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Rhesus Monkey (Photo: Wikimedia) |
Researchers from Duke University in the United States have conducted studies demonstrating that Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) and, of course, humans have an early understanding of quantity, distinguishing between more and less.
Kerry Jordan and Elisabeth Brannon conducted simple experiments: they presented Rhesus monkeys with an image of two monkeys appearing to call out, while simultaneously playing the sounds of two monkeys and another image showing three monkeys also calling out, accompanied by the sounds of three monkeys.
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| (Photo: Nhsia) |
Researchers observed that the Macaca monkeys tended to gaze longer at the image corresponding to the number of calls they heard. This means they recognized that if they heard three calls, there must be three monkeys, and if they heard two calls, they looked longer at the image featuring just two monkeys.
The principle of the experiments with the monkeys (matching images to sounds) was also applied to infants still in their cribs. Remarkably, these infants looked longer at images of two female faces that matched two voices, or longer at images of three female faces if they heard three voices.
Scientists concluded that it is likely that infants, even before they begin to babble, not only understand but also recognize quantities early through auditory and visual cues.
