Evolutionary Psychology: Animal Researches
Tetsuro Matsuzawa (2007) Primate Studies on Spatial Memory Skills
Darwin suggested the theory of natural selection, which infers that any change in a trait, if useful, will be kept. The change in a trait is a result of a need to adapt to ever-changing environments, and in order to make the most out of the limited environments. Along with this theory, Darwin also believed that humans were very similar to primates, and had similar behaviors. These behaviors included: mate selection, maternal love and self-preservation. He also said that primates and humans shared similar emotions and facial expressions. These assertions suggest that studying animal behavior will give us insight to human behavior.
An example of this claim is a study by Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University (2007). Tetsuro Matsuzawa studied the spatial memory skills of chimps and humans. He had trained three pairs of chimpanzees to recognize the numbers 1-9 on a computer monitor. He then took the chimp subjects and the human subjects and directed them to sit at computer terminals. The computer monitors would briefly flash the numbers 1-9 on the screen, and then the numbers would be hidden by blank white squares. The subjects were instructed to select the blank white squares in the order of 1-9. With each trial, the period of time where the numbers were actually visible was shortened. As a result, humans made more and more errors as the intervals between numbers and white squares were shortened. However, the chimps showed remarkable spatial memory skills, and were able to accurately select the squares in the correct order even when the intervals were shortened.
Tetsuro Matsuzawa concluded that this was a representation of adaptation to each of the subjects' species's respective environments. Chimps needed remarkable spatial memory skills to survive in the jungle: they needed to remember where food resources, and danger, was located in the rain forest. As agriculture developed, humans' needs for spatial memory skills lessened, and were replaced by language memory skills. Humans need the capacity to remember language much more than spatial memory skills. These reasons explain why and how adaptation takes place, and how animal researches can help us understand human behavior.
