Average Chimp Test Score: Humans vs. Ayumu

What the chimp test measures

Numbers appear scattered on a grid; the moment you commit to the first one, the rest go blank, and you must click them in ascending order from memory. That makes it a spatial working-memory task with a twist of speed — you have only as long as you dare to study the layout before starting. Most people top out around 8 to 10 numbers. The rough tiers:

• 6 or fewer — below typical for adults; common on a first try before strategy kicks in.
• 8–9 — the broad average range.
• 10–11 — above average; deliberate chunking is usually happening.
• 12–14 — strong; few sustain this without practice.
• 15+ — exceptional territory.

The study behind the name

The game recreates a 2007 experiment from Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute, where Tetsuro Matsuzawa's lab had been teaching chimpanzees the numerals 1 through 9 for years. In the key task, numerals flashed onto a touchscreen and were instantly masked by white squares; the chimp then touched the squares in numeric order from memory.

The star was Ayumu, a young chimpanzee who could do this with the numerals visible for only a fraction of a second — at exposures around two tenths of a second, he kept roughly 80 percent accuracy on five-numeral layouts. University students tested on the same task at the same speed performed far worse. A chimpanzee beating humans at a memory game made headlines worldwide, and it's the reason every version of this test carries his species' name.

Did a chimp really beat humans?

Yes — with an asterisk worth knowing. Ayumu had thousands of trials of practice; the students were near-novices. Follow-up work found that humans given extensive practice on the same task could close most of the gap, so the fair conclusion isn't that chimpanzee memory is superhuman across the board. What survives scrutiny is still remarkable: young chimps acquire the skill astonishingly fast and capture a glanced scene with a speed and completeness that unpracticed humans simply don't show.

One hypothesis from Matsuzawa is a cognitive trade-off: as our lineage developed language, we gave up some of the rapid, photograph-like scene capture young chimps display, repurposing that machinery for symbols and meaning. It remains a hypothesis — but it's a memorable way to frame why a glance is worth more to a chimp than to you.

How to score higher

Your raw glance won't match Ayumu's, but your strategy can improve fast. Read the numbers in ascending order once, tracing the path your clicks will take — you're memorizing a route, not nine separate locations. Chunk the route into two or three legs and rehearse it as a rhythm. Don't rush the study phase: the timer pressure is psychological, since nothing happens until you click 1. And expect quick early gains — the jump from 6 to 9 usually takes days, while the climb past 12 is where it gets genuinely hard.