How Frogs and Fish “Count”
Evolution News @DiscoveryCSC
University College cognitive psychology prof Brian Butterworth, author of Can Fish Count? (Basic Books, 2022), talks about animal number sense in a recent article in Psyche.
He offers many examples of animals counting single digit numbers but then helpfully addresses the question of how they do it. We are talking here about a variety of very different types of neurological equipment — insects vs. amphibians, for example. Neuroscientists are beginning to pinpoint specific brain functions associated with counting for specific tasks:
Female túngara frogs benefit by mating with the male that can produce six croaks in one breath, over the male that can manage only five, because this is an indicator of respiratory fitness. Naturally, the male will try to outcroak his competitor by counting the number of croaks and adding one, to the limit of his breath.
BRIAN BUTTERWORTH, “A BASIC SENSE OF NUMBERS IS SHARED BY COUNTLESS CREATURES” AT PSYCHE (OCTOBER 12, 2022)
He then concedes that “even if we have inherited a basic number sense from distant ancestors, there are some big differences between humans and other creatures.” Most certainly. Algebra, geometry, and calculus are among them.
Read the rest at Mind Matters News, published by Discovery Institute’s Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence.
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