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https://www.sciencealert.com/crows-can-actually-count-out-loud-amazing-new-study-shows>
'It's no secret that corvids are capable of some amazing feats of creative and
intelligent thinking, but a newly discovered ability has us stunned.
A team of scientists has shown that crows can 'count' out loud – producing a
specific and deliberate number of caws in response to visual and auditory cues.
While other animals such as honeybees have shown an ability to understand
numbers, this specific manifestation of numeric literacy has not yet been
observed in any other non-human species.
"Producing a specific number of vocalizations with purpose requires a
sophisticated combination of numerical abilities and vocal control," writes the
team of researchers led by neuroscientist Diana Liao of the University of
Tübingen in Germany.
"Whether this capacity exists in animals other than humans is yet unknown. We
show that crows can flexibly produce variable numbers of one to four
vocalizations in response to arbitrary cues associated with numerical values."
The ability to count aloud is distinct from understanding numbers. It requires
not only that understanding, but purposeful vocal control with the aim of
communication. Humans are known to use speech to count numbers and communicate
quantities, an ability taught young.
When toddlers are learning to count, learning the specific numbers associated
with specific quantities can take a bit of time to master. In the interim,
children can sometimes use random numbers to make a vocal tally. Instead of
counting "one, two, three," they might say "one, one, four," or "three, ten,
one." The number of vocalizations is correct, but the words themselves are
jumbled.
The biological origin of symbolic counting is unknown, but since crows are
known to understand difficult numerical concepts such as zero, Liao and
colleagues thought they represented a good candidate for investigating more
sophisticated number skills.'
Via Susan ****
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*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
