Looking for a play buddy? Well, you can now play Rock Paper and Scissors with a chimpanzee. The Japanese researchers have trained a Chimpanzee to play the game with ease. You do know about the game! The rock hits the scissor and breaks it. The hand gesture of paper can wrap the rock but it can get cut by the scissor. A recent study showed that Chimpanzees have the ability to think like human beings. The Japanese researchers taught a chimpanzee to play rock paper scissors and the animal could play it as well as a four year old child.
The game is not easy but the Chimpanzee could use his reasoning and solving ability to play the game. How does he know that a paper wraps the stone and scissor cuts the paper? The scientists in Japan used 7 monkeys for the experimentation. They used chimpanzees of different size, sexes and ages. All the apes were given a booth with a computer touch screen installed in each. They were presented with two signals of hands for the game. If they picked the right option, they would get a piece of apple. They also heard a chime by choosing the right signal. If they chose the weaker option, they would get nothing. After few sessions, the chimps learnt the pattern of whether scissor beats paper or paper beats stone. The first sequence they learned was of paper and rock. Next, they learnt the rock and scissors sequence.
After 307 sessions, 5 out of 7 Chimpanzees learnt the game and mastered it. The smart chimpanzees learnt the game and mastered it in just 53 days. Scientists performed the same experiment on children. They found out that the chimpanzee’s understanding of the game is similar to a 4 year old child.
The study showed that the chimpanzees are capable of learning the game just like a 4 year old child can! The ability of a 4 year child to understand the circular relationship proves that the chimpanzees can play the game as good as a 4 year old. Scientists were successful with their objective. This experiment was taken place in Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University. The chimpanzees learned the transverse pattern and this was a successful research.
We can relate the findings with a popular theory. When the chimpanzees gave the right answer, they were given a piece of apple. When they did not give the right answer, they did not get anything and heard an unpleasant sound. With the help of the reward (the apple), they were able to learn the game efficiently. Looks like we will get to see the day when a chimpanzee would be playing chess. Scientists will soon come up with more findings. This does tell us that chimpanzees do have a good understanding and if you train them, they can do many tasks with ease.