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Apes go to the movies - and remember the scenes



Apes remember major events in movies, even after a single viewing. That’s the findings of primate research in Japan (New Scientist, September 17, 2015).

Researchers at the Kyoto University in Japan conducted experiments with two species of apes – chimpanzees and bonobo primates – to test their memory and recall. Instead of using food to test memory, they used films.

The researchers made two short movies to show to the apes. Fumihiro Kano and his colleague, Satoshi Hirata, starred in the films with another person dressed as an ape. They wanted to have strong dramatic scenes to see if the apes remembered them.

In the first 30-second movie the character ape bursts through a door on the right hand side (there is also a door on the left hand side) and attacks the two researchers (characters) 18 seconds after the start. After 24 seconds a human character choses one of two weapons next to each other and launched a revenge attack on the ape. In the second 30-second movie there were slight variations – swapping the positions of the two weapons.

The researchers showed the two movies to 6 chimpanzees and 6 bonobo primates on two consecutive days. They used laser eye-tracking technology to see what the apes were watching and their preferences for looking at certain characters (the ape or the humans) or props (weapons).

Anticipatory glances of the apes would tell the researchers whether they recalled an event or not. And the apes did. Both movies were shown again to all 12 apes. The apes preferentially looked at the doorway on the right hand side of the screen around 3 seconds before the character ape burst through the door, demonstrating that they remembered the scene.

When they watched the second movie again, the apes could remember that the weapons were part of the plot. The apes focused their anticipatory glances on the weapon used in the first screening, demonstrating that they knew that the human would select it, even though it had swapped position in movie number 2. All 12 apes remembered the scenes in both movies.

The researchers thought their attention to detail was impressive. They speculated that in the wild their sense of anticipation and recall was needed to avoid danger, and to increase social learning by remembering what other apes did. The study not only showed that the apes remembered major events in the film (demonstrating involuntary event memory), but that they also paid attention to the emotions associated with the events.

The Japanese researchers aim to continue their experiments, and want to explore if apes understand other people’s or animals’ goals, intentions, and beliefs. As Fumihiro Kano said, ‘Understanding a story plot is cognitively demanding, so a story is useful to examine their cognition.’

Journal reference: Current Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.08.004


https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28189-apes-remember-major-events-in-movies-even-on-a-single-viewing/
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