The Cognitive Tradeoff Hypothesis 

"good boy"

I never thought I’d ever see a monke rage quit before

"No explanation to AI, no explanation to Michael" Loved it hahahah

I love how they don't force the chimps to participate in research. Respectful and compassionate.

"No explanation. Because no explanation to Ai... no explanation to Michael"

Love how Ayumu couldnt play the game becuase he was trying to get laid

I absolutely loved Matsuzawa, he’s so passionate and you can tell how much he cares for those monkeys with just a glance

I noticed that in humans we seem to be able to at least see the first few numbers correctly every time. So in the wild and having spoken language it may have been all we really needed to survive. Because once a threat was identified it could be "shared" and avoided by other members of the community, thus maximizing survival.

"Look at monkeys!" - Dr. Matsuzawa, Distinguished Professor of Primatology

The professor seemed visibly frustrated when Michael beat Ai, and then took noticeable pleasure when Michael failed at the harder task. As payback, Michael slapped subtitles on professor's talk.

I have been watching two or three of your videos every night for the past couple of weeks, replacing my scanning TikTok for hours. Thank-you for your contribution to my life. The way you explain your theories, and your theories themselves are beyond amazing and so easy to understand. I love how one thought or question leads straight to another, you have a fantastic way of educating the world on such interesting topics and opening up one’s mind to alternate theories. Thank-you Michael, thank-you VSauce.

This actually makes a lot of sense, there's been research that shows people who don't develop language skills because of abuse also don't develop abstract thought and abilities. I wonder how much of this comes from being verbal.

when that guy said “look at monkey”, it was one of the most wholesome things i’ve ever heard

I love that they're doing animal experiments but with consent

around 10:00 they talk about how imagination is what separates us. I remember hearing that telling stories is what makes us human. it's cool that these match up like that

17:30 Michael: "yeah, i got one right!" Chimp: "pathetic"

"It takes a long time to memorize 9 numerals' positions!" "...and fail." *SAVAGE*

Michael: I got the first three professor: good boi

Now that I can finally comment on these videos (After watching the first 2 seasons) I can finally say how much I enjoy watching these. I have learned so much. It almost reminds me of Brain Games but with more psychological research involved which is just super fascinating.

Thank you for making these available for free, they've been a joy to watch. I'll pay when I get my next paycheck. I've missed your content and I thought you had stopped making stuff like the old days, but the Mindfield series has proven me wrong.

In episode 2 Michael decides to live the remainder of his life as one with the chimpanzees

I think the most impressive part of this is that they taught chimps to read 1-9 in numerical order

In my opinion, instead of memory and language being two different areas of the brain, and one had to shrink in order for the other to grow, I think it’s all memory, just allocated differently. Think about it; it takes a lot of memory to remember a language; sentence structure, all the different words and meanings, etc. It’s honestly incredible that I can still remember words I haven’t had to use in months or years (I honestly can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve used the word Troodon, but I still know it and what it means, that smart dinosaur that looked kinda like a big raptor). All this memory bust take up a ton of space, so that’s why we can’t remember things like Chimps can; we still have that powerful memory part of our brain, it’s just allocated to a different task. If ethics weren’t an issue, I think it’d be interesting to take a human baby, not teach it language but try to develop it’s memory skills with tests like the chimps get, and see what happens. Or vise-versa, since chimps don’t have the right vocal cords for speech, try to teach a chimp human-level sign language from birth, and if it learns that then see how it fares on the memory tests

I’ve thought about this so much over the years. Thank you for making this video.

there's some interesting parallels here to the high functioning autistic savant piano player that can memorize 10 notes in a chord instantly, but he has difficulty communicating

Tried a similar test - failed miserably. Tried again, but THIS time, rewarded myself with a piece of apple. Result? Perfect score ...but I forgot how to talk.

I love this. I'm grateful for his passion and research. Thank you!

Love the way of the researcher he seems cold when in normal conversations but the fire that burns when he does what he's best at was really nice to see

"The ability to speak does not make you intelligent" - Qui gon jinn

"No explanation to Ai, no explanation to Michael." The professor is ruthless and I love it.

Fantastic program! Turns on many lightbulbs in my head. Many thanks for presenting this data. And hats off to Kyoto University for supporting this essential research.

One of your best uploads. This is both exceptionally well researched as well as entertaining.

I’m glad you made this free for us. Thank you Micheal, very cool.

I love how professor Matsuzawa always looks so happy to be there and always so fascinated buy the chimpanzees even after working with them for years

Great series. Keep them coming. Sponsor this channel.

I can’t believe it took this long to find this channel. I regularly have my mind blown

No one: Dr. Matsusawa: "Look at monkey :D"

If chimps have great short term memory giving them the ability to make quick decisions, I wonder what they'd be like playing videogames

Mr Metsuzawa is an absolute genius and pioneer to discover such memory capability and create such an experiment Brilliant man!

Dr Matsuzawa = Wonderful, inspirational human being.

Memory is sacrificed for language just as vsauces channel is sacrificed for youtube red

Dr. Matsuzawa seems like the nicest guy! You can see just how much he’s passionate about what he does, and how he cares for these animals

Professor Matsuzawa is everything!! 🤗☺️💗🙌🪷 The banter between you both was so cute to watch 🫶

This is something I was waiting long time Brilliant thanks Micheal

The Japanese psychologist is so sweet...

So basically the answer to "why did I forget what I was gonna say?" Is "because you can speak"

Dope show❗giving up some precise short term memory for imagination and future outlooks think is a good bargain Crazy how nature developed react and reactions that play out

Excellent work by Michal😍We need another season of Mind Field😍

I’m just as impressed that they know the order of the numbers. I imagine it was harder for them to figure that out than it is to memorize their positions on the screen

So basically don’t ever type any of your passwords around these mfs lmfao...

Excellent research Mr. Tetsuro Matsuzawa.

Wow, your channel is amazing!!

The only reason I would ever get RU-vid Red is to watch this show

key word: sharing lucky this is the free episode

Amazing!! Best thing on RU-vid!

Surviving in the wild, i think that (as professor matsuzawa said) imagination was our most powerful weapon. We could suppose glance at some random bush, and even if we can't exactly know how many enemies there are, we could estimate! It doesn't have to precise, but it still has a good use. I loved this video very much. I also think knowing and preserving other species, not just chimpanzees, is key to realizing what morality, and human consciousness is. Thanks michael!

My psychology class was canceled today, and we were all told to review an episode of mindfield instead. Nice

Ayumu's secret is that he is Asian and he doesn't want to disappoint his parents.

Keep up the great work!

This is really interesting. I need to read more of this

I really enjoy that the chimps participate voluntarily, and may enter or leave the facility as they wish.

Michael finally remembered his main account password.

This is fascinating. I *think* I've heard research that 9 digits, in order, is just about the human cognitive limit! I'm always interested in matters of the brain & mind, especially as regarding every branch and limb of the human family tree. I taught kids on the dyslexia spectrum for almost 2 decades. One of the programs was for students who could *read,* had age-appropriate or better *vocabulary* ...but could not recall the gestalt of the anything they tried to study for, enjoy, or learn. Our idea was to have them to look at pictures and, in a series of different descriptive levels, report what they saw. Then we'd do blind confirmations, then they could check, and so on. The next stage was for them to create a picture in their minds of each sentence we read ("What do those words make you picture?"), then rely on the images to answer questions. (In this way we developed the strength in each side of the brain so that--very roughly speaking--the whole brain was flowing through information quickly without running into snags & stresses like studying for two weeks and passing a test but immediately forgetting everything, or failing.) My point being--our students had pretty much all been born into a rich culture of language and while most may have had nerves around writing, talking was not usually an issue. The opposite of the chimps... However once they began "seeing pictures," their concept imagery just went up and up. I used to wonder, as I taught, about people on the savanna coming back to the group with reports of dangerous animals, game, storms...

i loved this content..more like this please

the only good youtube red show honestly

22:05 how this video ends with the prof's chimp voice is so amazing

This series is making my lil psychology obsessed heart so happy

This was beautiful

I love how after decades of working with chimpanzees, he still does it with enthusiasm and even excitement.

Looks like Michael is getting kicked out of the trees 250k years after his ancestors.

they kicked us out 7 million years ago, look at them now LMAO GET REKT

This might be my favorite episode yet

Tetsuro Matsuzawa is the best, I love how he randomly called Micheal a good boy when he got it right.

I love how the professor says, “You took a long long time, many seconds.” Michael: “it takes a long time to remember nine digits” Professor: “and fail” Professor: “Good boy”

Wait so Ayumu was essentially trained from a young age. Are you telling me it's impossible for a Human to get that fast at 9 numbers with a lot of practice and incentive? Considering what other amazing skills people are capable of learning??

Awesome content!

22:09 Tetsuro: return to monke

From here forth, I choose to believe my terrible working memory can be attributed to my fairly decent language-related skills. Thanks, Michael, for helping me feel better about myself

I'm late to this video, but the mere fact we have to know this information is crazy. It's the itch you can never get rid of, the inquiries the human mind makes.

I loved the way the professor went full monke mode at the end of the video

Distinguished professor at the primate advanced study institute and his first quote you decided to edit in was: "look at monkeyysss". I love you

I’m sad Vsauce is all RU-vid Premium now 😔

Nice video man :]

The end was very beautiful made me cry they the Dr and monkey been working together for so many years. G Grew old together.

Michael: Ai, you having fun? Ai: *punches wall*

I read in a scientific article that our brain can quickly count a maximum of 3 elements in a set. after which the concept becomes "many" and we can no longer say precisely how many elements this set is made up of. In fact, Michael always manages to identify three elements but then gets lost

My favorite is when Michael talks to Mai like she's a person 🥰💖

This is so cool! Thanks

"LOOK PAPA I GOT THE FIRST THREE! " 🙄" good boi"

The Japanese man's voice is so calm, just like the old wise character in cartoon

Verr Coo I’m always skeptical but you nerd-nailed it

Aww, the end is so adorable and sweet. 🖤

We were not so strong, so we got kicked out from the forest. 1 million years later: Be careful who you make fun of in middle school.

makes me happy that they’re not forced to do the experiment

I wish there were a way to scan individuals brains, and be able to differentiate between the different processing areas to see their scale and position. Imagine how cool it would be to be able to essentially get the hardware specs on your own brain. It would really help a lot of us that struggle to define our strengths and weaknesses, and so have difficulty overcoming or working around them.

Dr Matsuzawa should be protected at all costs he's so wholesome and unintentionally funny

04:54 Our class teacher when the principal enters the class.

ive got to say the scientist seems to really care for the chimps and they not just lab equipment its so nice to see that so refreshing

This is fantastic to see that half of the human population can finally get in touch with their ancestors .

It's amazing to understand what you said... The first time I had watched it and I didn't understand it very well. Thanks