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December 3, 2007
First a computer program that beats humans at checkers... now this
The headline from the Wall Street Journal reads: "Five-Year-Old Chimp Beats College Kids In Computer Game"
Japanese researchers pitted young chimps against human adults in two tests of short-term memory, and overall, the chimps won.
...
Ayumu, the chimp that did the best, was included with 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% 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%, while humans plunged to 40%. That indicates Ayumu was better at taking in the whole pattern of numbers at a glance, the researchers wrote.
Yes, the headline grabbed my attention and I had to read it. And yes, I chuckled when I read that it was a short-term memory test involving college students. But seriously, this sounds like an interesting experiment to do on people with different occupations. I would hope that people in careers where the powers of observation, quick reaction times, and short-term memory matter (police officers, air traffic controllers, and derivatives traders come to mind) might do better on this test than the average adult.
Age seems to make a difference too.
The other factor is the youth of Ayumu and his peers. The memory for images that's needed for the tests resembles a skill found in children, but which dissipates with age. In fact, the young chimps performed better than older chimps in the new study.
Posted by William Polley at December 3, 2007 4:05 PM
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