Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 5, 2025

Development of New Methods for Quantifying Fish Density Using Underwater Stereo-video Tools
Published on: November 20, 2017
What is it like to hear quantities? Testing dolphins on classic number estimation using a sonar setup
1University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences.
None:
The featured article by Sakurai and Tomonaga (2024) in this issue has set out to test to what extent dolphins can estimate relative differences between pairs of object numbers by echolocation. For this they used three consecutive experiments with multiple controls and compared their data statistically to existing data from visual experiments done on other species. Previous studies already indicate that dolphins can visually estimate relative numerosity (e.g., Jaakkola et al., 2005; Yaman et al., 2012). Therefore, the goal of the present study was to investigate the dolphin's capacity to apply Weber's law (quantity judgments are more accurate proportional to the quantities investigated) to two sets of object quantities under sonar evaluation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Related Concept Videos
Echo
Imagine the sound is reflected back to the ears. Assuming that the source is very close to the human, the difference between hearing the two sounds—the emitted sound and the reflected sound—may be more than the minimum time for perceiving distinct sounds. If this is the case,...
Sound Intensity Level
The human ear can perceive an extensive range of sound intensity, necessitating the use of the logarithmic scale to define a physical quantity—the intensity level. It is a ratio of two intensities and...
Hearing
Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location
Place theory, or place coding, suggests that different pitches are heard because various sound waves activate specific locations along the cochlea's basilar membrane. The brain determines the pitch of a sound by...
The Cochlea
Perception of Sound Waves
The pitch of a sound depends on the frequency and the pressure amplitude of the source. Two sounds of the same...

