Boysen S T, Berntson G G
Primate Cognition Project, Ohio State University, Columbus 43210.
J Comp Psychol. 1989 Mar;103(1):23-31. doi: 10.1037/0735-7036.103.1.23.
A chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), trained to count foods and objects by using Arabic numbers, demonstrated the ability to sum arrays of 0-4 food items placed in 2 of 3 possible sites. To address representational use of numbers, we next baited sites with Arabic numbers as stimuli. In both cases performance was significantly above chance from the first sessions, which suggests that without explicit training in combining arrays, the animal was able to select the correct arithmetic sum for arrays of foods or Arabic numbers under novel test conditions. These findings demonstrate that counting strategies and the representational use of numbers lie within the cognitive domain of the chimpanzee and compare favorably with the spontaneous use of addition algorithms demonstrated in preschool children.
一只经过训练能用阿拉伯数字对食物和物体进行计数的黑猩猩（黑猩猩属），展示了对放置在3个可能位置中的2个位置上的0至4个食物项数组求和的能力。为了研究数字的表征性运用，我们接下来用阿拉伯数字作为刺激物在各个位置设饵。在这两种情况下，从第一次实验开始，黑猩猩的表现就显著高于随机水平，这表明在没有进行关于合并数组的明确训练的情况下，这只动物能够在新的测试条件下为食物数组或阿拉伯数字数组选择正确的算术和。这些发现表明，计数策略和数字的表征性运用属于黑猩猩的认知范畴，并且与学龄前儿童自发使用加法算法的情况相比毫不逊色。
