The study also tested the chimps’ memory skills. The primates did well on the tests and were able to remember and anticipate memorable events they saw on the screen. This was even the case if they only watched the film once. The study’s findings were published in the most recent issue of Current Biology.
A spokesman for Current Biology said the apes seemed to have enjoyed watching the movies.
The discovery was made by scientists at Kyoto University. They were investigating the long-term memory capacity of bonobos and of chimps. The study involved 12 apes who were shown two films specially prepared for them. They watched them 24 hours apart, and researchers tracked their eye movements.
In the first movie the apes watched, there was an actor dressed in a chimp suit that burst through the door. The character then attacked a man and stole a banana that the man was eating. In the second viewing, the role was reversed and a man started to hit the animal with a toy hammer.
During the second viewing of the short film, the apes’ eyes quickly spotted the red hammer, which was moved to a different spot. They spotted it before anyone even went near it.
The data revealed the apes remembered what they had seen and that they anticipated the attacks.
