Outsmarted by Apes!

A young chimpanzee does something Japanese college students can't do -- even after extensive special training. The chimp, Ayumu, can in one brief glance of 210 msec (faster than you can blink!) memorize five numbers on a screen and then tap them in the right order even though the numbers themselves have disappeared from view.

It must be true: it's on YouTube.

Apes outsmarting humans may sound surprising, especially since the media like to highlight the opposite. Just a few months ago, for example, the journal Science reported that chimps are not nearly as smart as toddlers at social learning, and all of the media jumped on this finding.

The problem with many of these reports is that researchers stack the deck against the apes: the ape is tested behind bars by a person it has rarely seen before, and who doesn't even belong to his own species. The child sit on mom's lap, is being talked to, and is, of course, tested by a member of its own species. Guess who does best?

If apes are tested with their own kind everything changes. We conduct a lot of these studies at the Living Links Center, and the apes are as good, sometimes even better than children at social learning, such as imitation.

In other words, all they need is to be tested on their own terms with their own kind, and the usual Scala Naturæ with humans on top begins to wobble. As Tetsuro Matsuzawa, the scientist in charge of the memory study with Ayumu, said in recent interviews, there is absolutely no reason to assume that humans possess superior intelligence in each and every domain.

It surely is a humbling thought for our species, one we are not used to, but why not? We admit that cheetahs run faster, that gorillas are stronger, and that chimps climb better than us, so what's the problem if they have a few cognitive specializations at which they are equal to us, or even better?

But I'll add this: Ayumu may be better at this impossible-looking task than most of us, he is also better than his own mother, Ai, who has a life-time of training behind her. This raises the issue of age. The real test will be to pit Ayumu against a few five-year-old human children, and see who wins.

Perhaps this will allow us to restore our hurt ego -- at least for now.

Comments

[The Collinbrandt]

We need be more aware of Our relationships with all other life forms. Remember, according to the most advanced stellar scientist, we are all made of star dust, or in a more romatic way described by shakespear, "We are the stuff that dreams are made on. Our little life all rounded by a sleep."

[Spookcatcher]

No offense to those few Japanes students they tested, but I'll pay 10 to 1 my ex-wife can make a monkey out of that chimp! She seems to be able to display immediate recall of Everything I ever did, no matter what it was...

[UtahLiberal435]

So...look for industry to begin training chimps for factory work. No citizen rights or troublesome health insurance to hassle with. They can even breed, cage, or genetically tailor their workers. It's the perfect Korporat model! Where do I invest?