12 October 2019 | New Scientist | 3AS A primate with sophisticated
cognitive abilities, you may remember
a recent story we ran about experiments
on macaques. It showed that these
monkeys can understand the logical
process of transitive inference. In other
words, if a macaque learns that A comes
before B, and B comes before C, it can
then deduce that A must come before C.
To get the animals to take part in the
tests, they were put on what the paper
in Science Advances called a “fluid-
restricted” diet. Water became a reward
for doing the puzzles. The study’s
findings are interesting – but are they
interesting enough to justify the method?
The debate about the merits of
experiments on animals usually centres
on those done for medical purposes.
Many people are willing to accept drug
testing on rodents or studies involvingprimates if such efforts are in pursuit of
new treatments for our most unpleasant
diseases. Last year, a poll suggested that
two-thirds of people in the UK accept
animal experiments being carried out
for the purposes of medical or scientific
research provided there is no alternative.
But when investigating questions
such as “do monkeys have logic” or
“can we implant memories in birds’
brains” (see page 17) there clearly is an
alternative – not asking them at all.As our Insight on page 18 explores,
there are still various reasons to carry
out this sort of work. One is that it may
help us look after animals in our care
better, including those in laboratories.
Experiments have shown, for example,
that rats don’t want bigger cages, they
want ones with places to hide.
Another argument for this research
is the pursuit of knowledge for its
own sake. It is now scientific dogma
that open-ended questions with no
immediate application should be
pursued, partly because they could
lead to discoveries that one day prove
vitally useful.
Yet as experiments increasingly
reveal similarities between the human
experience and that of many animals,
this principle may become harder for
some people to support. ❚The minds of others
Are experiments on how animals think justified?
Experiments
have shown that
macaques can
grasp a certain
type of logicKS
UMANO/GET
TYThe leader
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