The researcher persisted. The dolphin figured it out within a couple of trials. The researchers said he needed 30 trials to be statistically significant. The dolphin tossed the apparatus out of the tank and would never let the researcher back into the tank.

~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)