Thursday, April 15, 2010

Chimpanzee Memory Test



Wow, chimpanzees have a better working memory than humans. And why is it that children tend to remeber more than adults? Could it be because adults have to store more information in their long-term memory so their short term memory is even smaller than average? Its interesting that the children in the study could only remeber about 4 or 5 of the numbers in a row. It brings up memories of the "magic number plus or minus 2" law that we learned about, but in this case it would be minus 2 or 3. wonder if there have been a further diagnosis is about this? Assuming that chimpanzees use their short-term memory better thatb humans, they must have an easier time in converting it into long-term as well. What do you think?

(Youtube Video-Chimpanzee Memory Test)

1 comment:

  1. I looked into this study after you posted the video. I find it interesting that the chimps' percentage of correct trials didn't decline as a function of the hold time - the amount of time the numbers remained on the screen - whereas the children's percentage of correct trails was negatively correlated to the hold time. The chimps' memory ability is reminiscent of the "photographic memory" some people display, but I still can't believe how quickly they process those numbers.

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