Not buying it, I think he is trained to select according to pattern rather than memory of the location of a particular number. Let's say you start with a single number and reward him for selecting that block. Then you add another block and only reward when he selects the first block and then the second. By doing this annd adding a single block each time and only rewarding when he selects the blocks in the proper order you could train this behavior and it has nothing to do with his number recongnition abilities. Think of it this way, four of the same items in front of you, you're instructed to pick one but if you pick wrong I punch you in the face. You would eventually pick the righht item, then I'd say,same rules you know the first item now pick another, pick wrong and I punch you in the face, you'd start with the first item again and eventually figure out what the second was and so on and os forth. How many patterns of numbers are their, that's improtant otherwise the chimp has simply been trained with food rewards to click the blocks in a particular sequence and the number each block represents has no bearing.
Let's say what you say is correct, which it isn't if you've watched the entire video. But even if what you say is correct, it is still a memory test. It might not be a test of comprehension of the numbers behind the test, but it's a memory test of the patterns being shown.
How so? He still has to recall which 'pattern' is on screen. Then he still has to remember which 'square of number' he has to press in what order for that particular pattern. In the end it's an amazing memory test that he can recall anything at all within 60ms. I was watching a show on the SciFi channel about the human mind and what we can consciously take in when we look around. The premise is we can recall much less than we think we can when we scan around. To test this the scientists would show subjects 4 objects with distinct shapes for 200ms. Then they would rotate one of the objects and the subjects would have to choose the shape that was changed. What they found out was that the human mind could only retain 2.8 objects. Now you compare to this ape who was able to retain 16 objects (whether he knew they were numbers or just knew the order that a square had to be pushed) you can see how amazing this is.
