British memory champion beaten by a Chimpanzee
January 28, 2008
A British memory champion was beaten by a Chimpanzee in a memory contest. Seven-year-old chimp Ayumu, raised in captivity, thrashed Ben Pridmore at a highly demanding computer game based on a memory test that involved recounting the position of numbers as they flashed on a screen.
Ben Pridmore is famous for memorising the order of a pack of cards in mere 30 seconds, but got beaten by a chimp in a game in which numbers appear and then get hidden by white squares. Players afterwards touch the squares in certain numerical order. Digits were displayed for just about one fifth of a second. Chimp Ayumu was correct most of the times – a mind-boggling 90 per cent whereas Ben scored a rather poor 33 per cent.
The contest was held for Extraordinary Animals, a Channel Five programme. The British memory champion remarked: “I would (prefer) rather not been seen on television doing worse than a chimp in a memory test. I shall never be able to live it down.” Both Chimpanzee and he watched a comp screen on which five digits were shown at various positions for a moment. They then were required to touch the respective squares in order of the digits they concealed - from lowest to highest. Mr Pridmore ruefully admitted that he actually had met his match.
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