A group of researchers conducted Magic tricks for Different species of monkeys, and stars It has been found that the stupidity of animals can depend on the structure of their hands.
Specifically, the team found that monkeys were more likely to be deceived by hand tricks if they had opposable thumbs.. The Research is done published Today in Cell Biology.
Magic tricks are a great way to test animal intelligence, perception, and knowledge. The researchers used a classic A technique called the French drop tested the knowledge of three monkey species: the yellow-breasted capuchin, the squirrel monkey, and the common marmoset. The former two species When there are opposable thumbs Not marmosets.
Magic tricks require a reverse thumb, and Here’s the idea had to test”Elias GarcÃa-Pellegrin, a cognitive scientist at the National University of Singapore, said whether manual ability to produce an action, such as holding an item between the finger and thumb, is necessary to predict the effect of that action, among others. University of Cambridge liberation.
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after Several performances of comedyThe research team determined the primates’ morphology whether they Beguiled, bamboozled, led astray, tricked and tricked by monkeyshines.
The French drop is old Jokes, you may remember from birthday parties as a child. The performer shows the audience a small object, like a coin, which faces the crowd with the back of their hand, fingers pinched together and pointed. the sky Then, the performer uses their other hand to hide the object, and the mime accepts it, but actually lets the object fall into the original palm. Then, the audience is usually asked to figure out where the object is.
Illusions lead people to believe that an object has changed hands, when it has not. The key to cheating is hiding behind the second hand’s thumb.
For recent exams, currency A treat was substituted: peanuts for capuchins, mealworms for squirrel monkeys, and marshmallows for marmosets. Capuchins and squirrel monkeys overwhelmingly fell for the trick (81% and 93% of the time, respectively), but marmosets did not—they only cheated 6% of the time.
“This mirroring of our neural motor system may explain why the French drop worked for capuchins and squirrel monkeys but not for marmosets,” said University of Cambridge cognitive scientist Nicola Clayton in the same release.
To make sure the marmosets weren’t just too perceptive to the switch (perhaps they could smell treatment when other species cannot!), the researchers also performed a modified version of the French drop. The technique, known as the “power drop,” was the same basic technique, but the treats were transferred using a grip that all three species were capable of.
Power drops fool Capuchin 81% of the time And squirrel monkeys and marmosets 94% of the time, suggest Marmosets had the ability to follow that strategy Due to the location of the magicians digits.
“It’s about the embodiment of knowledge,” Clayton added. “How one’s fingers and thumbs move helps shape our thoughts and the assumptions we make about the world—as well as what others see, remember, and expect based on their expectations.”
Scientists Made monkeys out of monkeys With some easy sleight of hand. But don’t feel too bad For animals: wChickens they are properly Guessing the location of the treats, they got to eat them.
MORE: Why scientists should use magic to study animal intelligence
