Thaindian News

London, March 30 (ANI): Researchers have discovered that Old World Monkeys have better numerical skills than previously thought.

In a basic numeracy test, long-tailed macaques were able to work out which of two plates contained more raisins.

Strangely, they only excelled in this test if they were not allowed to eat the raisins they were shown.

The scientists report that the animals have the ability to understand the concept of relative quantities.

The team of researchers from the German Primate Center in Goettingen initially tested the macaques by showing them two plates containing different numbers of raisins. When the animals spontaneously pointed to one of the plates, they were fed the raisins.

But in this test, the monkeys often got it wrong - choosing the smaller amount.

Lead researcher Vanessa Schmitt said that this was because, rather than thinking about quantities, the animals were thinking about how much they wanted to eat the raisins.

“This impulsiveness impaired their judgement,” the BBC quoted Schmitt as telling.

“But when we repeated the test, this time showing them two plates of inedible objects - pebbles - they did much better.”

To find out if the monkeys really could judge quantities, the researchers tried another experiment.

“We wanted to know if they could simultaneously maintain two mental representations of the food items, first as choice, and second as food reward,” said Schmitt.

In this third slightly more confusing experiment, the monkeys were shown plates of raisins, but their reward for pointing to a plate was to be fed other raisins that were hidden underneath.

“They perform as well in this task as they do when choosing the pebbles,” said Schmitt.

“This seems to show that they see the raisins as signifiers - representations of the food rewards they’re going to receive,” added Schmitt.

The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications. (ANI)