how many monkeys?
by John at 6/09/2005 02:09:00 PM
Absent yesterday's post, this Strange Science Week seems to be taking on a theme.
Today topic: rhesus monkeys with the ability to count
"The researchers played the monkeys 'coo' calls made by either two or three unfamiliar conspecifics. They then let the monkeys watch their choice of video images showing either two or three animals. The vast majority of the monkeys selected video images that corresponded to the number of individuals heard on the audio sample. Each monkey was tested only once and did not receive a reward. This allowed the team to observe the animal's spontaneous behavior, as opposed to skills learned over the course of evaluation."
Why is this cool? In the words of researcher Elizabeth Brannon of Duke University, "The results we obtained provide evidence that monkeys spontaneously detect a correspondence in number between two different sensory modalities, and this tells us that language is not necessary to represent number abstractly."
Today topic: rhesus monkeys with the ability to count
"The researchers played the monkeys 'coo' calls made by either two or three unfamiliar conspecifics. They then let the monkeys watch their choice of video images showing either two or three animals. The vast majority of the monkeys selected video images that corresponded to the number of individuals heard on the audio sample. Each monkey was tested only once and did not receive a reward. This allowed the team to observe the animal's spontaneous behavior, as opposed to skills learned over the course of evaluation."
Why is this cool? In the words of researcher Elizabeth Brannon of Duke University, "The results we obtained provide evidence that monkeys spontaneously detect a correspondence in number between two different sensory modalities, and this tells us that language is not necessary to represent number abstractly."
