Great ape language

Great ape language

Great ape language research tried to teach chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans to talk using human speech, sign language, physical tokens, and special pictures called lexigrams. Scientists wanted to see how close apes’ ways of talking were to human language. They also wanted to learn more about how smart apes are.

These studies caused many discussions. People debated what should be called “language.” They also talked about whether it was fair to the animals and if scientists were just seeing human ideas in the apes. Even with all that was learned, most language experts think human language is special and only humans truly have it.

Now, scientists look at how apes talk to each other in zoos and in the wild. They watch the apes’ gestures, facial expressions, and sounds. This helps us understand the amazing ways these animals communicate on their own.

1890s: Richard L. Garner

Richard Lynch Garner was the first person to study how animals that are not humans talk to each other. He started by watching monkeys in zoos in America. Later, he went to Africa to see gorillas and chimpanzees in the wild. He wrote three books about what he learned: The Speech of Monkeys (1892), Gorillas & Chimpanzees (1896), and Apes and Monkeys: Their Life and Language (1900).

Garner thought these animals had their own ways of "talking." He even stayed in a cage to watch gorillas better. His ways of studying were not like today’s science, but his work was important. He watched the animals where they lived and was one of the first to record their sounds to study later.

1930s: Cross-fostering and efforts to teach speaking

Scientists tried to teach chimpanzees to speak by raising them like human children. In one study, a chimpanzee named Gua was raised alongside a human child. Gua could make different sounds to show her needs but did not learn to speak human words. Instead, the human child sometimes copied Gua's sounds.

Later, another chimpanzee named Viki was raised by a couple who tried to teach her to speak. After many years, Viki learned only a few words like mama and papa. These studies showed that while chimpanzees could understand and make some sounds, they did not learn to speak like humans.

1960s–1980s: Sign language

Washoe and the Gardners

Main article: Washoe (chimpanzee)

In 1966, researchers Beatrix T. Gardner and Robert Allen Gardner began teaching a chimpanzee named Washoe to use American Sign Language (ASL). They chose sign language because they thought Washoe might have trouble making human sounds. Washoe lived with the Gardners and learned to use signs to talk. By the time she was three years old, Washoe could use 85 different signs, and later she learned even more.

The Gardners made sure their work was tested well. They used a special way where Washoe would see pictures and then sign what she saw. This helped show that Washoe was really understanding and not just copying.

Washoe and Roger Fouts

Main article: Roger Fouts

Roger Fouts, one of Washoe’s caregivers, thought teaching Washoe should be more like how human children learn. He believed that strict rewards and punishments were not the best way to teach a language. Instead, he felt that Washoe needed time and a calm place to learn naturally.

Nim Chimpsky

Main article: Nim Chimpsky

In 1973, another chimpanzee named Nim Chimpsky was taught sign language by Herbert S. Terrace. Nim had many different caregivers, and his home life was not steady. This made it hard for Nim to learn and act well. Terrace later said that Nim mostly copied signs to get rewards and did not truly use language.

Koko

Main article: Koko (gorilla)

In 1972, Penny Patterson began teaching a gorilla named Koko to use sign language. Koko learned about 1,000 signs. However, many scientists thought that Koko was not really using language because she did not use the rules of grammar or how to make sentences.

Visual symbols

Some researchers taught apes to talk using special pictures and tokens. Psychologist David Premack worked with a chimpanzee named Sarah. He used plastic tokens to help Sarah learn simple words and follow commands. Sarah could answer questions and make requests, but she did not ask questions herself.

Another ape named Kanzi, a bonobo, learned to use a special board with symbols called a lexigram. By pressing these symbols, Kanzi could tell researchers what he wanted or where he wanted to go. Kanzi showed that he could understand and respond to complex questions, though his way of speaking was different from human language.

Main article: Kanzi

Criticism and controversy

In the 1970s and early 1980s, people argued about what really counts as "language." Some researchers taught chimpanzees and other great apes to use signs or symbols to talk. They were excited, but many experts said this wasn't true language because the apes didn't use sentences or grammar.

One famous study with a chimp named Nim Chimpsky showed that the apes were learning to follow instructions, like trained animals, instead of truly using language. This made many scientists doubt the earlier claims about apes talking. After these debates, support for this kind of research dropped, and some researchers started new projects to care for the apes they had worked with.

Contemporary research

Animals like monkeys and apes use body movements, faces, sounds, and smells to share feelings or warn about danger. They also groom each other to become closer friends and sometimes show aggression to keep groups separate. Humans, however, mainly use spoken words to communicate.

Scientist Tetsuro Matsuzawa suggests that as humans evolved, we may have traded away some short-term memory skills for better language abilities, according to his cognitive tradeoff hypothesis. This trade helped us develop the complex talking we use today, using short-term memory and working memory in new ways.