Numerical competence in animals, with an insight from ants

Abstract

We survey a variety of experimental paradigms for studying animal abilities to count, to understand numerical information and to perform simple arithmetic operations. There is a huge body of evidence that different forms and elements of quantitative judgement and numerical competence are spread across a wide range of species, both vertebrate and invertebrate. Here we pay particular attention to the display of numerical competence in ants. The reason is that most of the existing experimental schemes for studying numerical processing in animals, although often elegant, are restricted by studying subjects at the individual level, or by the use of artificial communicative systems. In contrast, the information-theoretic approach that was elaborated for studying number-related skills in ants employs their own communicative means and, thus, does not require the subjects to solve any artificial learning problems, such as learning intermediary languages, or even learning to solve multiple choice problems. Using this approach, it was discovered that members of highly social ant species possessed numerical competence. They were shown to be able to pass information about numbers and to perform simple arithmetic operations with small numbers. We suggest that applying ideas of information theory and using the natural communication systems of highly social animals can open new horizons in studying numerical cognition.

Comparative psychological aspects of ontogenetic development of behavior: A review of experimental studies

“…Новокаледонские вороны оказались «гениями» орудийной деятельности: в спо-собностях быстро преобразовывать разные предметы и использовать их для решения слож-ных пространственных задач эти птицы превосходят столь признанных наукой умельцев, как шимпанзе . Некоторые высоко социальные виды муравьев оказались «гени-ями общения»: они могут решать сложнейшие задачи, недоступные представителям большин-ства видов животных, но только в тех ситуациях, когда надо запомнить и эффективно передать сородичам информацию о богатом источнике пищи (Reznikova, Ryabko, 2011).…”

“…Они также могут улавливать закономерности в предлагаемой им последовательности поворотов и использовать их для «сжатия» сообщения: так, «закономерная» последовательность «шесть раз налево» значи-тельно проще для запоминания и передачи, чем, скажем, «налево-направо-направо-налево-направо-налево», т. е. «случайная» (Ryabko, Reznikova, 2011).…”

It’s all in your head: the role of quantity estimation in sperm competition

“…In QE nomenclature, this is called relative quantity judgement. Many species possess basic QE aptitudes, where amount and quantity are significantly confounded (for a review see [46]). In SC, relative quantity judgement is manifested, for example, by males measuring females' reproductive tract content [47,48].…”

Quantification acuity in spontaneous shoaling decisions of three-spined sticklebacks

“…It has been described, for example, in primates (Beran 2001(Beran , 2007Call 2000;Shumaker et al 2001;Vonk 2003) and other species of mammals (e.g. Baker et al 2011;Irie-Sugimoto et al 2009;Kilian et al 2003;Pisa and Agrillo 2009;Vonk and Beran 2012;Ward and Smuts 2007;West and Young 2002), birds (Garland et al 2012;Pepperberg 2006;Rugani et al 2010Rugani et al , 2013, amphibians (Uller et al 2003;Stancher et al 2015), fishes (Agrillo et al 2012a;Gómez-Laplaza and Gerlai 2011) and invertebrates (Evans et al 2007;Reznikova and Ryabko 2011). The ability to differentiate between different quantities allows individuals to optimally adjust their behaviour and hence to increase their survival or reproduction prospects, for instance by avoiding places with a higher number of predators or by preferring habitats with more food or fewer competitors (see Shettleworth 2009).…”

“…It is often assumed that animals (including humans) use similar, ancestral mechanisms for number quantification (Agrillo et al 2012b;Feigenson et al 2004;Reznikova and Ryabko 2011). Small quantities (B4) are thought to be processed by a process termed ''subitizing'' (Kaufman et al 1949).…”