International
Two rhesus monkeys, ‘Arrow’ and ‘Tolman’, have demonstrated some complex quantitative processing skills. Cognitive behavioural scientists trained the monkeys to identify the middle item in a sequence of three objects. They then presented the monkeys with longer sequences and found they were able to apply the ‘middle rule’ to rows of five, seven, and nine, even when the items were unevenly spaced out, suggesting they weren’t relying on spatial cues.
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Median monkeys - Monkeys use numerical, not spatial, information when identifying the middle item in a sequence. Two rhesus macaques, ‘Arrow’ and ‘Tolman’, were trained to select the middle dot in a series. Even when the dots were unevenly spaced, both monkeys more frequently chose the numerical middle over the spatial middle, indicating they were able to extract an abstract numerical rule.
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