Pigeons can tell the difference between impressionist paintings by Monet and cubist works by Picasso.
Professor Shigeru Watanabe from Keio University has spent years studying what happens when you put pigeons in front of pieces of artwork. For example in a study from 1995, he presented pigeons with paintings by Monet and Picasso. The pigeons were trained to peck whenever they saw the paintings that they were trained towards.
Not only could the birds tell the difference between these artists; they could generalise this stylistic difference to other artists. Monet’s works are representational (they look realistic) and the pigeons showed generalisations to other artists such Cézanne who painted in this style. On the other hand, Picasso’s works are patterned after impressionism (not a true representation of the world) and pigeons could also generalise his style to similar painters.