Researchers Successfully Dampen Hopes and Dreams of College Students

I graduated from a two-year program at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario and then proceeded to pursue further studies for one year at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario. Post-secondary schools are usually stress-ridden and command complete focus and dedication from a pursing student. There is always an assignment, exam, quiz, or a project that needs attention at any given time in a semester. If I was still a student at one of these great schools and someone was to tell me that I would be taking part in a study that required testing of my already jammed packed memory against a bunch of chimps (yes, REAL chimpanzees; aka monkees; nonhumans; nonstressed college students...whatever you may want to refer to them as), I would first keep my immediate thoughts and recommendations to the researchers to myself and put forth no effort once-so-ever in this pointless test that would NOT count towards my grades.

As crazy as this scenerio may sound, this is exactly what happened in a study at Kyoto Univerisity in Japan. You see, Japanese researches thought that their time would be well spent studying the memories of young, almost infant chimps and then comparing them to the memories of human adults, namely, (unfortunate) college students at this university.

After conducting the first test, researchers found that one chimp in particular, Ayumu, did the best. (*Enter sarcasm here* aww, isn't that cute, they even gave him a real name...doesn't that just warm your ham and season it with fresh spices). The researchers then decided to include this 5-year old fella in a second test with 9 college students. After conducting the memory test consisting of numerous flashes and images at two-different speeds; the chimp eluded as the overall champ.

So what does this study prove? I have no freaking idea! I doubt any of you know either. By testing a dozen or so college students who are more concerned and preoccupied with reading their pyschology chapters, finishing up a chem-lab report, or studying for their philosophy final; brilliant Japanese researchers proved that a 5-year old chimpanzee named Ayumu has a better memory then a few adults who could've easily found better things to do with their time then have their memories tested with chimps.