Monkeys can read!
Posted by Filed under Technology
New research conducted at the Aix-Marseille University in France shows that baboons have the ability to identify words. By using different combinations of four letters, the primates are showing signs of being able to recognise which combinations of letters are real words and which aren’t.
They are “actually reading words much like we identify any kind of visual object, like we identify chairs and tables,” says the study’s lead research author Jonathan Grainger.
A testing area was installed into the baboon’s play area, with four touch screen computers. A mixture of real words and nonsense words were displayed on the screen, and the baboons had to touch either a green oval signs on the screen for the real words, or a blue cross to signal the nonsense words. The baboons were free to choose when they used the computers and for how long, but were given treats when they correctly identified the real words. The study concluded that the baboons identified the correct words three times out of four.
The researchers now believe that the ability to recognise words is related to object identification rather than spoken language skills.
Source: Science Journal