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> Over three months, 66 chimps tried and failed to solve the puzzle. Then the Dutch-led team of researchers trained two demonstrator chimpanzees to show the oth
by Ensorceled 3y ago
> Over three months, 66 chimps tried and failed to solve the puzzle. Then the Dutch-led team of researchers trained two demonstrator chimpanzees to show the others how it was done. After two months, 14 "naive" chimps had mastered it.
So 14 out of 64 chimps learned a relatively simple trick after two months of "cumulative culture" exposure. Just over a 20% success rate?
> Thornton said the research again showed how "people habitually overestimate their abilities relative to those of other animals".
People learn how to tile floors, install dishwashers, change their cars oil filter, build websites etc. all from mediocre youtube videos. I don't think I'm overestimating humans "abilities relative to those of other animals" ...
- bee_rider 3y agohttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H-fC9uNyhWo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H-fC9uNyhWo Also, the human scientists figured out ape intelligence to the point where they can design puzzles that are too hard for the apes to solve, and they figured out how to use that to further study the apes. Underestimate the apes? These scientists seem to be absolutely dunking on the poor little guys. They should go pick on orcas or some other actually clever species.
- j_bum 3y agoWell, we would need to identify an equivalently difficult task for humans that couldn’t be learned independently. Building websites or tiling floors (well) are much more complicated than following a set of instructions for changing an oil filter. What percentage of humans could build a website purely from watching a few tutorials? Certainly not 100%. Your comment makes me think that, indeed, humans do overestimate our abilities.