THEY’VE TAUGHT CHIMPS TO PLAY ROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS

Researchers from Kyoto University in Japan and Peking University in China have taught chimpanzees to play rock-paper-scissors. The point of the experiment was to see if they could learn the circular relationship between the three hand signals. The chimpanzees watched a touchscreen and were trained to choose the stronger of two options they saw on screen. They first learned the paper-rock sequence, then the rock-scissors one and finally the scissors-paper combination. Once they knew how the pairs fit together, all the different pairs were randomly presented to them on screen.The chimps completed the training after an average of 307 sessions. The findings show that chimpanzees can learn the circular logic at the heart of the game.
* Are they insane? Has nobody else seen “Planet of the Apes”?
* What the chimps are probably thinking is: Rock smashes doctor. Scissors stabs doctor. Paper suffocates doctor.
* Next up: teaching monkeys how to do Chinese jump rope.