Kid loves Wii, Dog loves Kid
And it turns out trained Japanese research chimpanzees have better short term memory than trained college students. Seems the myth of the sacred human mind has received another blow!
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Animulz Rool!1
Kid loves Wii, Dog loves Kid
And it turns out trained Japanese research chimpanzees have better short term memory than trained college students. Seems the myth of the sacred human mind has received another blow!
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2 comments:
That top video is pretty wrong. And I'm saying that with eyebrows arched and forehead furrowed: the kid's screams were half the time as though he was being raped and the other half the time as though he was being tickled so badly he couldn't catch his breath. Still, that his family did nothing -- and that the boy himself seemed to invite it in the first place -- is a little revealing about that family's fancies.
The chimp study seems like another "media grabs a hold of fluff science journal and blows it out of proportion." If you read the actual article, it says that the chimp did better than people when neither animal showed any chance of success. It's not like the chimp was Garry Kasparov to the humans' Paris Hilton. It was more like Paris and Nicki -- and Nicki won, barely. But of course it sounds awesome if you say, "omfg chimp smarter than hewmons :o" so that's what's gone and gotten circulated. Giant sigh.
I'm a little confused about your assessment of the chimp article. It's certainly guilty of fluff, but I think the results are genuinely amazing. I watched a video on youtube about the test and scientists seem to be pretty impressed. At a symposium on chimp research, the lead scientist apparently announced his findings to a stunned audience and added, "I know. Nobody can do it."
I can't seem to find that video, but here's bbc's report: http://youtube.com/watch?v=JPOXg9vv99o
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