Numerical Competence in the Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)

众所周知，黑猩猩是人类最亲密的非人类近亲，但它们与人类共享认知能力的惊人程度仍在被发现。博伊森和伯恩森博士正在研究黑猩猩的算术能力。他们的研究应该有助于我们理解不同物种之间认知能力的相似和差异，并有助于澄清那些可能支持非人类灵长类数字技能的过程。除了这些对基本科学知识的贡献外，这些研究可能会对儿童的数字能力产生更敏锐的测试和理解，更广泛地说，提供对非语言智力的更好理解。因此，本项目可能对语言障碍或其他发育障碍儿童的认知能力提供见解。实验将考察数字符号的操作，计数技能的出现，以及数字符号的表征性质。将扩展以前开发的训练方法，以增加三只年轻成年黑猩猩使用数字的范围和功能意义，并使用包含符号和对象的阵列来检查和减法的特征。还将在一只成年黑猩猩和一只幼年黑猩猩身上检查计数技能的出现，包括对从1到7的两个量(3，6)的识别能力的分析，这两个量(3，6)以前没有与物体阵列配对。抽象符号的使用将在一项关于食物共享的研究中进一步探讨，该研究在社会、合作的背景下使用阿拉伯数字和对象数组。最后一项研究将调查黑猩猩在数字刺激类别中形成等价集的情况。

Chimpanzees are well known to be our closest non-human relatives, but the surprising extent to which they share cognitive abilities with human beings is still being discovered. Drs. Boysen and Berntson are investigating the numerical competence of chimpanzees. Their studies should contribute to our understanding of the similarities and differences in cognitive capabilities across species and toward clarifying those processes that may support numerical skills in non-human primates. Besides these contributions to basic scientific knowledge, these studies may yield sharper tests for and understanding of numerical competence in children and, more generally, provide a better understanding of non-verbal intelligence. Thus, the present project may provide insights into the cognitive abilities of language-impaired or otherwise developmentally-challenged children. Experiments will examine the manipulation of numerical symbols, the emergence of counting skills, and the representational nature of number symbols. Training methods previously developed will be extended to increase the range and functional significance of number use by three young-adult chimpanzees, and to examine features of summation and subtraction using arrays containing both symbols and objects. The emergence of counting skills will also be examined in an adult and an infant chimpanzee, including an analysis of ability to recognize the position within the series from 1 to 7 of two quantities (3, 6) that have not previously been paired with arrays of objects. The contribution of abstract symbol use will be further examined in a study of food sharing that employs Arabic numerals and arrays of objects in a social, cooperative context. A final study will investigate the chimpanzees' formation of equivalence sets among categories of numerical stimuli.