• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Chimp Beats Humans in Memory Test

Garrette

Penultimate Amazing
G
Joined
Aug 7, 2001
Messages
14,768
Story here.

As a layman, I see lots of questions to ask, but I'm interested in the views of the real scientists (especially cognitive ones) on this board. I'm also interested in the views of non-scientists on this board.

Legit? Too soon to tell? The sign of humanity's downfall?
 
My first thought is that there is a flaw in the design of the experiment. The numerals themselves have more "baggage" to the human volunteers which might slow them down, and the humans no doubt know the correct order better than the chimps, which could make them faster. To truly compare, both the symbols and the order should be arbitrary and meaningless.
 
How often have the chimps, animals under continuous study, performed this task before when compared to college kids asked to volunteer?
 
Just wanted to put up the actual test...
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.
Click to expand...
bolding mine

Looks like the test does not in fact show memory superiority, but shows that the chimp's eyes/brain can input data more efficiently? Kind of like how cats have a better sense of smell and dogs have a better sense of hearing?
 
Mason said:
Looks like the test does not in fact show memory superiority, but shows that the chimp's eyes/brain can input data more efficiently? Kind of like how cats have a better sense of smell and dogs have a better sense of hearing?
Click to expand...

It could be, or it could be superior memory in some sense -- who knows. It would take many more experiments of various types to reach a conclusion here.

I think that in general what surprises people is that the task in the test is the kind of thing people would assume we are automatically better at than any other animal.

This is just another test, among many, that narrows the mental differences between us and our ancestors. Most of us should find it fascinating and exciting. The creationists and the animal testing proponents should find it threatening.
 
rocketdodger said:
It could be, or it could be superior memory in some sense -- who knows. It would take many more experiments of various types to reach a conclusion here.

I think that in general what surprises people is that the task in the test is the kind of thing people would assume we are automatically better at than any other animal.

This is just another test, among many, that narrows the mental differences between us and our ancestors. Most of us should find it fascinating and exciting. The creationists and the animal testing proponents should find it threatening.
Click to expand...

We don't have access to the experimental deisgn. I suspect that the chimp may be practiced at the task, while the humans involved are all new to it.
 
I think the reason people don't have exact short term memories is simply because we have a constant internal dialog that can distract from fixing these memories.

Ritual Magicians in some schools train themselves to do this sort of task, and I've read that it requires that you quiet the internal dialog to make it happen. If you read some of the occult literature that involves the more serious schools of Ritual Magic, you soon realize that it is a form of yoga that they are practicing.
 
ImaginalDisc said:
If the chimp has practice and the humans don't then a comparison between them is invalid. You can't draw inferences without a control.
Click to expand...

Apparently everyone practised: "Even with six months of training, three students failed to catch up to the three young chimps, Matsuzawa said in an e-mail." (quoted from the article linked from the OP).
 
Michael C said:
Apparently everyone practised: "Even with six months of training, three students failed to catch up to the three young chimps, Matsuzawa said in an e-mail." (quoted from the article linked from the OP).
Click to expand...

Ooops. Serves me right for trying to skim the article while I was reading something else.

Mea culpa.
 
Freethinker said:
My first thought is that there is a flaw in the design of the experiment. The numerals themselves have more "baggage" to the human volunteers which might slow them down, and the humans no doubt know the correct order better than the chimps, which could make them faster. To truly compare, both the symbols and the order should be arbitrary and meaningless.
Click to expand...

Good idea. But even with other symbols I'd still put my money on the chimp for this particular cognitive skill: he'd certainly beat me. I looked at the video and there's simply no way I could recognise the numbers fast enough. I doubt it would make things any better for me if the numbers were replaced by symbols that have no meaning for me: in four tenths of a second or less my brain just doesn't have the time to take in the information.
 
From another article "The chimps were rewarded with raisins or apple cubes for correct answers". What were the humans rewarded with (other than avoiding the disgrace of losing to a chimp)? Ten bucks for each correct answer might improve the scores a bit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom