Prime numbers perception: a comparative study on infants (Homo sapiens) and newborn chicks (Gallus gallus)

A recent study on newborn chicks sparked great interest in the existence of a perceptive mechanism that enables to discriminate prime and non-prime numbers. This dissertation focuses on an ongoing follow-up study to the one mentioned above. The hypothesis of the present work is that the perceptive mechanism in question might be common to more species than only chicks. To test this, a similar experimental paradigm is carried out with newborn chicks (Gallus gallus) and 4 and 8-months-old infants (Homo sapiens), to test whether they can discriminate prime from non-prime numbers. Prior to the test, infants are familiarized to even numerosities. Chicks, on the other hand, are habituated to prime numerosities. During the test, subjects of both species, are shown contemporarily an odd and a prime numerosity. The time they use to observe either stimulus is measured and analyzed. If the results confirm the hypothesis – that infants also show a preference for prime numbers over odd numbers – it confirms that this process is common across two very different species. This, in turn, implies that the mechanism in question is likely to be present also in other species and that it gives an evolutionary benefit. Moreover, it corroborates the idea that prime numbers have an intrinsic ecological value. If the results do not confirm the hypothesis, it might be that the mechanism in question is specific to chicks or to birds only. However, more research would be needed as the cause of the mechanism not appearing in humans would need to be determined. Possible interpretations for each scenario will be thoroughly discussed, based on recent experimental evidence from comparative and developmental psychology.