Counting behavior in animals: A critical evaluation.

Previous research has shown that animals possess considerable numerical abilities. However, this work was based on experiments involving extensive training, a small number of captive subjects and relatively arti¢cial testing procedures. We present the results of experiments on over 200 semi-free-ranging rhesus monkeys using a task which involves no training and mimics a natural foraging problem. The subjects observed two experimenters place pieces of apple, one at a time, into each of two opaque containers. The experimenters then walked away so that the subjects could approach. The monkeys chose the container with the greater number of apple slices when the comparisons were one versus two, two versus three, three versus four and three versus ¢ve slices. They failed at four versus ¢ve, four versus six, four versus eight and three versus eight slices. Controls established that it was the representation of number which underlay their successful choices rather than the amount of time spent placing apple pieces into the box or the volume of apple placed in the box. The failures at values greater than three slices stand in striking contrast to other animal studies where training was involved and in which far superior numerical abilities were demonstrated. The range of success achieved by rhesus monkeys in this spontaneous-number task matches the range achieved by human infants and corresponds to the range encoded in the syntax of natural languages.

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Spontaneous number representation in semi–free–ranging rhesus monkeys

Hauser

Carey

Hauser

2000

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

445

452

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Properties of the Internal Clock^a

Church

1984

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

458

365

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Evidence has been cited for the following properties of the parts of the psychological process used for timing intervals: The pacemaker has a mean rate that can be varied by drugs, diet, and stress. The switch has a latency to operate and it can be operated in various modes, such as run, stop, and reset. The accumulator times up, in absolute, arithmetic units. Working memory can be reset on command or, after lesions have been created in the fimbria fornix, when there is a gap in a signal. The transformation from the accumulator to reference memory is done with a multiplicative constant that is affected by drugs, lesions, and individual differences. The comparator uses a ratio between the value in the accumulator (or working memory) and reference memory. Finally, there must be multiple switch-accumulator modules to handle simultaneous temporal processing; and the psychological timing process may be used on some occasions and not on others.

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Counting behavior in animals: A critical evaluation.

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Spontaneous number representation in semi–free–ranging rhesus monkeys

Spontaneous number representation in semi–free–ranging rhesus monkeys

Properties of the Internal Clock^a

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Counting behavior in animals: A critical evaluation.

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Spontaneous number representation in semi–free–ranging rhesus monkeys

Spontaneous number representation in semi–free–ranging rhesus monkeys

Properties of the Internal Clocka

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Product

Resources

About

Properties of the Internal Clock^a