Ordering of the Numerosities 1 to 9 by Monkeys

A fundamental question in cognitive science is whether animals can represent numerosity (a property of a stimulus that is defined by the number of discriminable elements it contains) and use numerical representations computationally. Here, it was shown that rhesus monkeys represent the numerosity of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 1998-10, Vol.282 (5389), p.746-749
Main Authors: Brannon, Elizabeth M., Terrace, Herbert S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal ethology
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Cognitive science
Colors
Comparative psychology
Discrimination (Psychology)
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Macaca mulatta - psychology
Mammalia
Mathematics
Mental Processes
Mental stimulation
Property titles
Psychology, Comparative
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Sensory discrimination
Surface areas
Terraces
Training
Vertebrata
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Summary:A fundamental question in cognitive science is whether animals can represent numerosity (a property of a stimulus that is defined by the number of discriminable elements it contains) and use numerical representations computationally. Here, it was shown that rhesus monkeys represent the numerosity of visual stimuli and detect their ordinal disparity. Two monkeys were first trained to respond to exemplars of the numerosities 1 to 4 in an ascending numerical order (1 → 2 → 3 → 4). As a control for non-numerical cues, exemplars were varied with respect to size, shape, and color. The monkeys were later tested, without reward, on their ability to order stimulus pairs composed of the novel numerosities 5 to 9. Both monkeys responded in an ascending order to the novel numerosities. These results show that rhesus monkeys represent the numerosities 1 to 9 on an ordinal scale.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.282.5389.746