# "Amphibian Math: Frogs Display Skills In Basic Numerical Discrimination"



## toadlicker00 (Feb 14, 2013)

Saw this and thought I should share. 


Amphibian Math: Frogs Display Skills In Basic Numerical Discrimination | Neomatica


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## FroggyKnight (Mar 14, 2013)

*Re: "Amphibian Math: Frogs Display Skills In Basic Numerical Discrimination"*

That was a fun read, thanks for sharing 

Is it just me or is the firebelly they showed really obese? That is definitely not a healthy animal in my opinion!

John


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

*Re: "Amphibian Math: Frogs Display Skills In Basic Numerical Discrimination"*

Interesting... My guess is choice was more based more on points of motion detected, possibly within a given area and/or time frame...rather then worm surface area. which more rapidly triggered a feeding response, so they tended towards that choice.

I think the covered worm surface area trick and...

"The frogs were also able to discriminate between large quantities such as 4 vs 8 worms, but in these cases the researchers were less sure whether this was due to true quantification or whether this was entirely an visual surface area effect."

...suggest that, because while they may not be able to count past 3, they didn't fall for the covered worms yet still seems they were able to register "More" in that area. Unless they smelled more worm biomass. I dont know what leaves other then more points of motion as the likely trigger even if they cant count past 3, they still saw more things moving. I think the researchers probably intended that points of movement concept be within their "more worm like stuff" idea, but they seemed more focused on worm surface area, which seems a stranger thing to focus on IMO.

...Just a theory


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## SDK (Aug 11, 2014)

*Re: "Amphibian Math: Frogs Display Skills In Basic Numerical Discrimination"*



FroggyKnight said:


> That was a fun read, thanks for sharing
> 
> Is it just me or is the firebelly they showed really obese? That is definitely not a healthy animal in my opinion!
> 
> John


Not just you. I keep a breeding group of these. I have never seen anything remotely like that pic. They are supposed to be active and acrobatic. 

Interesting article and Dave makes some good points as well.


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## FroggyKnight (Mar 14, 2013)

*Re: "Amphibian Math: Frogs Display Skills In Basic Numerical Discrimination"*

I'm no expert, but I vote for Dave's theory! It does make a lot of sense

John


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## brendan0923 (Sep 15, 2014)

*Re: "Amphibian Math: Frogs Display Skills In Basic Numerical Discrimination"*

Definitely an interesting article. Thanks for sharing!


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## Engeli (Oct 3, 2014)

*Re: "Amphibian Math: Frogs Display Skills In Basic Numerical Discrimination"*

I would agree that the movement is probably the deciding factor over quantity. Movement Triggers the instinct directly.

If you were starving for 2 days and you would see a plate with 5 spaghettis or a plate with 6 spaghettis, would you mind? That's not even very obvious for us without having an exact look at the plate and thinking about which way to go. 

It's an amazing result that they can distinguish the low number quantities quite well.


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## Minkey (Jul 21, 2013)

*Re: "Amphibian Math: Frogs Display Skills In Basic Numerical Discrimination"*

I found this very interesting. I wonder if they will continue studies in the form of crickets... I would be interested in seeing small groups of large crickets and large groups of small ones.. might even help in mass over movement debate... 
cheers


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