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Experiment Suggests Monkeys Can Do Basic Math
sciencehabit (1205606) writes "It looks like a standardized test question: Is the sum of two numbers on the left or the single number on the right larger? Rhesus macaques that have been trained to associate numerical values with symbols can get the answer right, even if they haven't passed a math class. The finding doesn't just reveal a hidden talent of the animals—it also helps show how the mammalian brain encodes the values of numbers. Previous research has shown that chimpanzees can add single-digit numbers. But scientists haven’t explained exactly how, in the human or the monkey brain, numbers are being represented or this addition is being carried out. Now, a new study (abstract) helps begin to answer those questions."
WTF is with all the political bashing on this site lately?
Never knew math was so political...
It would be nice to see what animals are capable of this kind of differentiation - although the ability of Rhesus macaques to use symbolic representations to differentiate between 'more' and 'less' appears to be significant on several levels (at least, to me).
...of the Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
We can't have scientists doing experiments like these! Think of all the minimum wage jobs workers!
Ezekiel 23:20
Fine, but doing the Macarena well is much more profitable for a monkey.
Table-ized A.I.
Don't know, but to most people, math seems to be nothing more than "money see, monkey do". Understanding never comes into it.
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Sure it is, remember when W said, "Make the pi higher"?
Table-ized A.I.
Scientist: If I give you three bananas, then another two bananas, how many bananas do you have?
Dr. Zira: I don't like bananas!
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Of course Rhesus monkeys can do math, how could we have Rhesus positive and Rhesus negative blood types if they couldn't?
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He was talking about heaping more meringue on the lemon meringue pie.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
My accounting department and midmanagement is full of 'em.
WTF is with all the political bashing on this site lately?
It's gotten frankly absurd. Look, /., intelligent people disagree on some key cultural issues. There may be interesting discussions to be had where that's on-topic, but merely repeating abuse or over-used talking points on every freaking story is really dragging the site down.
Restrain your missionary zeal; it's not helping your cause folks!
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Don't know, but to most people, math seems to be nothing more than "money see, monkey do". Understanding never comes into it.
Public schooling was never intended to encourage curiosity and deep understanding. People like that would be too difficult to manipulate via advertising, PR, carefully cherry-picked news, and other forms of propaganda. No one in politics or business wants that.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
I've seen research experiments where they did more than simple math but could play simple games against human opponents and win more often than not (of course they could practice and the humans didn't get any). I've also seen them do simple sign language (arguably mimicking but they could clearly sign things they wanted). They also create and use tools.
So we are surprised they can seemingly do simple math? Really?
Now I don't figure they will be taking college algebra anytime soon, but I really am not all that surprised that they are capable of simple math.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Let me know when one of them provides a novel proof that the square root of two is irrational.
First I hear they can write Shakespeare and now math? They're more teachable than the average high school student
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
The ex-Aussie PM was worth a bonk, even if she was a rustymuff.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
One prevailing theory on number representation—dubbed logarithmic encoding—had proposed that the brain always underestimates the value of larger numbers in a systematic and unchangeable way
But, it turned out, they did not underestimate any number systematically. They did it only when it was the smaller argument to the add() function. So, the take away is, meh, they can add single digit numbers, but can't do logarithms. Right?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
You work in marketing?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Even I can do basic math, and I'm a fairly stupid monkey.
"It looks like a standardized test question: Is the sum of two numbers on the left or the single number on the right larger?
It does not look like standardized test question at all. The typical standardized test question would be, "Represent these two number in the number line. Use the $latest_fad to find the total of the two numbers. Explain how you would use the number line to select to whether to be chased by hyenas or cheetahs. Or Draw a picture of a flower".
The child that writes, "I talked to my brain about the number line and the brain said the test is dumb. So I am off playing super mario cart" makes it to the Colbert Show.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
JFK was a Republican?
http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/JFK-on-the-Economy-and-Taxes.aspx
we are that is unless you see monkeys smelting iron tools or dolphins living in skyscrapers or lab rats reading war and peace, whales flying to low earth orbit.
It is easy to see that some animals have some rudimentary intelligence like being able to tell the difference between small bowl of food and big bowl of food, but you would be a moron to not see that we are light-years past them in almost any cognitive test we can devise. Call me when a chimp wins game of chess against any human that has played more than once.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
Your compassion is overwhelming. What is it like, not being able to feel the suffering of others? Do you think that when you pretend to care about people around you, that they believe you?
"The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?"
Jeremy Benthan
I conjecture the better question is do they taste good with a side of sauteed onions and peppers?
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
A rising tide may lift all boats. But that does little good when the only thing you care about is that someones boat is nicer than yours.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
It seems to mostly apply to men also. Congressmen as a whole look like a Crypt Keeper gathering.
Table-ized A.I.
Let's see if he retains that skill in the Hague.
Table-ized A.I.
We have livestock working dogs. They do guarding and herding as well as other jobs on our farm. They do math. They can differentiate less, more, count, know numbers (we use numbers with them) and do simple addition.
Yes, these are not your ordinary pet dog - they're bred for intelligence and work at their jobs from a very young age so this may not be representative of all dogs. However, if our dogs can do math I'm not at all surprised monkeys can and I expect apes including chimpanzees and dolphins can probably do math too. These are social, cooperative animals and most of them are hunters which tends to develop brain hardware and skills.
I bet those bastards have known all along exactly how many typewriters they need to write Hamlet.
This story is about monkeys that can do symbolic addition. They're not identifying whether one pile of food is bigger than another.
There are several tasks that various animals, generally primates, dolphins or various birds, can do that children of various ages can't. It seems more and more unlikely all the time that our brains are really much different than those of many other animals. We've just got a little more capacity (eventually) and a whole lot of nonlinear network effect.
Show your dog three biscuits. Give him two. See if he goes and lays down or if he calculates the number of biscuits in your hand to be larger than zero.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
WTF is with all the political bashing on this site lately? Never knew math was so political...
The crazies left the Yahoo message boards - guess they ended up here.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
LOL. under dem presidents, deficits always drop, since Johnson. OTOH, every GOP (republicans and neo-cons alike) president starting with nixon, has caused massive deficits that increase every year.
Apparently, you neo-cons/tea* are not capable of math or facts.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
We really do not have that option.
The problem in America is that we USED to have 3rd parties that at least put pressures on the pubs/dems to keep them moderates.
However, when Poppa Bush lost due to Perot, the GOP announced that they would no longer allow 3rd parties to debate, and they would no longer use the league of women voters. Sadly, the fucking dems went along with the fascists.
So, now America has either idiots with the dems, or fascists with the gop.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Already been done: http://www.newtechusa.com/ppi/...
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I know many who can even code
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I used to be in math-heavy secondary school, with non-trivial math curriculum. On one of our religion lessons, priest when presented with the question "Do dogs have souls" answered clear "No". By my friend was pressing - "But when you look into dog's eyes, you can see a thinking, sensitive being there, doesn't that suggest it has something like a soul", priest desperately looking for "shut up" answer, replied "No - see, if you give the dog your math exercises, it will not manage it, so it doesn't have a mind and soul". To that, reply was short "Neither will you..."
So, according to my religion teacher, we can rename the headline to "Experiment suggests monkeys might have souls" ;)
You guys should really learn how to vote for 'none Of The Above'
The vast majority does vote for "None of the above". It hasn't helped.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Livestock working dogs. They do it all the time in their work of herding and guarding.