Relative Numerical Middle in Rhesus Monkeys

Overview

Journal Biol Lett

Specialty Biology

Date 2022 Feb 9

PMID 35135313

Authors

Rosa Rugani

Michael L Platt

Zhaoying Chen

Elizabeth M Brannon

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Animals show vast numerical competence in tasks that require both ordinal and cardinal numerical representations, but few studies have addressed whether animals can identify the numerical middle in a sequence. Two rhesus monkeys () learned to select the middle dot in a horizontal sequence of three dots on a touchscreen. When subsequently presented with longer sequences composed of 5, 7 or 9 items, monkeys transferred the middle rule. Accuracy decreased as the length of the sequence increased. In a second test, we presented monkeys with asymmetrical sequences composed of nine items, where the numerical and spatial middle were distinct and both monkeys selected the numerical middle over the spatial middle. Our results demonstrate that rhesus macaques can extract an abstract numerical rule to bisect a discrete set of items.

Citing Articles

Magnitude shifts spatial attention from left to right in rhesus monkeys as in the human mental number line.

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Asymmetric number-space association leads to more efficient processing of congruent information in domestic chicks.

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