Simple View Research Articles

Stroop performance is related to reading profiles in Hebrew-speaking individuals with dyslexia and typical readers.

There is a debate in the literature regarding the level of contribution of executive functions (EF) to reading comprehension (RC), in the context of the simple view of reading (SVR) model. The current study aims to create sub-profiles of reading and cognitive abilities based on a measure traditionally used for evaluating EF, that is, the Stroop task, and specifically, Stroop time. Ninety-seven adults with and without reading difficulties performed reading and cognitive tasks, including the Stroop tests. Four groups were created based on Stroop performance time and a reading profile was created for each group. A mediation analysis was conducted to determine if reading accuracy and linguistic abilities predict RC mediated by Stroop time. Participants with a shorter Stroop time demonstrated better reading abilities, whereas those with longer Stroop time showed decreased reading performance. Stroop time was also negatively associated with better performance in additional cognitive abilities. A mediation analysis suggested that decoding ability and linguistic ability predict RC through EF. Our findings support the SVR model and the involvement of EF in reading proficiency and might be used for designing EF-based interventions for reading and RC difficulties.

Teacher practices for teaching writing in Greek primary schools

Developing writing skills is a central part of the education curriculum in many countries, yet numerous children have difficulties in producing written texts. To our knowledge there is no systematic study examining the ways in which Greek teachers adapt their writing instruction strategies to accommodate the children’s needs. The aim of the present study was to identify the approaches teachers employ while teaching writing in Greek primary schools and to examine the nature and frequency of these different aspects of teaching writing. We replicated and extended the Dockrell et al. (Read Writ Interdiscip J 29(3):409–434, 2016) study, using the Not so Simple View of Writing framework. One hundred and three teachers responded to an online questionnaire, which consisted of questions regarding their academic qualifications and their specific teaching practices. The majority of the sample felt prepared and enjoyed teaching writing. However, almost all of the teachers found teaching writing challenging and half of them reported that supporting struggling writers was difficult for them. Overall, teachers reported more work at word level, occurring almost weekly, than at text level. Differences between Grade levels they taught were also evident for specific domains of writing. Recommendations for future research and implications for educational practice are discussed.

Spanish L2 Chinese Learners' Awareness of Morpho-Syntactic Structures in the Reading Comprehension of Splittable Compounds.

Reading comprehension is never considered a simple task in linguists’ views as it requires a full set of linguistic knowledge, such as word decoding, understanding syntactic and morphological structures, and deriving proper meanings from these structures in a given context. Bearing the simple view of reading, the primary goal of this study is to explore whether the split presentation of Chinese splittable compounds influences the recognition of the compounds in second language (L2) Chinese reading comprehension, and how the reading skills, i.e., word decoding and linguistic comprehension, cooperate to complete this reading comprehension task. Splittable compounds (SCs) in Chinese are typically verbs composed of two constituents with limited separability. The separable property of SCs and their vague morpho-syntactic status are supposed to cause difficulties for L2 Chinese learners in recognizing the compounds. Especially for those whose native language manifests lexical integrity, the split presentation of the compounds may invite the L2 Chinese readers to process them with a mechanism different from that for their non-split forms. To the best of our knowledge, the efforts on investigating this issue are insufficient. In this study, 27 Spanish speaking L2 Chinese learners were invited to complete tasks including reading and interpreting 6 selected SCs in the split and non-split forms, rating their familiarities with each SC and reporting the syntactic category of the SCs based on their existing linguistic knowledge. The results, showed that the split presentation of SCs did cause challenges for L2 Chinese learners in recognizing the compounds in the reading process, regardless of their Chinese proficiencies. The L2 Chinese participants performed significantly worse in recognizing split SCs in salient Verb-Object structures than recognizing those in unsalient Verb-Object structures. These findings underscore the importance of linguistic comprehension in L2 Chinese in-text word reading comprehension and suggest words as the basic processing units.

Natural Ecological Outlook from the Perspective of the Chinese Zodiac

“The unity of heaven and man” is one of the most important thoughts in Chinese philosophy, which embodies the simple natural ecological view. From the perspective of the Chinese Zodiac, this paper demonstrates the relationship between man, nature, and the zodiac to reflect that China's natural ecological view is closely related to the culture of the twelve zodiacs. Human reproduction is inseparable from nature, the invention of the phenological calendar is inseparable from the zodiac, and the development of agricultural civilization is inseparable from the zodiac animals. Twelve Chinese zodiacs, human and nature three intertwined, reflecting the Chinese simple natural ecology view - "harmony between man and nature".

De Zuid-Afrikaan en die teenstrydighede van 19de-eeuse Kaapse liberalisme De Zuid-Afrikaan and the contradictions of 19th century Cape liberalism

OPSOMMING Die Kaapse koloniale koerant De Zuid-Afrikaan, wat in 1830 die eerste maal verskyn het, word tradisioneel as die grondlegger van die Afrikaanse joernalistiek in Suid-Afrika gesien. Moet die koerant as reaksionêre voorloper van die Afrikaanse joernalistiek van Afrikaner-nasionalisme en apartheid gesien word, of het dit in die konteks van die 19de eeu 'n liberale stem verteenwoordig wat sedertdien onderbeklemtoon is? Hierdie artikel belig De Zuid-Afrikaan se redaksionele dekking van twee sleutelkwessies. Aan die een kant was daar sy (liberale) ondersteuning van persvryheid en meer selfbeskikking vir die koloniste, en aan die ander sy (konserwatiewe) houding teenoor slawerny. Die historiese nalatenskap van die koerant word herbesoek aan die hand van 'n literatuuroorsig en geselekteerde aanhalings uit die oorspronklike inhoud. Die slotsom is dat evaluering van De Zuid-Afrikaan in die 20ste-eeuse geskiedskrywing as eenduidig reaksionêr moontlik heroorweeg moet word. Van die nuanses en teenstrydighede van die spesifieke 19de-eeuse omgewing waarin die koerant ontstaan en ontwikkel het, het dalk verlore geraak. Trefwoorde: Afrikanernasionalisme, De Zuid-Afrikaan, geskiedskrywing, joernalis-tiek, Kaapkolonie, koerante, konserwatief, liberaal, selfregering, slawerny, Suid-Afrika, 19de eeu, 20ste eeu ABSTRACT The Cape colonial newspaper De Zuid-Afrikaan, which was published in 1830 for the first time, is traditionally regarded as the founder of Afrikaans journalism in South Africa. But how should its legacy be remembered? Historians of different generations seem to differ. Was the newspaper the reactionary forerunner of Afrikaner nationalism and apartheid, or must it be viewed as a liberal voice within the context of the 19th century which has perhaps been underemphasised in 20th century historiography? This article revisits the editorial coverage of De Zuid-Afrikaan on two key issues, the emancipation of slaves in 1834 and the introduction of a representative elective government system in 1854. The newspaper was conservative towards the former issue, but liberal towards the latter. The portrayal of the newspaper is revisited by engaging in a literature review and quoting selected passages from the newspaper. In conclusion it is argued that past evaluations of De Zuid-Afrikaan as one-sidedly reactionary should probably be revisited, because much of the contradictions and nuances of the specific 19th century surroundings in which it was founded might have been lost in most recent versions of its history. This probably happened because the rise of Afrikaner nationalism in the 20th century was projected backwards onto De Zuid-Afrikaan. The result is a simple dualistic view of South African newspaper history in which De Zuid-Afrikaan represents a reactionary pole and its main competitor, The South African Commercial Advertiser, a liberal one. These two poles are then seen as representative of respectively Afrikaans and English journalism as it developed in the 20th century. A closer look at the founding and development ofDe Zuid-Afrikaan reveals a much more nuanced picture. Although the owners and editors of the newspaper were Cape Dutch in the main, it also made available its copy in English for at least seven decades. Afrikaans language nationalism in the form in which it later developed was not its aim nor its legacy to Afrikaans journalism. It is also a mistake to view the newspaper's defence of the interests of slave owners as a precursor to the support that Afrikaans newspapers provided to apartheid. De Zuid-Afrikaan did not try to justify and promote slavery as an ideology in the way in which Afrikaans journalists did with apartheid. In the 19th century slavery was regulated and based on accepted practice. The newspaper emerged as mouthpiece for slaveowners who had legitimate interests, claims, and fears when the system was no longer acceptable, and the law changed. The case of apartheid was different: first the Afrikaans journalists created visions, and then the laws followed. This article does not try from the moral high ground of the 21st century to whitewash the history of De Zuid-Afrikaan or present it as liberal ahead of its time. The point is that the newspaper was exactly a product of its time, and part of a greater Western movement from patriarchy to a more liberal order. Its editors were learned men who were in touch with the changes in parts of the world like France, the Netherlands, Britain and the United States of America. The support that De Zuid-Afrikaan provided to the liberal (in its time) constitution of 1854 shows an attitude towards other members of society, white and black, which seems to differ from later incarnations of Afrikaner nationalism in the press. De Zuid-Afrikaan was part of the development of Cape liberalism, which should be distinguished from the Afrikaner nationalism of the 20th century. Perhaps the question should be addressed whether it would have been more suited to the inclusive democracy of the 21st century or the fatherland of apartheid? Keywords: Afrikaner nationalism, Cape colony, conservative, De Zuid-Afrikaan, historiography, journalism, liberal, newspapers, representative government, slavery, South Africa, 19th century, 20th century

Evaluation of Source Rock Quality in Chang-7 Member of Major Oil Fields in Ordos Basin

Petroleum is an important natural resource for human. The demand for petroleum in the next several decades will continue to be high, which requires the exploitation of more petroleum sources. Chang-7 member of the Ordos basin is proven to be the richest among all members, and this research took a focus on making a comparison between the source rock quality of Chang-7 member in four major oil fields in the basin, to provide a simple view of priority oil fields for exploitation in the future. The research analyzed the source rock quality of four oil fields from the TOC, A%, rock type, R0, sedimentary environment, and kerogen type, and found a superiority of source rock quality of Maling and Zhidan oil field in multiple dimensions, mainly triggered by their sedimentary environment. The research concluded that the oil fields that was once in the central-southern region of the basin contains a slightly better source rock quality among the chosen fields, which is related to a more stable sedimentary environment in the early Triassic.

Развитие способностей к декодированию у детей, говорящих на боснийском языке: лонгитюдное двухлетнее исследование

Reading is one of the most important academic skills that children master in the early grades of elementary school. The simple view of reading postulates that it consists of decoding abilities and linguistic understanding. The present study aims to explore the development of decoding abilities in the Bosnian language in children from Grade 3 to Grade 5. We assessed the relationships between word reading and pseudoword reading as measures of decoding skills, and phonemic deletion task, rapid automatized naming (RAN) of letters, and RAN of objects as the predictors of decoding skills. The sample for this study comprised 36 children (16 girls, 20 boys). This study’s results showed a significant improvement in decoding skills from Grade 3 to Grade 5. The best predictor of word reading in Grade 5 was RAN of objects in Grade 3, followed by RAN of letters in Grade 3. On the other hand, the significant predictors of pseudoword reading in Grade 5 were RAN of objects and the phoneme deletion task in Grade 3. Understanding reading development from Grade 3 to Grade 5 is informative and can help create better reading instruction for all readers.

A Different View on the Simple View of Reading

The simple view of reading (SVR) framework has been used for decades to explain two general component skills considered to contribute to reading comprehension: decoding and linguistic comprehension. In the past, researchers have assessed the linguistic comprehension component using a wide range of language and/or listening comprehension measures that differed from each other. Many of those tasks did not align with the concept of linguistic comprehension originally proposed. Regardless, the studies’ outcomes were similar: The SVR model adequately represents the process of reading comprehension. In this article, I propose a common thread that links those diverse measurement tasks: all the tasks measured students’ metalinguistic skills. In fact, the findings from these studies mirror those found from investigations directly measuring the influence of language awareness abilities on reading comprehension. I conclude the article with the theoretical and educational implications of taking a different view of the second component of the SVR model.

Reading Comprehension Predictors in European Portuguese Adults

Research on the predictors of reading comprehension has been largely focused on school-aged children and mainly in opaque orthographies, hindering the generalization of the results to adult populations and more transparent orthographies. In the present study, we aim to test two versions of the Simple View of Reading (SVR): the original model and an extended version, including reading fluency and vocabulary. Additional mediation models were analyzed to verify if other reading comprehension predictors (rapid automatized naming, phonological decoding, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and working memory) have direct effects or if they are mediated through word reading and reading fluency. A sample of 67 typical adult Portuguese readers participated in this study. The SVR model accounted for 27% of the variance in reading comprehension, with oral language comprehension displaying a larger contribution than word reading. In the extended SVR model, reading fluency and vocabulary provided an additional and significant contribution of 7% to the explained variance. Moreover, vocabulary influenced reading comprehension directly and indirectly, via oral language comprehension. In the final mediation model, the total mediation hypothesis was rejected, and only morphological awareness showed a direct effect on reading comprehension. These results provide preliminary evidence that the SVR (with the possible addition of vocabulary) might be a reliable model to explain reading comprehension in adult typical readers in a semitransparent orthography. Furthermore, oral language comprehension and vocabulary were the best predictors in the study, suggesting that remediation programs addressing reading comprehension in adults should promote these abilities.

Of variants and vaccines

In this issue of Cell, Bushman et al. show how more transmissible variants, even if they do not escape immunity, can be strongly selected during the early pandemic. This explains the dynamics of past SARS-CoV-2 variants, but as immunity increases, it is difficult to predict what will emerge next.

Variation of haemoglobin concentration during the menstrual cycle: a simple view of the evidence

Variation of haemoglobin concentration during the menstrual cycle: a simple view of the evidence

The Primacy of Science in Communicating Advances in the Science of Reading

AbstractA recent article in this journal claims that the simple view of reading represents a long‐outdated account of what underlies the ability to read. Its authors argue that if teachers are to be better informed about what is known about reading then the simple view must be replaced by a more current model, one that captures the substantial progress that has been made in our understanding through the science of reading. In this comment on that article, we discuss the authors’ perspective on the simple view and the three advances in research they claim invalidate it, clarifying misconceptions and critically reviewing presented evidence. We argue that the SVR, centered on the proximal causes of reading capacity under a large grain‐size perspective, has garnered strong empirical support, has achieved an important level of consensus within the field regarding its validity, and has shown utility in helping education professionals understand and maintain focus on the most important cognitive capacities underlying reading success. We also argue that the proposed replacement represents a weaker, unproven model that could lead education professionals astray if applied in practice.

Development of Reading Comprehension in Bilingual and Monolingual Children—Effects of Language Exposure

The current study aimed at investigating the performance of bilingual children with English as an additional language (EAL) on language and literacy measures compared to monolinguals across the first four years of primary school in the U.K. Moreover, it addressed whether bilinguals and monolinguals’ performance on reading comprehension was consistent with the Simple View of Reading. An additional area of interest was to examine the extent to which use of and exposure to both heritage and majority language affected the development of the children’s reading comprehension in both of their spoken languages. A total of forty bilingual and forty monolingual children were assessed in oral language skills and decoding in Year 1 and Year 3 in primary school. After one school year, they were assessed in oral language skills, decoding, and reading comprehension in Year 2 and Year 4. The results showed that the bilinguals performed better than the monolinguals in decoding in all years, suggesting that exposure to a first language with transparent orthography (Greek) may benefit the development of word reading skills. However, the bilinguals scored lower in oral language skills and reading comprehension than their monolingual peers. This finding underlined the significant role of oral language skills in the development of bilinguals’ reading comprehension. Both oral language skills and decoding contributed to reading comprehension in bilinguals but the effects of oral language skills on reading comprehension were stronger than the effects of decoding. Finally, we found that language use of the minority language outside the home could significantly predict reading comprehension in the minority language, underlining the importance of language exposure through complementary schools and other activities outside the home to the maintenance and development of the heritage language.

Deciding for Others: An Expressivist Theory of Normative Judgment

AbstractThis paper develops a new form of metaethical expressivism according to which the normative judgment that X should Φ consists in a decision that X Φ. When the judgment is first‐personal—e.g., my judgment thatIshould Φ—the view is similar to Gibbard’s plan expressivism, though the state I call “decision” differs somewhat from a Gibbard‐style plan. The deep difference between the views shows in the account of third‐personal judgments. Gibbard construes the judgment that Mary should Φ as a de se plan on the thinker’s part to Φ if she turns out to be Mary (the Subtle View). I construe the judgment as a decision for Marythat Mary Φ(the Simple View). The main argument for Simple Plan Expressivism is that it solves problems for Gibbard’s approach, resonates with a new and interesting moral psychology, and better makes sense of certain independently plausible constraints on normative judgment. In the end I argue that this account of normative judgment has implications for first‐order ethics, implying in particular that rational egoism as standardly formulated is incoherent.

The simple view of reading in French second language learners

This longitudinal study examined the relative contributions of word reading accuracy, word reading fluency and linguistic comprehension to reading comprehension from Grade 1 to Grade 2 in Canadian children who speak French as an L2. French is an opaque orthography but it is more consistent in how graphemes are mapped to phonemes than English. A total of 183 Non-Francophone children enrolled in French immersion programs in Canada (M = 80.91, SD = 3.61) were followed for one year from Grade 1 to Grade 2. The participants completed French measures of word reading accuracy, fluency, receptive vocabulary, and reading comprehension in each grade. The results showed that word reading fluency was a significant predictor of reading comprehension in both Grades 1 and 2. Additionally, word reading accuracy, word reading fluency and vocabulary all contributed to reading comprehension in Grades 1 and 2 and the magnitude of the contribution of each component remained similar across the two grades. Our findings provide support to the SVR model in young French L2 learners and highlight the importance of word reading fluency in reading comprehension in French.

Higher Trimethylamine-N-Oxide Plasma Levels with Increasing Age Are Mediated by Diet and Trimethylamine-Forming Bacteria.

ABSTRACTThe gut microbiota-dependent metabolite trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) is linked to an increased risk for cardiovascular diseases. Trimethylamine (TMA), which is subsequently oxidized to TMAO in the liver, is formed by intestinal bacteria via distinct biochemical routes from dietary precursors that are enriched in animal product-based foods. To get a full picture of the entire process of the diet > gut microbiota > TMAO axis, we quantified potential TMA-forming gut bacteria and plasma metabolites using gene-targeted assays and targeted metabolomics on a subsample (n = 425) of a German population-based cohort study. We specifically compared persons reporting daily meat intake with those that rarely or never consume meat. While meat intake did not predict TMAO plasma levels in our study, two major bacterial TMA-forming pathways were linked to the metabolite’s concentration. Furthermore, advancing age was strongly associated with TMAO. Construction of a structural equation model allowed us to disentangle the different routes that promote higher TMAO levels with increasing age, demonstrating, for the first time, a functional role of gut microbiota in the process, where specific food items augmented abundances of TMA-forming bacteria that were associated with higher TMAO plasma concentrations. Analyses stratified by age showed an association between carotid intima-media thickness and TMAO only in individuals >65 of age, indicating that this group is particularly affected by the metabolite.IMPORTANCE Many cohort studies have investigated the link between diet and plasma TMAO levels, reporting incongruent results, while gut microbiota were only recently included into analyses. In these studies, taxonomic data were recorded that are not a good proxy for TMA formation, as specific members of various taxa exhibit genes catalyzing this reaction, demanding function-based technologies for accurate quantification of TMA-synthesizing bacteria. Using this approach, we demonstrated that abundances of the main components leading to TMAO formation, i.e., TMA precursors and TMA-forming bacteria, are uncoupled and not governed by the same (dietary) factors. Results emphasize that all levels leading to TMA(O) formation should be considered for accurate risk assessment, rejecting the simple view that diets rich in TMA precursors directly lead to increased plasma levels of this hazardous compound. The results can assist in developing strategies to reduce TMAO levels, specifically in the elderly, who are prone to TMAO-associated diseases.

Investigating Reading Comprehension in Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities: Evaluating the Simple View of Reading.

Reading comprehension difficulties are common in individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID), but the influences of underlying abilities related to reading comprehension in this group have rarely been investigated. One aim of this study was to investigate the Simple View of Reading as a theoretical framework to describe cognitive and linguistic abilities predicting individual differences in reading comprehension in adolescents with non-specific ID. A second aim was to investigate whether predictors of listening comprehension and reading comprehension suggest that individuals with ID have a delayed pattern of development (copying early grade variance in reading comprehension) or a different pattern of development involving a new or an unusual pattern of cognitive and linguistic predictors. A sample of 136 adolescents with non-specific ID was assessed on reading comprehension, decoding, linguistic, and cognitive measures. The hypotheses were evaluated using structural equation models. The results showed that the Simple View of Reading was not applicable in explaining reading comprehension in this group, however, the concurrent predictors of comprehension (vocabulary and phonological executive-loaded working memory) followed a delayed profile.

The Easy Approach to Group Agency. A Simple Realist View on Group Agents

"We talk about groups as doing something, we talk as if groups have agency. Is our talk legitimate? Are there group agents? Is there something like group agency? In this paper, I discuss two ontological frameworks concerning existence questions: the Quinean framework and the Thomasson-Carnap framework. I apply them to the problem of group agency. I review the Quinean-oriented literature debating the existence of group agents and its methodological background. I argue, via Thomasson’s easy approach to ontology, that deflationism can simplify the debate surrounding group agents. Thus, I argue for a Thomasson-Carnap framework and show that it is better suited to answer the particular question whether there are group agents. More specifically, I argue for a non-reductive simple realist view on group agents, i.e. I argue for the truth of “There are group agents,” via analytic entailments, by truths about the actions and deeds of groups. Keywords: Analytic Entailments, Deflationism, Group agency, Group agents, Simple Realism "

The Simple View of Reading in Children Acquiring a Regular Orthography (Italian): A Network Analysis Approach.

In the present study, we explored the unique contribution of reading accuracy, reading fluency and linguistic comprehension within the frame of Simple View of Reading (SVR). The experimental sample included 118 3rd to 5th grade children learning Italian, a language with a highly regular orthography. We adopted a flexible method of analysis, i.e., the Network Analysis (NA), particularly suited for exploring relations among different domains and where the direct relations between a set of intercorrelated variables is the main interest. Results indicated an independent and unique contribution of syntactic comprehension skills as well as reading fluency and reading accuracy in the comprehension of a written text. The decoding measures were not directly associated with non-verbal reasoning and the latter was not directly associated with reading comprehension but was strongly related to oral syntactic comprehension. Overall, the pattern of findings is broadly consistent with the predictions of SVR and underscores how, in an orthographically regular language, reading fluency and reading accuracy as well as oral comprehension skills directly influence reading comprehension. Data are discussed in a cross-linguistic perspective. Implications for education and rehabilitation are also presented.

Black howler monkeys adapt mental maps like humans

Ever since humans began committing their view of the world to flat slabs of rock and papyrus, we had a sense that our mental maps are laid out in much the same way, but this couldn't be farther from the truth. ‘Humans rely strongly on route-based maps’, says Miguel de Guinea, from Oxford Brookes University, UK. The internal maps used by many animals and humans are composed of well-trodden routes linking frequently visited locations, with little or no understanding of where these routes lie relative to one another. Fortunately, humans are able to supplement these rudimentary representations with knowledge of the distances we cover and direction to take occasional short-cuts. Yet many creatures negotiate far more complex environments than our 2D experience, and do so on a meagre diet, making efficient navigation a priority. Black howler monkeys (Alouatta pigra) comb the forests of central America in search of fruit and edible vegetation, so de Guinea, Sarie Van Belle (University of Texas at Austin, USA) and colleagues from Mexico and the UK wondered whether these resourceful primates are also capable of refining their route-based mental maps with additional knowledge to search their terrain efficiently for nourishment.However, GPS-tagging the endangered primates wasn't possible, so de Guinea and his colleagues had no choice but to visit the forests covering the Mayan ruins in Palenque National Park, Mexico, and follow the roaming animals. ‘We'd arrive at the study area where our focal group was expected to be found before sunrise’, says de Guinea, explaining that it was relatively easy to locate the troops of black howler monkeys, from 4 to 11 individuals, as they called loudly in the morning. Then de Guinea, Van Belle, field assistant Elsa Barrios and an international team of volunteers pursued the monkeys, at ground level, wherever they roved through their 50 ha domain. ‘Sometimes the monkeys decided to travel to the top of the tallest temple in the area, making us climb at a very fast pace in intense heat to reach them’, says de Guinea. On other occasions, the primates dragged the scientists across steep waterfalls. One time the monkeys encountered a 5 m gap on one of their regular routes; ‘a tree had fallen overnight’, Van Belle explains. ‘They stopped for half an hour and then travelled along the edge to reconnect with the second half of their travel path… as if they knew this was a new obstacle and they needed to consider their options on what to do next’, she laughs.After a year of tracking five black howler packs, de Guinea and Van Belle painstakingly reconstructed the monkeys’ movements as they covered 91.5 km over 250 days, repeatedly revisiting their favourite fruit trees – always approaching from a few select directions – travelling through the same sequences of trees. In contrast, when the pair simulated how the animals would move if they were roving randomly through the park, the virtual primates rarely revisited the same routes. The black howlers were clearly following mental maps of familiar routes, like humans.In addition, the researchers compared the distances covered by the foraging monkeys with the routes used by the simulated primates, and it was evident that the black howlers were able to link routes together in order to navigate between distant locations. They can supplement their simple route-based view of the world with knowledge of direction and the distances between locations to take short-cuts and manoeuvre efficiently through the ever-changing forest. ‘It was a big effort to collect such detailed and reliable data, but it was worth it to understand the fascinating cognitive skills that black howler monkeys demonstrate in the wild’, says de Guinea.