Chimp beat man in memory game

[Spin Echo]

link

Chimp beats students at computer game
Young chimpanzee can recall number placement better than people can.

Ewen Callaway

Remember this: even if the numbers flash up for only an instant, this chimp can remember where they were.Courtesy of the researchersA particularly cunning seven-year-old chimp named Ayumu has bested university students at a game of memory. He and two other young chimps recalled the placement of numbers flashed onto a computer screen faster and more accurately than humans.

“It’s a very simple fact: chimpanzees are better than us — at this task,” says Tetsuro Matsuzawa, a primatologist at Kyoto University in Japan who led the study.

The work doesn't mean that chimps are 'smarter' than humans, but rather they seem to be better at memorizing a snapshot view of their surroundings — whether that be numbers on a screen or ripe figs dangling from a tree. Humans may have lost this capacity in exchange for gaining the brainpower to understand language and complex symbols, says Matsuzawa.

Two decades have passed since Matsuzawa’s team first taught a female chimp, Ai, to recognize and order Arabic numerals1. Later, he and Nobuyuki Kawai trained her to memorize the location of numbers as they flashed onto a computer screen. The numbers would be quickly covered with white squares, and Ai could then touch those squares in order of the numbers concealed beneath them2. After much training, chimps can be remarkably good at this task (see video, in real time).

Matsuzawa and Sana Inoue went on to train three pairs of mother chimps and their infants to recognize and remember numerals, as Ai had done. The kids outmatched their mothers most of the time, and Ai's son Ayumu was head of the class, they report today in Current Biology .3

When Ayumu went head-to-head against university students in the game, he made them look like dunces. This was most noticeable when the numbers appeared on the screen for just two tenths of a second - too brief for humans to get a good grip on them. Here, Ayumu correctly ordered the numbers in 80% of trials, while the students scored an average of just 40% (see video).

It's unclear how long Ayumu’s memory of the number placement lasts after seeing them flash on the screen. When a sound across the room caught his attention, he paused in the middle of a game for ten seconds before finishing the puzzle (see video). Matsuzawa plans to test how much longer chimps can remember the numbers.

Mental trade-off
Could the chimps' superiority come from simply having had more practice? Ayumu had been playing the game throughout his seven years of life, and got a treat after each run. But the researchers think this practice wasn't Ayumu's only advantage. “We trained university students for six months and their accuracy did not reach this level,” says Matsuzawa.

He suggests that humans made a mental trade-off as they diverged from their common ancestor with chimps some 5 to 6 million years ago. In gaining brawnier brains that can process language and other complex symbols, we may have dulled our ability to take quick mental snapshots.

To find that chimps are better than humans at some specific tasks is not surprising, says Michael Beran, a psychologist at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Chimps and humans are in some ways very similar, he points out. The key to uncovering a chimpanzee's inner Einstein is to put them to the right kind of test, he says.

There are limits, however. “I work with some pretty smart chimps, but they're not going to do your calculus homework,” says Beran.

[Turin]

After having watched the video, I wonder if this is less an issue of memory and more one of perception. At the rate the chimp is going in the first video, I can't even move my eyes quickly enough to take in all the locations of the numbers.

[Justforfun000]

Of course no matter how impressive it is to teach animals how to do new things that are a leap towards a human intelligence, how many of them turn around and teach it to their young?
Humans still have to be the trainers, so it's really more a party trick then a trait likely to be passed on in the future.

[ArmorPierce]

Of course no matter how impressive it is to teach animals how to do new things that are a leap towards a human intelligence, how many of them turn around and teach it to their young?
Humans still have to be the trainers, so it's really more a party trick then a trait likely to be passed on in the future.

I do believe that mother chimps that were taught sign language actually do pass it down to their offspring.

[Gustav32Vasa]

I do believe that mother chimps that were taught sign language actually do pass it down to their offspring.

As do mother chimps in nature regarding creating weapons for the hunt.

[Justforfun000]

I do believe that mother chimps that were taught sign language actually do pass it down to their offspring.

Oh they do?? Well then I take back what I said. That's quite impressive.

[Drooling Iguana]

We should stop comparing George W. Bush to a chimpanzee. It's demeaning to the chimps.

[General Zod]

As do mother chimps in nature regarding creating weapons for the hunt.

The last I checked, Chimpanzees weren't predators, and apes using weapons was a relatively recent phenomenon. . . .

[hongi]

Chimpanzees are ferocious predators. They hunt in organised packs. If you've seen it in a nature documentary, it's quite scary. They move silently. Then they catch and tear spider monkeys limb from limb.

and apes using weapons was a relatively recent phenomenon. . . .

We've only recently observed it, that doesn't mean apes haven't been using weapons for a long time.

[ArmorPierce]

The last I checked, Chimpanzees weren't predators, and apes using weapons was a relatively recent phenomenon. . . .

Chimpanzee success rate when hunting is 50% which is higher than all cat predators I believe (lions, tigers, what have you).

[Zor]

As do mother chimps in nature regarding creating weapons for the hunt.

The last I checked, Chimpanzees weren't predators, and apes using weapons was a relatively recent phenomenon. . . .

Check again


Zor

[Justforfun000]

Wow Zor. That video is disturbing!

Well I guess there's little doubt that violence against a fellow species is among our ancestral family line...

[General Zod]

Check again


Zor

Huh. Go figure.

[hawkwind]

Not only they are predators, they are capable of raising of organised wars and genocide competing chimp tribes.

[hawkwind]

No to mention, they are quite capable of recognising of advantage of weapon when doing this.

J.

[Zor]

Well I guess there's little doubt that violence against a fellow species is among our ancestral family line...

The apsolutely facinating thing about chimpanzees is that they are so damn close to human not only in genetics and appearence, but in their behavior, which includes human violence, territorialism and sadism.

Zor