EAPSI:A Comparative Test of the Spatial Hypothesis for the Mental Representation of Order in Nonhuman Primates

EAPSI：非人类灵长类动物秩序心理表征空间假设的比较测试

• 批准号: 1515173
• 负责人: Rachel Diamond
• 金额: $ 0.51万
• 依托单位: Diamond Rachel
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-06-01 至 2016-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1515173&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAPSI; Comparative; Test; Spatial; Hypothesis

Humans think about numbers along a mental number line. The spatial representation of numbers has been linked to improved math abilities. It is unclear how much these spatial representations are caused by cultural training, such as learning to read from left to right. Because nonhuman animals have not learned to read from left to right, they can be used as a good model to investigate spatial representations in the absence of culture. Number and order have similar properties, so early nonhuman animal research has focused on order representations. Chimpanzees at the Primate Research Institute (PRI) of Kyoto University are some of the first nonhuman primates to have shown similar spatial representations of order as humans. In collaboration with Dr. Tetsuro Matsuzawa, the researcher will use touchscreen computers to test how memory for order and memory for spatial locations interact in the chimpanzees at the PRI. The researcher will also give similar tasks to rhesus monkeys, to test the extent to which humans, chimpanzees, and more distant primate relatives similarly think about number. Because nonhuman primates do not have cultural influences in the form of reading and math instruction, they are an ideal model in which to test how culture influences these abilities and their evolutionary history. At the PRI, chimpanzees will work on touchscreen computers to complete order and memory tests. Most evidence for a similar spatial representation of order or number in humans and nonhuman animals is indirect and analogical, and there are almost no data from animals that is directly comparable to human data. Recent research suggests that the spatial organization of order occurs in working memory. If chimpanzees represent order spatially in working memory, then performing an order task during the delay of a spatial working memory test will interfere more with performance on the spatial memory task than with performance on a non-spatial control task. If interference effects are obtained, it will indicate that chimpanzees represent order spatially and do so using a working memory mechanism. Comparing performance of nonhuman primates and humans can help elucidate the underlying mechanism supporting memory for order. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

人类思考数字时是沿着心理数轴的。数字的空间表征与数学能力的提高有关。目前还不清楚这些空间表征在多大程度上是由文化训练造成的，比如学习从左到右阅读。因为非人类动物还没有学会从左向右阅读，它们可以作为一个很好的模型来研究没有文化的空间表征。数量和顺序有相似的性质，所以早期的非人类动物研究集中在顺序表征上。京都大学灵长类动物研究所（PRI）的黑猩猩是最早表现出与人类相似的空间秩序表征的非人类灵长类动物之一。在与Tetsuro Matsuzawa博士的合作中，研究人员将使用触屏电脑来测试PRI黑猩猩对顺序和空间位置的记忆是如何相互作用的。研究人员还将给恒河猴做类似的任务，以测试人类、黑猩猩和更远的灵长类亲戚在多大程度上相似地思考数字。由于非人类灵长类动物在阅读和数学教学方面没有文化影响，因此它们是测试文化如何影响这些能力及其进化史的理想模型。在PRI，黑猩猩将在触屏电脑上完成顺序和记忆测试。大多数关于人类和非人类动物中相似的顺序或数字空间表征的证据是间接的和类比的，几乎没有来自动物的数据可以直接与人类数据进行比较。最近的研究表明，秩序的空间组织发生在工作记忆中。如果黑猩猩在工作记忆中表现出空间顺序，那么在空间工作记忆测试的延迟期间执行顺序任务对空间记忆任务的影响比对非空间控制任务的影响更大。如果存在干扰效应，则表明黑猩猩是通过工作记忆机制在空间上表征秩序的。比较非人类灵长类动物和人类的表现有助于阐明支持顺序记忆的潜在机制。NSF EAPSI奖是与日本科学促进会合作资助的。