Young chimp beats college students

[frogger]

By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer
3 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Never mind that TV show that asks if you're smarter than a fifth-grader. Is your memory better than a young chimp's?

Maybe not.



Japanese researchers pitted young chimps against human adults in two tests of short-term memory, and overall, the chimps won.

That challenges the belief of many people, including many scientists, that "humans are superior to chimpanzees in all cognitive functions," said researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University.

"No one can imagine that chimpanzees — young chimpanzees at the age of 5 — have a better performance in a memory task than humans," he said in a statement.

Matsuzawa, a pioneer in studying the mental abilities of chimps, said even he was surprised. He and colleague Sana Inoue report the results in Tuesday's issue of the journal Current Biology.

One memory test included three 5-year-old chimps who'd been taught the order of Arabic numerals 1 through 9, and a dozen human volunteers.

They saw nine numbers displayed on a computer screen. When they touched the first number, the other eight turned into white squares. The test was to touch all these squares in the order of the numbers that used to be there.

Results showed that the chimps, while no more accurate than the people, could do this faster.

One chimp, Ayumu, did the best. Researchers included him and nine college students in a second test.

This time, five numbers flashed on the screen only briefly before they were replaced by white squares. The challenge, again, was to touch these squares in the proper sequence.

When the numbers were displayed for about seven-tenths of a second, Ayumu and the college students were both able to do this correctly about 80 percent of the time.

But when the numbers were displayed for just four-tenths or two-tenths of a second, the chimp was the champ. The briefer of those times is too short to allow a look around the screen, and in those tests Ayumu still scored about 80 percent, while humans plunged to 40 percent.

That indicates Ayumu was better at taking in the whole pattern of numbers at a glance, the researchers wrote.

"It's amazing what this chimpanzee is able to do," said Elizabeth Lonsdorf, director of the Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. The center studies the mental abilities of apes, but Lonsdorf didn't participate in the new study.

She admired Ayumu's performance when the numbers flashed only briefly on the screen.

"I just watched the video of that and I can tell you right now, there's no way I can do it," she said. "It's unbelievable. I can't even get the first two (squares)."

What's going on here? Even with six months of training, three students failed to catch up to the three young chimps, Matsuzawa said in an e-mail.

He thinks two factors gave his chimps the edge. For one thing, he believes human ancestors gave up much of this skill over evolutionary time to make room in the brain for gaining language abilities.

The other factor is the youth of Ayumu and his peers. The memory for images that's needed for the tests resembles a skill found in children, but which dissipates with age. In fact, the young chimps performed better than older chimps in the new study. (Ayumu's mom did even worse than the college students).

So the next logical step, Lonsdorf said, is to fix up Ayumu with some real competition on these tests: little kids.

[kstar]

Frog:

You know where this is headed, yes?





Best,

Kurt

[sketchers356]

Quickly kill all chimps before global warming sets in.

[frogger]

Where's Mr. 9/11 Rudy?

[legion]

I can't help but think that the chimps recieved extensive training on how to perform the tests, while the humans got 30 seconds of instruction.

I also can't help but think that the chimps have probably become rather specialized in playing this game, while the humans are probably better equiped to solve a wide variety of problems...

[frogger]

I hear IT professionals scored lower.

[kstar]

Originally Posted by legion

I can't help but think that the chimps recieved extensive training on how to perform the tests, while the humans got 30 seconds of instruction.

I also can't help but think that the chimps have probably become rather specialized in playing this game, while the humans are probably better equiped to solve a wide variety of problems...

From the article, emphasis added:

What's going on here? Even with six months of training, three students failed to catch up to the three young chimps, Matsuzawa said in an e-mail.

He thinks two factors gave his chimps the edge. For one thing, he believes human ancestors gave up much of this skill over evolutionary time to make room in the brain for gaining language abilities.

The other factor is the youth of Ayumu and his peers. The memory for images that's needed for the tests resembles a skill found in children, but which dissipates with age. In fact, the young chimps performed better than older chimps in the new study. (Ayumu's mom did even worse than the college students).

[legion]

Sorry, I read a version of the article yesterday that omitted the bit about student training. I responded without reading the article above.

[M.D. Holloway]

Bush loves chimps...

[kstar]

Originally Posted by legion

Sorry, I read a version of the article yesterday that omitted the bit about student training. I responded without reading the article above.

Yes, you did.

"Fetch the comfy chair!"



Best,

Kurt

[Jeff Higgins]

In a similar vein, I read the journals of both W. D. M. "Karamojo" Bell and John "Pondoro" Taylor years ago (I just can't remember which one contained this story). Anyway, both were very prolific elephant hunters / poachers; Bell between the wars and Taylor during and after WWII. Both lived in the African bush for 30 years or more. Both had a lot to say about the intelligence of chimps. This tory in particular is illustrative.

Our hunter was, at this time, in the thicker jungles of the western parts of Africa. He had hired locals (pygmies, actually) as porters, guides, and camp help. Along the way he had picked up a young chimp as a pet and companion. It was orphaned or something. Anyway, as it got older, it started showing a michieveous side. It knew how to open, and would get into, his food stores, like canned goods and the like. He finally took to chaining it up when he couldn't watch it. It soon figured out how to unhook itself, so he had to resort to a pad lock. When he wanted to let it off the chain, he figured he could simply give the key to one of his camp helpers and send him to unlock the chimp. Problem was, they couldn't seem to keep track of the key. So he hung it around the chimp's neck. Next thing he knew, the chimp was running free at will. He had figured out how to use the key. He could not believe it, and demanded to know who had taught the chimp that little trick. It turned out no one had; none of them could figure out the lock, so they just gave the key to the chimp, who unlocked himself. After having only seen it maybe once or twice; from there on he had been doing it himself. He never was able to teach any of the pygmies how to do it. Finally, he just kept the key again, and when he wanted his little buddy off the chain, would give the key to the helper, who would give it to the chimp, who would unlock himself and unfailing bring back the key. Pretty amazing story. I don't think the results of these modern day tests would surprise these guys in the least.

[dhoward]

Darn.
Hoping to see Utube of chimps with baseball bats....

[1fastredsc]

When i read the title i thought Bush punched out a college student.

[the]

Originally Posted by 1fastredsc

When i read the title i thought Bush punched out a college student.

There it goes again, blatant untrue attacks against Bush.

Bush isn't young, and you know it!

[livi]

Better we just acknowledge the fact that in some modalities our rural cousins leave us in their dust.

[Aerkuld]

Originally Posted by frogger

I hear IT professionals scored lower.

When they touched the number and the squares went blank they turned it off, then turned it back on again to see if it corrected the problem.

[Mo_Gearhead]

Hummm ...so there went the evolution theory?????

Where's the video of monkeys building robots, rockets, designing waste water systems, repairing cars, ...etc.

I once saw a horse that could count. (But multiplication always Fuched him up).

[Aerkuld]

Originally Posted by Mo_Gearhead

I once saw a horse that could count. (But multiplication always Fuched him up).

Rabbits can multiply...