‘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.

“There are still many people, including many biologists, who believe that humans are superior to chimpanzees in all cognitive functions,” said researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa, director of the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University in Japan. “No one can imagine that chimpanzees — young chimpanzees at the age of 5 — have a better performance in a memory task than humans.”’ (Link)

It is of no surprise that Humans are more advanced than primates. That is the reason we have technology and hold the “primary” spot over all other species on the planet. Evolution shows that we have evolved out of primates; much like it is said that the human race will continue to evolve in the future. One day, there will be a smart (upper class) group of humans and a less smart (read dumb, lower class) of humans. (Link)

I find it very interesting that chimpanzee’s are showing an improved memory skill. The fact that their memory skills are better than the average adult could mean one of two things. First of all, it could mean that primates are continuing to evolve and that in the future we may see a smarter version of the modern day primate. Secondly it could mean that scientists are testing the wrong people. After the age of 16 (approximately) we begin to lose neurons on a daily basis. Therefore our ability to keep things in out active memory will decline. I am not sure of the age range of this test, however I think it should be done on teenagers, college students, post-education students and the “older” people. This would give more concrete data.

Nevertheless, it is still an interesting “discovery”.

-Justin