Alex’s Adventures in Numberland Read Online Free Page B
Author: Alex Bellos
legs undershot the journey home, while the ones with longer legs overshot it, suggesting that instead of using their eyes, the ants judged distance with an internal pedometer. Ants’ great skill in wandering for hours and then always navigating their way back to the nest may just be due to a proficiency at counting strides.
Research into the numerical competence of animals has taken some unexpected turns. Chimpanzees may have limits to their mathematical proficiency, yet, while studying this, Matsuzawa discovered that they have other cognitive abilities that are vastly superior to ours.
In 2000 Ai gave birth to a son, Ayumu. On the day I visited the Primate Research Institute, Ayumu was in class right next to his mum. He is smaller, with pinker skin on his face and hands and blacker hair. Ayumu was sitting in front of his own computer, tapping away at the screen when numbers flashed up and avidly scoffing the apple cubes when he won them. He is a self-confident lad, living up to his privileged status as son and heir of the dominant female in the group.
In this task Ayumu is flashed the digits 1 to 7, which then become white squares. He must remember the positions of the numbers so that he can then tap the squares in order to win the food reward.
Ayumu was never taught how to use the touch-screen displays, although as a baby he would sit by his mother as she attended class every day. One day Matsuzawa opened the classroom door only halfway, just enough for Ayumu to come in but too narrow for Ai to join him. Ayumu went straight up to the computer monitor. The staff watched him eagerly to see what he had learned. He pressed the screen to start, and the digits 1 and 2 appeared. This was a simple ordering task. Ayumu clicked on 2. Wrong. He kept on pressing 2. Wrong again. Then he tried to press 1 and 2 at the same time. Wrong. Eventually he got it right: he pressed 1, then 2 and an apple cube shot down into his palm. Before long, Ayumu was better at all the computer tasks than his mum.
A couple of years ago Matsuzawa introduced a new type of number task. On pressing the start button, the numbers 1 to 5 were displayed in a random pattern on the screen. After 0.65 seconds the numbers turned into small white squares. The task was to tap the white squares in the correct order, remembering which square had been which number.
Ayumu completed this task correctly about 80 percent of the time, which was about the same amount as a sample group of Japanese children. Matsuzawa then reduced the time that the numbers were visible, to 0.43 seconds, and while Ayumu barely noticed the difference, the children’s performances dropped significantly, to a success rate of about 60 percent. When Matsuzawa reduced the time that the numbers were visible again – to only 0.21 seconds, Ayumu was still registering 80 percent, but the kids dropped to 40.
This experiment revealed that Ayumu had an extraordinary photographic memory, as do the other chimps in Inuyama, although none is as good as he is. Matsuzawa has increased the number of digits in further experiments and now Ayumu can remember the positioning of eight digits made visible for only 0.21 seconds. Matsuzawao reduced the time interval and Ayumu can now remember the positioning of five digits visible for only 0.09 seconds – which is barely enough time for a human to register the numbers, let alone remember them. This astonishing talent for instant memorization may well be because making snap decisions, for example, about numbers of foes, is vital in the wild.
Studies into the limits of animals’ numerical capabilities bring us naturally to the question of innate human abilities. Scientists wanting to investigate minds as uncontaminated as possible by acquired knowledge require subjects who are as young as possible. As a result, infants only a few months old are now routinely tested on their maths skills. Since at this age babies cannot talk or properly control
Research into the numerical competence of animals has taken some unexpected turns. Chimpanzees may have limits to their mathematical proficiency, yet, while studying this, Matsuzawa discovered that they have other cognitive abilities that are vastly superior to ours.
In 2000 Ai gave birth to a son, Ayumu. On the day I visited the Primate Research Institute, Ayumu was in class right next to his mum. He is smaller, with pinker skin on his face and hands and blacker hair. Ayumu was sitting in front of his own computer, tapping away at the screen when numbers flashed up and avidly scoffing the apple cubes when he won them. He is a self-confident lad, living up to his privileged status as son and heir of the dominant female in the group.
In this task Ayumu is flashed the digits 1 to 7, which then become white squares. He must remember the positions of the numbers so that he can then tap the squares in order to win the food reward.
Ayumu was never taught how to use the touch-screen displays, although as a baby he would sit by his mother as she attended class every day. One day Matsuzawa opened the classroom door only halfway, just enough for Ayumu to come in but too narrow for Ai to join him. Ayumu went straight up to the computer monitor. The staff watched him eagerly to see what he had learned. He pressed the screen to start, and the digits 1 and 2 appeared. This was a simple ordering task. Ayumu clicked on 2. Wrong. He kept on pressing 2. Wrong again. Then he tried to press 1 and 2 at the same time. Wrong. Eventually he got it right: he pressed 1, then 2 and an apple cube shot down into his palm. Before long, Ayumu was better at all the computer tasks than his mum.
A couple of years ago Matsuzawa introduced a new type of number task. On pressing the start button, the numbers 1 to 5 were displayed in a random pattern on the screen. After 0.65 seconds the numbers turned into small white squares. The task was to tap the white squares in the correct order, remembering which square had been which number.
Ayumu completed this task correctly about 80 percent of the time, which was about the same amount as a sample group of Japanese children. Matsuzawa then reduced the time that the numbers were visible, to 0.43 seconds, and while Ayumu barely noticed the difference, the children’s performances dropped significantly, to a success rate of about 60 percent. When Matsuzawa reduced the time that the numbers were visible again – to only 0.21 seconds, Ayumu was still registering 80 percent, but the kids dropped to 40.
This experiment revealed that Ayumu had an extraordinary photographic memory, as do the other chimps in Inuyama, although none is as good as he is. Matsuzawa has increased the number of digits in further experiments and now Ayumu can remember the positioning of eight digits made visible for only 0.21 seconds. Matsuzawao reduced the time interval and Ayumu can now remember the positioning of five digits visible for only 0.09 seconds – which is barely enough time for a human to register the numbers, let alone remember them. This astonishing talent for instant memorization may well be because making snap decisions, for example, about numbers of foes, is vital in the wild.
Studies into the limits of animals’ numerical capabilities bring us naturally to the question of innate human abilities. Scientists wanting to investigate minds as uncontaminated as possible by acquired knowledge require subjects who are as young as possible. As a result, infants only a few months old are now routinely tested on their maths skills. Since at this age babies cannot talk or properly control
Readers choose
Scott Nicholson
Jackie Barbosa
Nina Coombs Pykare
Melissa Bitter
Donna Joy Usher
Eden Maguire
Tawny Weber
Sandra Brown
Tamar Cohen