Conceptual Understanding
Dateline: 01/13/00
For centuries humans have struggled with perplexing questions about animals. Questions such as: Do animals understand concepts? Do they think? if so, what is the nature of their thinking and understanding? These issues recently came to a head when a group of animal behavior researchers determined that animals can be taught to count and to understand the concept of numbers.
In the study, the scientists designed a test to determine if rhesus monkeys (Macaques) could learn a set of rules for categorizing objects and then subsequently apply those rules under a new set of conditions. The test consisted of a computer display with one to four elements on it such as circles, squares or diamonds. The objects had various colors and sizes.
The monkeys were then trained to touch the items in numerical order. Three monkeys participated in the study. One was trained to touch the items in descending order and the other two were trained to touch the items in ascending order. Initially the monkeys were trained on 35 different displays. The monkeys were trained for approximately 6 months to develop their ordering skills.
Subsequently they were tested on an additional 150 displays. The results were startling as the researchers found that the performance of the monkeys did not drop over the 150 new displays.
Next, the researchers tested to determine if the monkeys understood the numerical sequences, for example that two is bigger than one, three is bigger than two and so forth. This time the researchers used additional number pairs that the monkeys had not been previously exposed to.
Again, the results were startling as the monkeys who were initially trained to touch the objects in ascending order were right about 75 percent of the time. When positive rewards were added the third monkey also responded at a high level. Due to the high percentage, scientists were able to rule out chance guessing as a determinant cause.
Some striking similarities and parallels were also evident in the study. Like humans, the further apart two numbers were the easier it was for the monkeys to order the numbers. They were quicker to order two and eight for instance versus two and three.
The researchers believe that the study provides powerful evidence that the concept of numbers is meaningful to the monkeys studied and perhaps to other animals as well.
What do you think? Do animals "think conceptually" in the same sense as humans? If so, how far down the evolutionary chain do you think the ability extends? What evolutionary adaptions do you think led to cognition? Come on over to the Biology Forum and share your thoughts, opinions and feelings. 'Til next time...
For additional information see:
New Study Shows It's More Than One, Two, Three for Rhesus Monkeys
The original news release about the study.
