Chimps' maths skills rival humans'

Research conducted by Duke University, just published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Biology, establishes that chimpanzees are as accomplished at mental addition as are human subjects.

Again, like the previous research on memory conducted by the Japanese research team, written of in a prior post, I would like to point out that the human subjects were NOT average humans. They were Duke University college students - and so, presumably, are superior to a typical human. So, again, this is a comparison between two randomly selected laboratory chimps and a group of superior humans. The fact that the chimps performed similarly to the human subjects is, therefore, extremely telling in these circumstances.

Prior chimp research had already established that chimps had some number skill. Non-human primates are known to be able to match numbers of objects, compare numbers of objects, and choose the larger of two numbers. This piece of research, however, took a look at mental addition as a skill.

The chimps and human subjects were briefly shown two sets of dots and were asked to add them up. They were then shown two possible results and were asked to choose between them. The human subjects were not allowed to use their verbal skills to assist them. They were not allowed to count verbally (the chimps couldn't do this so a comparison would then not be fair), nor were they allowed to verbalize in any other way. They had to proceed as fast as possible to come to an assessment of the situation. Typically, both chimps and humans answered in less than 1 second.

Contrary to what you might expect, young adult students, with many years of exposure to maths, in school, were no better than the chimps at this task.

Both chimps and humans were rewarded for their participation - the chimps with their favourite drink, the humans with $10 a session.

Jessica Cantlon, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at Duke University observed that "It shows when you take language away from a human, they end up looking just like monkeys in terms of their performance." She further noted that: "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."

Two chimps participated in the experiment: Boxer and Feinstein. Fourteen Duke University students pitted their wits against the chimps - and didn't win.

So, in the past few weeks we have seen two sets of chimp vs human students experiments. The chimps won in one case and drew in the other. This should really give ammunition to those who are striving hard to preserve the populations of non-human primates all over the world. Many people do not realize that non-human primates are, in many places, endangered species. It is a pity to lose any of the diverse species of this world - but how much more of a pity is it, when we understand that such fellow beings share so many of what we once thought of as our unique gifts?

Humans are not the only primates skilled in memory. We are not even the best at it. Humans are not the only primates adept in maths - and we are no better than our chimp cousins (without the aid of language). We would do well to remember that and make a little bit more effort to preserve the diversity of life on our planet, for so much of it is being lost, before we even get a chance to understand what it is, what it can do, and how precious it is.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)