Ape Language Studies

Ape Language Studies
What is Language ?
* A system for representing things, actions, ideas & states
Home Raising Experiments
* A tool used to communicate concepts of reality to others
Manual Signing
* A system of meanings shared by a group
Plastic Word Language
* A code that members of a linguistic community use
to mediate between form and meaning
Simultaneous Communication
Computer Lexigram
* A set of grammatically correct utterances
* A set of utterances that could be understood by a
linguistic community
Brain
Size
Language
Centers
Human vs. Ape
Vocal Tracts
* Beatrix & Allen Gardner
* Penny Patternson
* Roger Fouts
* Duane Rumbaugh
* Herbert Terrace
* Sue Savage-Rumbaugh
Researchers
Manual Signing
Home Raising
* Spontaneous naming
* Able to produce words
mama, papa, up & cup
* Spontaneous transfer to new
referents
* Spontaneous combinations and
recombinations of signs
* Differences in vocal
apparatus cited
* Washoe, Bruno, the Gardners
* Behavioral differences
* No spoken English, only signs
using ASL (American Sign
Language)
* Viki, Sarah
* Developed a sizable vocabulary
* Combined words into meaningful
and sometimes novel strings
Plastic Word Language
*
*
*
*
Use of the interrogative
Class concepts, pluralizations, quantifiers
Use of simple & compound sentences
Use of logical if-then; use of conjunctive and
* Responds to spoken and
signed questions/instructions
* Koko, Michael
Simultaneous Communication
Koko
Computer Lexigram
Computer Lexigram
* Experimental chamber
* Development of Yerkish ‘language’
* Provides a permanent record of
transactions
* Reward system for correct word
use and combinations
Nim Chimpsky
* Named for Noam Chompsky
* Work conducted by Herb Terrace at Columbia Univ.
* Worked with several undergraduates and many lab techs
Project Nim Chimpsky
* Long utterances were not
elaborations of his short
utterances
* Lack of growth of MLU (mean
length of utterance)
* Rarely signed spontaneously
* Signs often initiated by teacher &
often partial imitation of teacher
* 21.2% of child utterance are
expansions of prior utterances
while only 7.3% for Nim
Outcome of Project Nim
Complaints of Critics
* ASL is not a language
What is language ?
No means of interrogation
Comprehension vs. conditioning
Senator Proxmire’s
Golden Fleece Awards
* ASL is not being used
* No grammar present
* Anthropomorphism
* Cuing evident - Clever
Hans phenomenon
* Major child-ape developmental differences
* Sign language -- too uncontrolled
* Computer language -- too sterile
Conversational Biases
M: What’s the difference between you and me?
K: Head
M: And how are our heads different?
K: (Koko beats on her head w/her open hand quite hard,
harder than a human would ever do).
M: What else is different between us?
K: (Koko moves her hands up on her stomach; a gesture
resembling blanket).
Falsified Data??
“Sarah insert banana in pail, apple
in dish” (Premack, 1971)
“Sarah insert apple pail banana
dish”(Benderly, 1980)
M: Do you mean something about your stomach?
K: Stomach that good
M: Oh but what were you saying about blanket, different?
K: (Koko moves her hands up & down her torso, Maureen
interrpreted these new gestures as meaning bodyhair).
Proponents Views
* Is non-human language not
language?
* Shoddy work
* Communication is the important
fact
* Filming is upsetting
* Chimp-chimp signing
* Arguments distract from real
issue
Current Standards
* Novel objects are being introduced
during videotaping sessions
* Keep number of instructors to a minimum
* Attention to the function of the signs
rather than syntax
* Maintain an unedited visual record
of discourse