[lit-ideas] Re: Of flying and counting



--- On Mon, 25/2/08, Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> >>crows can count to the number four, which is as high
> as humans can 
> recognize in one clump, say four sheep.  More than four of
> something we
> have to count.
> 
> 
> That simply can't be true. Merely playing chess
> disproves that
> "recognition clump" of four. Does the lecture
> cite a cognitive science
> source for their contention?

Yes. At first it might seem that just because crows in a 'gang-of-four' use 
'crowspeak' to tell any approaching crow to 'crow-off', that they do not 
necessarily know how to count to four but, for instance, use smell and other 
group detectors - and not enumeration - as the basis for their response. 
However, as the growing field of crow cognitive science increasingly 
recognises, it their ability at chess that disproves that - even if we assume 
that crow's behaviour generally is based on 'recognition clump' and not basic 
numeracy. In fact, they can indeed count well beyond four:- in tests where the 
chess pieces are all pieces of carrion, the crows carry out a very thorough and 
numerate inventory at the end of each game to make sure the pieces are properly 
divided between them.* /**


Donal
Booshing
   
*Divided, that is, according to complex and little understood rules as to the 
division of assets, rules which seem to vary according to a variety of 
underlying complex and little understood _sets_ of rules.

** Research in this area is hampered by the crows' predeliction, at least in 
controlled scientific experiments, to abandon the game of chess and simply tuck 
in to the carrion.


      __________________________________________________________
Sent from Yahoo! Mail.
A Smarter Inbox. http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts: