Friday, December 07, 2007

chimps and photographic memory

Some reckon or believe that man evolved and that chimpanzees are man's closest relatives!

The research published in Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press, revealed that young chimpanzees have better memory than humans.

Dr Matsuzawa and colleagues taught the chimps to 'count' from 1 to 9 before they conducted and tested 3 pairs of mother and their 5-year old off-spring against university students in memory task involving numbers.

Quoting from BBC News:
"During the experiment, each subject was presented with various numerals from one to nine on a touch screen monitor.
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The numbers were then replaced with blank squares and the test subject had to remember which number appeared in which location, then touch the appropriate square.

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They found that, in general, the young chimps performed better than their mothers and the adult humans.

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The university students were slower than all of the three young chimpanzees in their response.

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The researchers then varied the amount of time that the numbers appeared on-screen to compare the working memory of humans and chimps.

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Chimps performed much better than university students in speed and accuracy when the numbers appeared only briefly on screen.

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The shortest time duration, 210 milliseconds, did not leave enough time for the subjects to explore the screen by eye movement - something we do all the time when we read.

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This is evidence, the researchers believe, that young chimps have a photographic memory which allows them to memorise a complex scene or pattern at a glance. This is sometimes present in human children but declines with age, they say.

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"Young chimpanzees have a better memory than human adults," Dr Matsuzawa told BBC News.

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"We are still underestimating the intellectual capability of chimpanzees, our evolutionary neighbours."
Unquote.

What do you reckon?

Do you accept that man evolved? Does this suggest there is no 'missing link' between the chimps and man? In terms of swiftness and power, animals outperform.

I believe only man can reason and that man was created at the beginning. Created from what? As written in the Bible...from dust but became alive through the breath of God.

5 comments:

Pauline said...

Well I am not sure of this theory since none of my relatives resemble any chimp... lol... however it is fascinating to study. I think the chimp is able to master this due to the fact he/she is not multi-tasking. Even the students that required more time are well aware of the test and the out come for failing or being second to a chimp. ;)

twilite said...

pauline: good point on multi-tasking. Personally my attitude is: so what if they have a photographic memory. No matter I do not want to evolve from the animal kingdom line! I'm sure the chimps wouldn't want that if we can communicate!!! Hahaha... Cheerio.

Bob said...

Looks like a lot of monkeying around to me . . . :)

Mother of Invention said...

I'm a combo of belief. I basically believe in God as Creator but can blend the evolution theory as Guided by Him. The Chimp and monkey world is just too connected and the evidence is just too strong. My husband studied Anthropology, yet believes in both theories. Even if the whole Bible were to be just a legend, it certainly is a good parable for how we should live as people; with a spiritually kind and Christian-lke attitude.

Pauline said...

Enjoy reading the comments of others on these subjects. It bothers me though at the amount of money we spend on these studies when it could be used to serve humankind, the current link if you will....Hope you are well or perhaps just busy with seasonal preparedness like myself!