A horse, named Clever Hans, was put on display in 1891 by his owner William von Osten and became known around the world for his inexplicable abilities. Apparently Hans could count, tell the time, read and spell (in German). He communicated through stamping one foot on the ground, for example, if he was asked what five add two was, he would stomp seven times.
Led by Carl Stumpf, a philosophy professor, a group of researches examined Clever Hans to try and unveil his secrets. However, in 1904 a statement was issued saying they could find no evidence of trickery. Although he didn’t find any evidence of trickery, Carl Stumpf and one of his students, Oskar Pfungst, noticed a link; Hans could rarely answer a question von Osten didn’t know the answer to. Eventually, after lots of careful testing and observation they came to a conclusion; Hans could not count, he was actually responding to unconscious cues from his trainer. Von OSten had been making subtle movements, sometimes merely a change in facial expression or a shift of stance, when Hans reached the correct answer that would cue Hans to stop.
There is no doubt that Clever Hans was clever, just much less so than both von Osten and the public believed.
There are many opinions regarding the question ‘can animals count?’. Personally, I don’t believe animals can count using numbers in the same way as humans. However, I do believe that animals have an ability to evaluate the amount or quantity of something in the sense of whether it’s a large amount or small amount.
Another study, completed by Kevin C. Burns and his colleagues of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand examined robins. To do this the burrowed holes in fallen logs and stored varying numbers of mealworms in these holes. They then witnessed the robins fly straight to the holes with the most meal worms first. Burns conclusion was that; ‘they probably have some innate ability to discern between small numbers’. However he also thinks that they use their number sense on a daily basis, therefore, through trial and error they can train themselves to identify numbers up to 12.
Watching the video of Ayumu the chimpanzee it is easy to believe that Ayumu understands numbers. There is no doubting Ayumu is extraordinary, being able to recall the order of eight digits when displayed for 0.21 seconds and the order of five when displayed for 0.09 seconds. You cannot deny he has fantastic reaction speed and memory, however is he doing maths or is he just recalling from memory.
I, Science Website seem to believe he is doing maths as they brand him; ‘Counting Chimp’ and it states that his job is to order the numbers 1-9 when they are displayed on the computer as is shown in the video. However, the numbers are then covered by white squares so he has to memorise the numbers position and then order them.
For me, the key word here is ‘memorise’. I believe that Ayumu is just memorising the order of the numbers and doesn’t actually understand them and there is no evidence he has an understanding of numbers. Therefore, without this understanding, it is impossible that Ayumu would be able to count.
It would be an amazing thing to see animals be able to count. However, after this research I still believe that they do not posses that ability and cannot see them possessing it in the near future. I do believe however, that animals all have an awareness of the quantity of something and that is how a mother duck is able to tell if all her chicks are with her and the same for the robins with the mealworms. It is nothing more than that however, and the truth is animals cannot count, no matter how much humans wish they could.
Reference List
http://www.isciencemag.co.uk/features/counting-chimp/
