🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1ju46d$fc2@spool.mu.edu> johns@m.mscs.mu.edu (John Simms) writes:

>Also, what else is known about number recognition in animals?  How much
>"mathematics" can animals do, especially chimpanzees or gorillas?

Look for recent work by Tetsuro Matsuzawa--a couple of relevant
examples:

Matsuzawa, T. (1985). "Use of Numbers by Chimpanzee", _Nature_,
     315:57-59. 

and

Matsuzawa, T., Asano, T., Kubota, K., and Murofushi, K. (1986).
     "Aquisition and Generalization of Numerical Labelling by a
     Chimpanzee", in D.M. Taub, and F.A. King, (eds.) _Current
     Perspectives in Primate Social Dynamics_ Von Nostrand: Reinhold,
     New York.

Matsuzawa studies chimpanzees both in the lab and in the wild.  In his
lab, he has not only taught a few chimpanzees to count (one of them,
Ai, was up to 9 or 10 when he was here last year--she can probably go
higher now), but he's also demonstrated that they can understand such
concepts as transitivity.  He does really good work, and I encourage
you to look into it.  It's also possible that you'll find reference to
Lorenz' bird work in Matsuzawa's papers.

>| John C. Simms                    | Internet........: johns@mscs.mu.edu  |

Mickey Rowe     (rowe@pender.ee.upenn.edu)