is a
primatologist who was a past director of the
Primate Research Institute is a Japanese research center for the study of primates. It was founded in 1967 by primatologists Kinji Imanishi and Junichiro Itani. The institute works toward understanding the biological, behavioral and socioecological aspects of primates, and ...
of
Kyoto University
, mottoeng = Freedom of academic culture
, established =
, type = National university, Public (National)
, endowment = ¥ 316 billion (2.4 1000000000 (number), billion USD)
, faculty = 3,480 (Teaching Staff)
, administrative_staff ...
. He graduated from Kyoto University with a
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree in 1974, a
Psy.M. degree in 1976 and a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
degree in Science in 1989.
Matsuzawa is known for his
research
Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...
on
chimpanzee
The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...
both in the laboratory and in the wild. His laboratory work consists of the Ai-project, which focuses on the language-like skills, number-concepts, and memory ability of a female chimpanzee named
Ai. Started in 1978, it is one of the longest running laboratory research projects on chimpanzee intelligence. Matsuzawa has been a part of the project since the beginning. Matsuzawa has also studied tool use in the wild chimpanzees at Bossou,
Guinea
Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
, West Africa since 1986. The bossou chimpanzee community consists of about 12 individuals and has been studied by Japanese researchers for three decades. Bossou chimps are well known to use a pair of stones as hammer and anvil to crack open oil-palm nuts. Long-term research on wild chimpanzee tool use revealed interesting topics like
handedness
In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more Fine motor skill, dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or sim ...
of use of a
hammer
A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as w ...
, critical period of learning nut-cracking at around 3 to 5 year old, "education by master-apprenticeship" and observational learning, possession of stones, deception, new tool use like algae-scooping, use of leaves for cushions, cultural variation in adjacent communities, etc. Matsuzawa's approach to research is to synthesize the field work and the laboratory work in order to understand the nature of chimpanzees, our evolutionary neighbors.
Matsuzawa is well known for his research on chimpanzee memory, which suggests that chimpanzees outperform humans on some simple memory tasks.
He has argued that this is evidence of a memorial capacity in young chimpanzees that is superior to that seen in adult humans.
However, the accuracy of these findings has been disputed. A. Silberberg and D. Kearns have argued that the performance difference between human and chimpanzee trials can be explained by training effects on the tested chimpanzees.
They did reach Ayumu's performance level after thousands of trials, but only for 5 numbers whereas
Ayumu effortlessly does it for 9.
In 2020, Kyoto University announced that Matsuzawa was involved in misappropriating the funding of Primate Research Institute.
Awards
* Prince Chichibu Memorial Science Award in 1991
*
Jane Goodall Award in 2001
*
The Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2004
* Person of Cultural Merit of 2013, by the government of Japan.
See also
* ''
Human Ape
''Human Ape'' is a 2008 National Geographic documentary film on the genetic and evolutionary origins of human behavior, and covers the genetic and behavioural similarities and differences between humans and other great apes. The award-winning ind ...
'', video documentary on
National Geographic Channel
National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television television network, network and flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel owned by the National Geograp ...
, March 17, 2008, directed by Martin Gorst, written by Yavar Abbas
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matsuzawa, Tetsuro
Living people
Kyoto University alumni
Academic staff of Kyoto University
Primatologists
1950 births