Related Experiment Videos
Indicating acts during counting by a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)
S T Boysen1, G G Berntson, T A Shreyer
1Comparative Cognition Project, State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1222.
Summary
A chimpanzee demonstrated that its counting behaviors, like pointing and touching items, correlate with the number of items and the numeral chosen. These indicating acts may function as an organizational tool during counting, similar to early childhood development.
Area of Science:
- Primate cognition
- Animal behavior
- Comparative psychology
Background:
- Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) possess numerical abilities.
- Understanding the development of counting skills in non-human primates offers insights into cognitive evolution.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between indicating acts, item quantity, and numeral selection in a chimpanzee during counting tasks.
- To explore the functional significance of indicating behaviors in primate numerical cognition.
Main Methods:
- A trained chimpanzee was presented with arrays of 0-7 items.
- Twenty-five counting sessions were videotaped.
- Correlations were analyzed between item count, indicating acts (pointing, touching, rearranging), and selected Arabic numerals.
Main Results:
- Significant positive correlations were found between the number of items and the chosen cardinal number.
- A significant correlation existed between the number of items and the frequency of indicating acts.
- The number of indicating acts also correlated significantly with the selected numeral.
Conclusions:
- Indicating acts displayed by the chimpanzee during counting appear to have functional significance.
- These behaviors may serve as an organizing schema, analogous to those observed in human children learning to count.
- The findings suggest a potential shared mechanism in the development of numerical understanding across species.