NEW YORK - Never mind that TV show that asks if you're smarter than a fifth- grader. Is your memory better than a young chimp's? Maybe not. Japanese researchers pitted young chimps against human adults in two tests of short-term memory, and overall, the chimps won.
That challenges the belief of many people, including many scientists, that "humans are superior to chimpanzees in all cognitive functions," said researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University.
"No one can imagine that chimpanzees—young chimpanzees at the age of 5—have a better performance in a memory task than humans," he said in a statement.
Matsuzawa, a pioneer in studying the mental abilities of chimps, said even he was surprised. He and colleague Sana Inoue report the results in Tuesday's issue of the journal Current Biology. Full Story - Video - Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - From You Flowers
That challenges the belief of many people, including many scientists, that "humans are superior to chimpanzees in all cognitive functions," said researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University.
"No one can imagine that chimpanzees—young chimpanzees at the age of 5—have a better performance in a memory task than humans," he said in a statement.
Matsuzawa, a pioneer in studying the mental abilities of chimps, said even he was surprised. He and colleague Sana Inoue report the results in Tuesday's issue of the journal Current Biology. Full Story - Video - Discount Magazine Subscriptions - Discount Cigarettes & Tobacco - From You Flowers
