Chimpanzee Memory Tests
These amazing video tests of chimpanzee visual recall show to my amateur eye that chimps process and retain the visual field in a way that is different than humans. Some explanation and commentary on the significance of the results can be found in this New Scientist article. As Darth Vader said, “Impressive. Most Impressive.”
December 6th, 2007 at 1:35 am
shoo, it is sooooo impressive. Humbling is the least we can say.
What does it say about the state of our aging brains??? Scary.
December 6th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Wow! Looks to me like they just have some kick-ass spatial memory.
I\’ve always thought human spatial memory was under-rated and try to use it as much as possible in navigation design. If you can get people to find something based on where it is instead of what it\’s called, it always seems to work better.
Maybe the fact that chimps generally aren\’t cultured to think linguistically, like we are when we process displayed information, makes them super spatially oriented.
Interesting stuff.
December 10th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Yes, I was very impressed too, and inspired. On one video I saw, the chimp seemed to be more focused on what he was eating and at the same time in a relaxed way he touched the screen with the backside of his left hand, hitting all the 9 digits in order.
I even made a site about it, where one can do the test oneself:
http://chimp-test.bigparadox.com/
This version shows the digits a little longer than in the real test though. It simply became too difficult otherwise
Magnus
Stockholm, Sweden