05-18-2008 - Biodiversity

sagar: Author=’Jorge Salazar’ program=” video=’8′Photo by Owen Booth“The chimpanzee has a very special cognitive capability of immediately memorizing things in front of him. This does not mean chimpanzees are better than us in all the means of cognition. What we have to know is, let’s say farewell to human/animal dichotomy. We share some things. And humans and chimpanzees are very similar, but different.”
- Tetsuro Matsuzawa

Tetsuro Matsuzawa of the Primate Research Institute in Japan talked with EarthSky’s Jorge Salazar about the intelligence of chimpanzees. His studies show that chimps excel in short- term memory tests, and more.

Our thanks to:
Tetsuro Matsuzawa
Primate Research Institute
Kyoto University
Japan

Written by Jorge Salazar

2 Responses to “Private: Tetsuro Matsuzawa on the chimpanzee mind”

1. Jorge Salazar says:

   May 18, 2009 at 10:02 am

   Here’s a must-see-to-believe video on Dr. Matsuzawa’s memory test with chimpanzees, amazing.

   Reply
2. DianaGainer says:

   May 20, 2009 at 2:36 pm

   I understand that the most recent tests indicate that gorillas have the best short-term memory of all the primates. Gorillas are seldom used in tests because of their large size, but their intelligence rivals that of chimpanzees. I do not know whether orangutans have been tested in a similar fashion, but they too use tools, so their intelligence is likely to be comparable.

   Reply