Ny: Young Chimp Beats College Students

[♦ nivek ♦]

NY: Young chimp beats college students

San Francisco Chronicle

 

"Think you're smarter than a fifth-grader? How about a 5-year-old

chimp? Japanese researchers pitted young chimps against human adults

in 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."

 

 

[editor's note:

Why this should be surprising is the real question; after all, how

many chimps do you know who have to juggle anxiety about passing

courses, anticipation of a social life or lack thereof, parental

expectations, the job to provide pocket-money ... and all the other

extraneous things on the average college student's mind? - SAT]

(12/03/07)

 

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