Mental construction of object symbols from meaningless elements by Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata)

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 3566
• Main Authors: Liu, Nanxi, Iijima, Atsuhiko, Iwata, Yutaka, Ohashi, Kento, Fujisawa, Nobuyoshi, Sasaoka, Toshikuni, Hasegawa, Isao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group UK 04.03.2022; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: Animals; Learning; Macaca; Macaca fuscata

When writing an object's name, humans mentally construct its spelling. This capacity critically depends on use of the dual-structured linguistic system, in which meaningful words are represented by combinations of meaningless letters. Here we search for the evolutionary origin of this capacity...