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Short Sharp Science: A New Scientist blog

Still dumber than a chimpanzee

Chimpanzees are even smarter than humans than previously thought -- at least at memorizing numbers.

A cunning eight-year old chimpanzee named Ayumu can memorize a brief flash of up to eight numerals on a computer screen, according to new research presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science today. Humans who practice the task max out at six numbers, says Tetusuro Matsuzawa, a primatologist at Kyoto University in Japan, who trained Ayumu and 13 other gifted chimps.

"Not many people are happy to see that chimps are better than us," he says.
In the test, chimpanzees and humans see a flash of numerals on a computer screen that quickly become whited out. To perform the task correctly, you must tap on the non-concealed numbers in ascending order.

Matusazwa's team previously showed that Ayumu outperforms humans when six numbers are displayed for two tenths of a second. But critics suggested that extra practice may have skewed that result in favour of Ayumu.

To counter such criticism, he has continued training chimpanzees, as well as humans, on memorizing more and more numbers for shorter periods of time. 

The differences proved even starker when subjects had to memorize seven or eight numerals. Humans failed nearly every go, while Ayumu's accuracy never fell below 40 percent.

This ability could help young chimpanzees quickly determine which trees have the most fruit, while also keeping an eye on their superiors, Matsuzawa theories. Perhaps human ancestors lost this capacity while devoting their brains to other tasks, such as language and communication.

He's now training Ayumu to recall 9 digits.

See how you do against Ayumu with this game.
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Your "Obviuously" not testing the "Right" humans...


Having a good memory does not necessarily imply that one is intelligent. There are numerous people who have an excellent memory, yet fail in subjects like mathematics. Intelligence has a broader horizon than just only memory. So, I think that this conclusion is quite narrow-minded. Nevertheless, the gathered data can, and I think will, be of great importance in terms of understanding the complex machine that is our brain.


I also wonder if age has something to do with it. I read an article that 4 year old humans have almost perfect recall (they may not understand what they are recalling though). How old is 8 for a chimp?


Cool to hear that they are smarter. Lol, I always wish I could have a chimpanzee. But that's illegal. However, some people in my country have them at home anyway..

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