<HTML>There was a show on in the UK the other day about the cleverest apes in the world. One chimp, from Japan, could memorise 5 random numbers and sort them in ascending order instantly. They pitted the chimp against the narrator, a psycologist and Oxford graduate. The chimp got twice as many right in half the time. Embarrassing huh? This chimp clearly had an impressive short term memory. Another chimp could use a scaled down model of her room to find hidden objects in her room - ie use a map. She also clearly displayed signs of self-awareness, and was able to resist temptation to secure better rewards. (sweets) An orang-utan could use 150 sign words, and hold conversations, for example
-are we friends?
-yes we are friends
Abstract stuff, he could also do puzzles.
The Japanese owner of the first chimp figured that the short term memory skills that his chimp had would be useful in the wild, for the complex society that chimps live in and to defend the troop (?) against attacks from rivals.
How certain can we be that apes don't think at all? These ones were displaying the same sort of skills as toddlers. My toddlers think. Well sometimes :-)
Claire</HTML>
