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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
 Posted - 12/18/2007 : 12:57:37
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Heard this on NPR then saw the news story and I had a couple thoughts... First, I love monkeys. Second, the research sheds light on the huge advantages given by spoken and written language. I love words too, and numbers to a lesser extent.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071218/sc_nm/chimps_math_dc;_ylt=AgvPJcAk5j5eQH62dZyQ0DshANEA
Monkeys and college students as good at mental math
By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Monkeys performed about as well as college students at mental addition, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a finding that suggests nonverbal math skills are not unique to humans.
The research from Duke University follows the finding by Japanese researchers earlier this month that young chimpanzees performed better than human adults at a memory game.
Prior studies have found non-human primates can match numbers of objects, compare numbers and choose the larger number of two sets of objects.
"This is the first study that looked at whether or not they could make explicit decisions that were based on mathematical types of calculations," said Jessica Cantlon, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at Duke, whose work appeared in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Biology (www.plosbiology.org).
"It shows when you take language away from a human, they end up looking just like monkeys in terms of their performance," Cantlon said in a telephone interview.
Her study pitted the monkey math team of Boxer and Feinstein -- two female macaque monkeys named for U.S. senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California -- with 14 Duke University students.
"We had them do math on the fly," Cantlon said.
The task was to mentally add two sets of dots that were briefly flashed on a computer screen. The teams were asked to pick the correct answer from two choices on a different screen.
The humans were not allowed to count or verbalize as they worked, and they were told to answer as quickly as possible. Both monkeys and humans typically answered within 1 second.
And both groups fared about the same.
Cantlon said the study was not designed to show up Duke University students. "I think of this more as using non-human primates as a tool for discovering where the sophisticated human mind comes from," she said.
The researchers said the findings shed light on the shared mathematical abilities in humans and non-human primates and shows the importance of language -- which allows for counting and more advanced calculations -- in the evolution of math in humans.
"I don't think language is the only thing that differentiates humans from non-human primates, but in terms of math tasks, it is probably the big one," she said.
As for the teams, both were paid. Boxer and Feinstein got their favorite reward: a sip of Kool-Aid soft drink. As for the students, they got $10 each -- enough for a beer or two.
(Editing by Sandra Maler) |
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-Chaloobi
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 12/18/2007 : 18:56:18 [Permalink]
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| LOL! That's awesome. |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
 Posted - 12/18/2007 : 20:57:38 [Permalink]
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| I also read recently that their memory was better (and this may have been an SFN thread). That is, when you had lights flash in a certain order (i.e. Simon Says), the chimps could repeat the order better and faster than humans. (See here.) |
| Edited by - Cuneiformist on 12/18/2007 20:58:09 |
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2007 : 06:58:21 [Permalink]
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| Language is so huge - it acts like a surrogate memory and allows us to perfect our mathematics. It allowed culture to develop as a phenomena separate from ourselves as individuals, almost taking on an emergant existance separate from the individuals that make up it's tiny parts. Its relationship to individual humans is analagous to the relationship of mind to neurons. |
-Chaloobi
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recurve boy
Skeptic Friend
Australia
53 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2007 : 07:25:17 [Permalink]
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| I'm not surprised. After 4 years of university level math, I can't add either. On the other hand I could build a basic calculator with easy to get parts to do it for me. And I can integrate. Let's see a monkey do that! :P |
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2007 : 09:16:42 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by recurve boy
I'm not surprised. After 4 years of university level math, I can't add either. On the other hand I could build a basic calculator with easy to get parts to do it for me. And I can integrate. Let's see a monkey do that! :P
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Can you do it without language? |
-Chaloobi
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Monkies Can Add Like US College Students
