Baboons detect bogus words

 Can baboons read? Absolutely not. But can they differentiate real words from random letters that were put together? According to recent discoveries, yes! While the baboons didn't recognize what the words meant, they were able to pick out  phony words.To ascertain this, scientist use an experiment  involving six baboons.The baboons were trained with touch screen computers. If the primates touched a cross on the screen after seeing a real wordtouched a cross on the screen after seeing a real word, they got a treat. They would also receive a treat if they pressed an oval on the screen after seeing a bogus word.After more than a month of training, most of the baboons got very good at this. Three out of four times, the average baboon could correctly identify the word.The highest-scoring monkey identified 308 real words; the lowest-scoring monkey picked out 81. For a bunch of monkeys, they're not monkeying around!

I believe that this experiment was definitely good way to use our resources. It could help lead up to primates being able to read and write. Monkeys being able to read and write would be useful to our society because they would be able to express their feelings on a piece of paper. Therefore, they would be able to tell humans what they would like have to without humans having to guess. It might even lead us to see what goes on inside an animals mind! Sources:

http://www.naturephoto-cz.com/photos/sevcik/yellow-baboon--xxxpapio_cynocephalus_2.jpg

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