From chickens to humans, animals think 'bouba' sounds round

Source: Ars Technica

Introduction

Does “bouba” sound round to you? How about “maluma”? Neither are real words, but we’ve known for decades that people who hear them tend to associate them with round objects. Recent research provides perhaps the weirdest bit of evidence to date: even newly hatched chickens seem to associate “bouba” with round shapes.

History of the Bouba/Kiki Effect

The initial finding dates back to 1947, when researchers discovered that people associated some word‑like sounds with rounded shapes, and others with spiky ones. Since then, the association has been formalized as the bouba/kiki effect, received considerable experimental attention, and is described in an extensive Wikipedia entry.

Explanations and Prior Research

Early explanations suggested similarity to actual words—either phonetically or via the characters used to spell them. However, studies with speakers of different languages and alphabets indicated that the effect is likely a general human tendency. The association also appears in infants as young as four months old, well before they master speaking or spelling. Attempts to find the bouba/kiki effect in other primates, however, came up empty, leading to speculation that it might reflect a uniquely human processing ability underlying our capacity for sophisticated language.

New Evidence from Chickens

A team of Italian researchers—Maria Loconsole, Silvia Benavides‑Varela, and Lucia Regolin—have now provided evidence that the effect is not limited to humans. They investigated the bouba/kiki effect in newly hatched chickens, only one to three days old. While this may sound odd, chickens offer a key advantage beyond ready availability: unlike a four‑month‑old human infant, newly hatched chicks are fully mobile and able to interact with the world, allowing researchers to test the association in a highly responsive, non‑human subject.