Ayumu (chimpanzee)

Ayumu (born 24 April 2000)^[1] is a chimpanzee currently living at the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University. He is the son of chimpanzee Ai and has been a participant since infancy in the Ai Project, an ongoing research effort aimed at understanding chimpanzee cognition.^[2] As part of the Ai Project, Ayumu participated in a series of short-term memory tasks, such as to remember the sequential order of numbers^[3] displaying on a touch-sensitive computer screen.^[4] His performance in the tasks was superior to that of comparably trained university students, leading to a possible conclusion that young chimpanzees have better working memory than adult humans.^[5] This conclusion has been disputed.^[6]

Ayumu is renowned for his exceptional working memory. As part of the Ai Project, initiated by primatologist Tetsuro Matsuzawa, Ayumu participated in a series of memory tasks designed to assess cognitive abilities in chimpanzees. In one notable experiment, Ayumu was presented with a sequence of numerals on a touchscreen, which were then briefly masked. He was required to recall and touch the numerals in ascending order. Ayumu consistently outperformed human participants, including university students, especially when the numerals were displayed for as little as 210 milliseconds. While humans' performance declined under these conditions, Ayumu maintained an accuracy rate of approximately 80%, suggesting a form of eidetic memory. These findings have contributed to discussions on the cognitive tradeoff hypothesis, which posits that as humans evolved complex language skills, certain other cognitive abilities, like short-term memory, may have diminished.^[7][8]

• List of individual apes

• Chimp Test - Playstation game inspired by Ayumu