Processing of ordinality and transitivity by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).
Three chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) were trained to discriminate among pairs of boxes in an ABCDE-ordered series. The 2nd member of each pair was reinforced, until all 4 training pairs were learned. During novel tests the nonadjacent BD pair was presented, and all 3 animals reliably selected D. In Experiment 2, numerals 1-5 served as stimuli. One chimpanzee reliably selected the larger numeral 4 during testing with a nonadjacent pair (2-4), and 2 chimps showed no preference. In a 2nd phase, the same chimp demonstrated proficiency at reversing the task, reliably selecting the smaller of the 2-4 pair. In Experiment 4, after additional training, a 2nd test, which included novel test pairs composed of numbers that had not been used during training, was completed. Two of 3 animals were 100% correct on Trial 1 for all novel pairs. The results suggest that chimpanzees with experience in number concepts may recognize the ordinal character of numbers.
Boysen
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ST
Primate Cognition Project, Ohio State University, Columbus 43210-1222.
Berntson
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GG
Shreyer
T A
TA
Quigley
K S
KS
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003071:Cognition; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D002679:Pan troglodytes; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis