The animal chose a familiar face from two photographs
Apes may have amazing memories. Animals can recognize old friends even after more than a quarter of a century, a new study claims. Scientists showed primates images of old friends and noted their reactions
A new study shows that great apes have better memory than some humans. Scientists studied a group of great apes; when the animals were shown photographs of old friends — some of whom they had not seen for more than 25 years — the primates reacted to the photographs.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Lead author Dr. Laura Lewis of the University of California, Berkeley, told Fox News that the animals are actually very similar to humans.
“We tend to think of apes as something completely different from ourselves, but We did see that these animals have cognitive mechanisms that are very similar to our own, including memory,” she noted.
The team of researchers worked with chimpanzees and bonobos at three zoos — Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland, Plankendael Zoo in Belgium and Kumamoto Nature Reserve in Japan, Fox News reports. Scientists collected photographs of monkeys that were no longer at the zoo and had not been seen by other monkeys for at least nine months to 26 years.
One goal was to find out what kind of relationships the animals had and whether they would develop any. -positive or negative feelings associated with these memories.
The monkeys were shown two photographs side by side—one of a monkey they had met before and one of an unfamiliar animal. The researchers then used an eye-tracking device to measure where the monkeys looked and for how long.
The team found that the animals tended to look longer at the familiar image than at the second photo. Primates also looked more closely at those with whom they had positive relationships in the past.
The researchers were most interested in a bonobo monkey named Louise, who was shown an image of her sister and nephew she had not seen in more than 26 years. She looked at both of them with «astonishing confidence» in eight separate comparisons, according to the scientists.
Study author Lewis believes this could lead to the conclusion that these animals have similar memory powers to humans.< /p>
“This pattern of social relationships shaping long-term memory in chimpanzees and bonobos is similar to what we see in humans: our own social relationships also appear to shape our long-term memory of individuals,” she explains.
Dr. Lewis adds: “The idea that they actually remember others and therefore can miss fellow humans is actually a powerful cognitive mechanism and something that was thought to be uniquely human.” .
Laura Lewis emphasizes that the study «raises questions about the possibility that they may have the capacity to get bored.»
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