London - Most of us avoid dealing with fractions if we can help it – but a study has found that they don’t seem to be a problem for monkeys.
In the hope of finding out why humans find fractions difficult, researchers at Duke University in New York used a touch-screen computer to test whether rhesus monkeys could compare ratios.
Researcher Caroline Drucker told the Animal Cognition journal: “First we trained them to distinguish between two shapes: a black circle and a white diamond. When they touched the black circle, they heard a ding sound and received a sweet. But when they touched the white diamond, they heard a buzz and did not get any sweets.”
The researchers then introduced them to fractions. “We showed two sections on the screen,” Miss Drucker said. “The monkeys’ job was to touch the section having a greater ratio of black circles to white diamonds.”
The monkeys chose the correct section three-quarters of the time. Miss Drucker said: “Our results suggest that monkeys understand the magnitude of ratios.”
Daily Mail