A new study published in the latest issue of Current Biology (call number QH301.C85) reports that chimpanzees perform better in tests of short-term memory than human adults.
photo source: Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University
Japanese researchers examined numerical recollection in 5-year-old chimps versus college students, and found that chimps were faster at recalling the sequence of numbers shown to them than the students. The chimps were also more accurate in their recall than the students when given less time to view the numbers.
This evidence puts into question the widely held belief that chimps are, across the board, cognitively inferior to humans.
Links:
Current Biology (article summary and link to full-text)
Associated Press coverage (also available via Lexis Nexis)
Primate Research Institute video