Quote:
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...
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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).