• Question: can animals read?

    Asked by chloestyles to Charlotte, Jo, Kevin, Louise, Valeria on 15 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Kevin Mahon

      Kevin Mahon answered on 15 Jun 2012:

      While many animals can certainly distinguish shapes and other visual stimuli generally speaking, animals cannot read. (Remember, writing is a human construct!)

      Some chimps have shown proficiency in remembering lettters, and learning the alphabet but the researchers who did this work did not go as far as to suggest that the chimps had literacy!

    • Photo: Joanna Cruden

      Joanna Cruden answered on 15 Jun 2012:

      Animals cannot read to the same degree we can, many years ago I worked with Rhesus macaques that could recognise shapes and remember them, this made them great models for memory testing!

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