Chimps Do Numbers Better Than Humans [this is not about medical marijuana]

LiveScience ^ | December 3, 2007 | Charles Q. Choi

[SunkenCiv]

Young chimps apparently have an extraordinary ability to remember numerals and recall them even better than human adults do. Although researchers have extensively studied chimpanzee memory in the past, the general assumption has been that it is inferior to that of humans, as with many other mental functions... The scientists tested three pairs of mother and infant chimpanzees against nine university students in a memory task involving numerals. All of the chimps had already learned the ascending order of Arabic numerals, from 1 to 9. The chimpanzees and humans were each briefly shown four to nine numerals at a time scattered across a touchscreen. Those numbers were then all simultaneously replaced with blank squares... The chimps were rewarded with raisins or apple cubes for correct answers.

[SunkenCiv]

...and the humans weren't. And the chimps weren't aware of any symbolic significance of the numbers, which would tend to be a distraction for the human volunteers.

[SunkenCiv]

Children Learn by Monkey See, Monkey Do. Chimps Don’t
New York Times | Published: December 13, 2005 | by Carl Zimmer
Posted on 12/14/2005 1:40:21 AM EST by MrMean
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1540027/posts

[SunkenCiv]

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[ClearCase_guy]

E=IC banana

[Miss Didi]

[mtbopfuyn]

Yeah, but the humans weren’t being rewarded with raisins.

[SoothingDave]

Chimps can't write stuff down. They have to have better memories.

[bert]

The humans were rewarded with beer

[Grimmy]

Also, since the human representatives were taken from university campuses, they might have had the additional confusion of having to explain to themselves how, exactly, this also proves the evil American hegemony and patriarchal rape of society while oppressing the masses and stealing freedoms under the guise of a made up war on terror.

[hellbender]

In her fascinating book, Animals in Translation, Temple Grandin observes that some animals can perform amazing mental feats, analogous to those of human autistic savants. That idea can also be found at:

http://www.grandin.com/inc/animals.in.translation.ch7.html

It's also worth considering that young humans can learn some things, like languages, far more easily than adults. The article in the OP tested young chimps against adult humans.

[BlueStateBlues]

Thanks for the laughing chimp graphic. I’m almost LOL, but the chimp seems to be.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[SunkenCiv]

LOL!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1936244/posts?page=8#8

[Miss Didi]

“Borrowed” it from a FReeper long ago and finally found the perfect thread.

[Kevmo]

bmflr

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.

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Why the smart money is on Duncan Hunter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926032/posts

[SunkenCiv]

thanks again hellbender.

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Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson paperback Google books Google search her other website

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[Blind Eye Jones]

Chimps do numbers better than humans because they count every day that goes by to know exactly how long it took to bang out Hamlet on a typewriter.

[Daffynition]

[SunkenCiv]

probably would make sense to have a chimp version of the Stones...