Zoo Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, United States; Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, United States.
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States; Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA, United States.
Cognition. 2017 Nov;168:312-319. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2017.07.010. Epub 2017 Jul 31.
Humans mentally represent magnitudes spatially; we respond faster to one side of space when processing small quantities and to the other side of space when processing large quantities. We determined whether spatial representation of magnitude is a fundamental feature of primate cognition by testing for such space-magnitude correspondence in gorillas and orangutans. Subjects picked the larger quantity in a pair of dot arrays in one condition, and the smaller in another. Response latencies to the left and right sides of the screen were compared across the magnitude range. Apes showed evidence of spatial representation of magnitude. While all subjects did not adopt the same orientation, apes showed consistent tendencies for spatial representations within individuals and systematically reversed these orientations in response to reversal of the task instruction. Results suggest that spatial representation of magnitude is phylogenetically ancient and that consistency in the orientation of these representations in humans is likely culturally mediated.
人类在心理上以空间形式来表示数量大小；在处理小数量时，我们对空间的一侧反应更快，而在处理大数量时，我们对空间的另一侧反应更快。我们通过在大猩猩和猩猩身上测试这种空间-数量对应关系，来确定数量的空间表示是否是灵长类认知的一个基本特征。在一种条件下，被试者在一对点数组中选择较大的数量，而在另一种条件下选择较小的数量。在整个数量范围内比较了对屏幕左右两侧的反应时。猿类表现出数量的空间表示的证据。虽然并非所有的被试者都采用相同的方向，但猿类在个体内部表现出空间表示的一致趋势，并在任务指令反转时系统地反转这些方向。结果表明，数量的空间表示在系统发育上是古老的，而在人类中这些表示的方向的一致性很可能是文化介导的。
