A joint research group of Professor Masaki Tomonaga of the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University and Associate Professor Tomoko Imura of Niigata University of International and Information Studies will extract "averages" of the sizes of multiple objects for chimpanzees, even for non-human animals. I showed for the first time that I can do it.
We humans are good at quickly extracting the overall "average" characteristics, such as the facial expressions of the crowd and the approximate sizes of the fruits and vegetables in the store.While such abilities are considered important in non-human primates, non-human primates and birds have traditionally tended to focus more on the characteristics of individual subjects than on their overall characteristics. It has been shown repeatedly, and it was thought that it may be difficult to extract the "average" characteristics.
This time, the research group investigated the ability of 5 chimpanzees and 18 adults to perceive the "average" of the size of multiple circles.As a result, chimpanzees, like humans, choose the one with the larger "average" size of the 1 circles presented, rather than the larger one presented on the left and right on the monitor. It was shown that the answer is more accurate.
Until now, it has been thought that there are many differences in the overall information processing between humans and chimpanzees, but with this achievement, it is possible that chimpanzees also share the ability to extract the "average". Was suggested.These similarities in visual function are also expected to provide important implications when considering the evolution of our minds.
Paper information:[Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences] Perception of the average size of multiple objects in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
