Uploaded January 2015 | Updated September 2026, 9 hours ago
Investigators gathered chicks that were just three days old, and taught each of the chicks to find a treat behind a small sign marked with five dots. Once the chicks had learned this, the researchers moved each chick to an enclosure with two signs each showing an identical number of dots – say, eight – and separated to the two sides of the enclosure.
When the number of dots was lower than five, they found, the chicks looked behind the left-hand sign more than 70 percent of the time. When the number was higher than five, the same was true for the right-hand sign. These results seem to indicate that baby chicks tend to think of lower amounts as being to the left.
Read the full story at: discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/video-like-humans-chicks-count-from-left-to-right
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Credit: Rosa Rugani, Giorgio Vallortigara, Konstantinos Priftis, Lucia Regolin. 30 Jan 2015. Number-space mapping in the newborn chick resembles humans’ mental number line. Science. Vol. 347, Issue 6221, pp. 534-536. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa1379
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Investigators gathered chicks that were just three days old, and taught each of the chicks to find a treat behind a small sign marked with five dots. Once the chicks had learned this, the researchers moved each chick to an enclosure with two signs each showing an identical number of dots – say, eight – and separated to the two sides of the enclosure.
When the number of dots was lower than five, they found, the chicks looked behind the left-hand sign more than 70 percent of the time. When the number was higher than five, the same was true for the right-hand sign. These results seem to indicate that baby chicks tend to think of lower amounts as being to the left.
Read the full story at: discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/video-like-humans-chicks-count-from-left-to-right
—
Credit: Rosa Rugani, Giorgio Vallortigara, Konstantinos Priftis, Lucia Regolin. 30 Jan 2015. Number-space mapping in the newborn chick resembles humans’ mental number line. Science. Vol. 347, Issue 6221, pp. 534-536. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa1379
—
ABOUT DISCOVER:
Discover is your source for science that matters, makes sense and is a lot of fun, too.
Visit us at: discovermagazine.com
FOLLOW US:
Facebook: facebook.com/DiscoverMag
Twitter: twitter.com/DiscoverMag
Instagram: instagram.com/discover.magazine
SUPPORT US:
Subscribe to Discover: bit.ly/34seAFT
Sign up for our newsletter: discovermagazine.com/newsletter-signup
My Science Shop: myscienceshop.com
STAY CURIOUS!
