Outline+the+chimpanzee+study+done+by+Tetsuro+Matsuzawa,+and+explain+the+relationshipbetween+the+research+and+adaptation.

The chimpanzee study done by professor Tetsuro Matsuzawa in 2007 aims to examine spatial memory in young chimps.The researchers took three paris of chimps and taught them to recognize the numerals from 1 to 9 on a computer monitor. Both the chimps and the human participants were later seated at a touch-screen monitor in a random sequece. The numbers were then replaced with blank squares. Participant had to remember which numeral appeared in which location, and touch the squres in the appropriate sequence. The finding was that there were many errors, and accuracy decreased as the numbers were replaced with blank squres more quickly for Human. Surprisingly, a result was totally different for the groups of the chimps. They had remarkable memory for the spatial distribution of the numbers.

From the findings of the study, psychologists think that the chimpanzee study and a concept 'adaptation' have very strong relationship. They argue that it is a necessary adaptation for chimpanzees to have this type of memory so that they can remember where food resources are in the forest. Perhaps as agriculture developed, this skill was no longer essential for human survival. As an evaluation for the study, I think that the study is based on a representative group of sample for some extent. For human, not only adults but also children were used for the research. However, the limitation was that a variety of chimps may not be used in the research. Therefore, the experimentals chimps cannot be generalized in to general population. Furthermore, the study was conducted in a laboratory, which is an artificial setting. Also, the study in supported by findings of other studies related to chimps, and ethical considerations were well followed in the research.