Access
This article is part of Nature's premium content.
Published online 18 December 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2007.381
News
Monkeys add up like we do
Rhesus monkeys master basic addition in a similar way to humans.
A mathematical competition between two rhesus macaques and fourteen undergraduates has revealed a new similarity between monkeys and college students: their ability to handle basic addition.
In the battle of man versus macaque, students bested the monkeys for overall accuracy at 94% to 76%.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Comments
Reader comments are usually moderated after posting. If you find something offensive or inappropriate, you can speed this process by clicking 'Report this comment' (or, if that doesn't work for you, email webadmin@nature.com). For more controversial topics, we reserve the right to moderate before comments are published.
“This will be important,� he says, “especially since the human–animal comparison often breaks down because the former are tested without training and the latter with training.� I do not agree with this statement. It is ptactically impossible to find a human that has not had previous training.
I also question the value of a test with the animals not being trained. For human you can explain what is expected once and have them perform the test immediately. An animal will have no idea of what to do until it figures out the reward pattern. So IMO testing an untrained animal who has no idea of what they are supposed to be doing is utterly useless.