Chimps Beat Humans at Memory Games

The game show asks “Are you smarter than a fifth grader?” It might be better to ask, “can you remember better than a chimp?” The odds are the chimp has a better memory and a recent study in Japan has proved it.

Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University did an experiment that pitted homo sapiens against Pan troglodytes by teaching the chimps the digits 1-9 and their order. Then, the researchers put the numbers on a computer screen and had each subject touch a number. The other numbers went blank at that point, and the idea was to touch all the other numbers in order. The chimps were no more accurate than people, but they could perform the task faster.

Another test had five numbers flashed up for just a fraction of a second to be replaced by white squares and again, the subject had to touch them in order. When shown for 0.7 seconds, the chimp and the college students representing humanity got things right about 80% of the time. When shown for 0.4 seconds, the chimp was still 80% accurate, while the humans were down to 40% accuracy.

Professor Matsuzawa believes two factors affected the outcome. The first was an evolutionary one. Humans gave up some of the memory as they developed language. The brain couldn’t devote sufficient space to both tasks.

The other factor is the age of the chimps. They were 5-years old, and when compared to older chimps’ ability to do these tasks, younger animals were better. So, the next experiment should be logical enough to decide. Put a 5-year-old human up against the chimps – the honor of the species demands it.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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