Matsuzawa's star performer chimp, Ai.
Ai performs the color Stroop task.
Ever since the remarkable discovery that chimps and humans share the same cytochrome-c protein sequence, research into our connections has accelerated. Human researchers are now gleaning tremendous new information and insight into how our ape cousins think, and how this in turn may have import for us.
Some of the best recent research is being undertaken in Inuyama, Japan , at The Primate Research Institute by Prof. Tetsuro Matsuzawa. In his research, along with a dozen other scientists and graduate students, Matsuzawa has been able to peer into the minds of his chimp subjects and learn how they think and communicate - including their use of the Japanese language to do so.
While chimps and humans diverged from their common ancestor some 6 million years ago- and the latter has not yet been identified, this hasn't stopped Matsuzawa and his group from making novel inroads into chimp thought, capabilities. At his Institute, he and co-workers probe how chimps remember, learn numbers, perceive and categorize objects.
Obviously, this sort of research can't be done "on the fly" or superificially. Since a large component requires a strict code and rigorously correct interpretation of chimp responses, this also necessitates building relationships with the chimps. In addition, much brain work is needed to implement increasingly complex designs to challenged chimp capabilities and limits of cognition.
While "Carlo" the math monkey in Barbados can certainly pass cursory tests of his math ability (see previous blog on this) it is certain he'd quickly reach his limits in Matsuzawa's labs. (For example, Matsuzawa would likely also have Carlo add two binary numbers.)
Matsuzawa's star chimp is named Ai with image shown, including working with Japanese characters. Ai arrived at Kyoto University in 1977, and Matsuzawa still recalls their first meeting, noting that when he stared into this chimp's eyes "She looked back into mine. This amazed me because the monkeys I'd earlier worked with had never look into mine" (Source: Smithsonian magazine, Sept., 2010, p. 52).
This shouldn't be surprising since chimps have evinced signs of consciousness, at least comparable to advanced human infants, in many varied research venues. Again, this is simply another reminder of how closely connected chimps are to humans - the "naked apes".
Ai's son, Ayumu, is also a fast learner. He has a better eidetic memory than Ai, similar in fashion to human children - who have better eidetic memories than their parents (which also makes them better at learning languages) . One such memory test given by Matsuzawa is to rapidly flash the numbers 1.....7 onto a screen then provide the chimps scrambled white blocks with the numbers emblazoned. They had to correctly identify the sequence of the numbers from the blocks, say 2-4-7-1-3-5-6, and do it as fast as possible. This would challenge most humans, but both Ai and Ayumu did it so fast and correctly (despite the odds against being 1 in 5,040) that the audience then watching gave out assorted ooohs and ahhhs.
A more complex test adminstered by Matsuzawa entailed word comprehension, in something known as the "color Stroop task". The idea here is to reliably touch a colored dot that corrsponds to a particular word. Matsuzawa, however, wanted to know if the chimps really understood the word's meaning or were simply mechanically connecting the symbol (e.g. in Japanese) to the particular color.
To this end, the researchers deliberately miscolored a number of the words, for example showing the word "black" printed in the color red, or "yellow" printed in orange. The chimps were then challenged by Matsuzawa to idenitfy the correct color of the word, not the word itself.
Matsuzawa first tested this on an English -speaking human subject in his lab at the time. He did this by using three felt pens of different colors (black, blue and red) then writing the English words for the colors in a variety of inks and asking the subject to convey - as rapidly as possible- the colors in which the words were written. The human subject slowed down and even stumbled, mislabeling the colors, when they didn't match. The two chimps meanwhile did several successive trials and did incredibly: Ai getting one wrong, and her son all correct.
Are the chimps smarter than humans? Who knows? We can't be sure since for this spontaneous trial the chimps may have already performed the tasks a number of times and have gotten to the point their skills predominate.
These tests and trials don't exhaust all the marvelous discoveries Matsuzawa has made. They also include documenting various types of tool use, including using folded leaves to scoop water, fashion a wand from a grass stem to retrieve algae from a pond, and use sticks to dip for ants in their nests. They also have been seen using a pestle to pound thw crown of an oil palm tree to extract a delicacy they like.
As time goes on, Matsuzawa in his research will clarify further the similarities in thought between humans and chimps, as well as the differences - including humans possessing full fledged language and writing, more sophisticated tools like screwdrivers and wrenches, and the control of fire.
Some of the best recent research is being undertaken in Inuyama, Japan , at The Primate Research Institute by Prof. Tetsuro Matsuzawa. In his research, along with a dozen other scientists and graduate students, Matsuzawa has been able to peer into the minds of his chimp subjects and learn how they think and communicate - including their use of the Japanese language to do so.
While chimps and humans diverged from their common ancestor some 6 million years ago- and the latter has not yet been identified, this hasn't stopped Matsuzawa and his group from making novel inroads into chimp thought, capabilities. At his Institute, he and co-workers probe how chimps remember, learn numbers, perceive and categorize objects.
Obviously, this sort of research can't be done "on the fly" or superificially. Since a large component requires a strict code and rigorously correct interpretation of chimp responses, this also necessitates building relationships with the chimps. In addition, much brain work is needed to implement increasingly complex designs to challenged chimp capabilities and limits of cognition.
While "Carlo" the math monkey in Barbados can certainly pass cursory tests of his math ability (see previous blog on this) it is certain he'd quickly reach his limits in Matsuzawa's labs. (For example, Matsuzawa would likely also have Carlo add two binary numbers.)
Matsuzawa's star chimp is named Ai with image shown, including working with Japanese characters. Ai arrived at Kyoto University in 1977, and Matsuzawa still recalls their first meeting, noting that when he stared into this chimp's eyes "She looked back into mine. This amazed me because the monkeys I'd earlier worked with had never look into mine" (Source: Smithsonian magazine, Sept., 2010, p. 52).
This shouldn't be surprising since chimps have evinced signs of consciousness, at least comparable to advanced human infants, in many varied research venues. Again, this is simply another reminder of how closely connected chimps are to humans - the "naked apes".
Ai's son, Ayumu, is also a fast learner. He has a better eidetic memory than Ai, similar in fashion to human children - who have better eidetic memories than their parents (which also makes them better at learning languages) . One such memory test given by Matsuzawa is to rapidly flash the numbers 1.....7 onto a screen then provide the chimps scrambled white blocks with the numbers emblazoned. They had to correctly identify the sequence of the numbers from the blocks, say 2-4-7-1-3-5-6, and do it as fast as possible. This would challenge most humans, but both Ai and Ayumu did it so fast and correctly (despite the odds against being 1 in 5,040) that the audience then watching gave out assorted ooohs and ahhhs.
A more complex test adminstered by Matsuzawa entailed word comprehension, in something known as the "color Stroop task". The idea here is to reliably touch a colored dot that corrsponds to a particular word. Matsuzawa, however, wanted to know if the chimps really understood the word's meaning or were simply mechanically connecting the symbol (e.g. in Japanese) to the particular color.
To this end, the researchers deliberately miscolored a number of the words, for example showing the word "black" printed in the color red, or "yellow" printed in orange. The chimps were then challenged by Matsuzawa to idenitfy the correct color of the word, not the word itself.
Matsuzawa first tested this on an English -speaking human subject in his lab at the time. He did this by using three felt pens of different colors (black, blue and red) then writing the English words for the colors in a variety of inks and asking the subject to convey - as rapidly as possible- the colors in which the words were written. The human subject slowed down and even stumbled, mislabeling the colors, when they didn't match. The two chimps meanwhile did several successive trials and did incredibly: Ai getting one wrong, and her son all correct.
Are the chimps smarter than humans? Who knows? We can't be sure since for this spontaneous trial the chimps may have already performed the tasks a number of times and have gotten to the point their skills predominate.
These tests and trials don't exhaust all the marvelous discoveries Matsuzawa has made. They also include documenting various types of tool use, including using folded leaves to scoop water, fashion a wand from a grass stem to retrieve algae from a pond, and use sticks to dip for ants in their nests. They also have been seen using a pestle to pound thw crown of an oil palm tree to extract a delicacy they like.
As time goes on, Matsuzawa in his research will clarify further the similarities in thought between humans and chimps, as well as the differences - including humans possessing full fledged language and writing, more sophisticated tools like screwdrivers and wrenches, and the control of fire.
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