comparative psychology

Imagine you hear the made-up words "bouba" and "kiki" - which one sounds round and soft, and which sounds sharp and spiky? Most people say "bouba" sounds round and "kiki" sounds sharp. This is called the bouba-kiki effect, and scientists thought it might be special to humans and related to how we developed language. But this study found that baby chickens, just hours after hatching, make the same connections! When they heard "bouba-like" sounds, 80% of the chicks walked toward round, curved shapes rather than spiky ones. This suggests that connecting sounds with shapes isn't learned or uniquely human - it might be a basic way that many animals' brains work, going back hundreds of millions of years in evolution.