XregnaR wrote:

Ah bullshit. We would do a lot better at complex memory tests if we didn't spend most of days being inndated by stimuli from all directions - TV, radio, iStuff, urban noise, signage, & the myriad other bullshit sensory overload vectors we've created for ourselves.

The interviewed researcher suggests as much but I suspect chimps are simply more task focused and less distractable.

I think the mistake being made is the assumption that humans are more evolved than chimpanzees.  Both species are equally evolved and both are closer genetically, intellectually and socially than many people are willing to admit.  Seeing as humans and chimpanzees are equally evolved (just in different things for different environments) perhaps the skill sets that were tested have more real world applications to chimpanzees so they are more tuned.  As far as I can tell, the only real skill set that humans have that no other animals share is the ability to hold information outside of the body meaning, books, cds, hard drives or any form of information storage.  Without the ability to store and share large volumes of information we wouldn't have cars, cell phones or any tool much more complex than what chimpanzees are capable of making.