Washoe (chimpanzee)
SAIDS | |
Known for | Use of sign language |
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Washoe (c. September 1965 – October 30, 2007) was a female common
Washoe learned approximately 350 signs of ASL,.
Early life
Washoe was born in
In 1967, R. Allen Gardner and
When Washoe was five, the Gardners decided to move on to other projects, and she was moved to the University of Oklahoma's Institute of Primate Studies in Norman, Oklahoma, under the care of Roger Fouts and Deborah Fouts.[12]
ASL instruction and usage
Teaching method
Washoe was raised in an environment as close as possible to that of a human child, in an attempt to satisfy her psychological need for companionship.[13][14][15]
While with Washoe, the Gardners and Foutses were careful to communicate only in ASL with Washoe, rather than using vocal communication, on the assumption that this would create a less confusing learning environment for Washoe. This technique was said to resemble that used when teaching human children language.[16]
After the first couple of years of the language project, the Gardners and Roger Fouts discovered that Washoe could pick up ASL gestures without direct instruction, but instead by observing humans around her who were signing amongst themselves. For example, the scientists signed "toothbrush" to each other while they brushed their teeth near her. At the time of observation, Washoe showed no signs of having learned the sign, but on a later occasion she reacted to the sight of a toothbrush by spontaneously producing the correct sign, thereby showing that she had in fact previously learned the ASL sign. Moreover, the Gardners began to realize that rewarding particular signs with food and tickles was actually interfering with the intended result of conversational sign language. They changed their strategy so that food and meal times were never juxtaposed with instruction times. In addition, they stopped the tickle rewards during instruction because these generally resulted in laughing breakdowns. Instead, they set up a conversational environment that evoked communication, without the use of rewards for specific actions.[17][verification needed]
Confirmed signs
Washoe learned approximately 350 words of sign languages.[2]
For researchers to consider that Washoe had learned a sign, she had to use it spontaneously and appropriately for 14 consecutive days.[18][19]
These signs were then further tested using a
Combinations of signs
Washoe and her mates were able to combine the hundreds of signs that they learned into novel combinations (that they had never been taught, but rather created themselves) with different meanings. For instance, when Washoe's mate Moja did not know the word for "
Self-awareness and emotion
One of Washoe's caretakers was pregnant and missed work for many weeks after she miscarried. Roger Fouts recounts the following situation:
People who should be there for her and aren't are often given the cold shoulder—her way of informing them that she's miffed at them. Washoe greeted Kat [the caretaker] in just this way when she finally returned to work with the chimps. Kat made her apologies to Washoe, then decided to tell her the truth, signing "MY BABY DIED". Washoe stared at her, then looked down. She finally peered into Kat's eyes again and carefully signed "CRY", touching her cheek and drawing her finger down the path a tear would make on a human (Chimpanzees don't shed tears). Kat later remarked that one sign told her more about Washoe and her mental capabilities than all her longer, grammatically perfect sentences.[24]
Washoe herself lost two children. One baby chimpanzee died of a
When Washoe was shown an image of herself in the mirror, and asked what she was seeing, she replied: "Me, Washoe."[25][26] Primate expert Jane Goodall, who has studied and lived with chimpanzees for decades, believes that this might indicate some level of self-awareness.[26][27] Washoe appeared to experience an identity crisis when she was first introduced to other chimpanzees, seeming shocked to learn that she was not the only chimpanzee. She gradually came to enjoy associating with other chimpanzees.[28]
Washoe enjoyed playing pretend with her dolls, which she would bathe and talk to and would act out imaginary scenarios.[29][30] She also spent time brushing her teeth, painting and taking tea parties.[31]
When new students came to work with Washoe, she would slow down her rate of signing for novice speakers of sign language, which had a humbling effect on many of them.[32]
Quotes
(In this section double quotes are signed by Washoe, single by someone else.)
- "Peekaboo (i.e. hide and seek) I go"[33]
- "Baby (doll) in my drink (i.e. cup)" (when doll placed in her cup)[33]
- "Time Eat?" and "you me time eat?"[33]
- Asked 'Who's coming?' Responded "Mrs G" (correct).[33]
- "You, Me out go". 'OK but first clothes' (Washoe puts on jacket.)[33]
- "Good, go", 'Where Go', "You Me Peekaboo"[33]
- 'What That' "Shoe" 'Whose That Shoe' "Yours" 'What color' "Black".[33]
Later life and death
Washoe was moved to Central Washington University in 1980. On October 30, 2007, officials from the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute on the CWU campus announced that she had died at the age of 42.[6][11]
Impact on bioethics
Some believe that the fact that Washoe not only communicated, but also formed close and personal relationships with
Work with Washoe and other signing
Related animal language projects
The publication of the Washoe experiments spurred a revival in the scholarly study of sign language, due to widespread interest in questions it raised about the biological roots of language.[36] This included additional experiments which attempted to teach great apes language in a more controlled environment.
Herbert Terrace and Thomas Bever's Nim Chimpsky project failed in its attempt to replicate the results of Washoe. While Nim was successfully trained to use 125 signs, Terrace and his colleagues concluded that the chimpanzee did not show any meaningful sequential behavior that rivaled human grammar. Nim's use of language was strictly pragmatic, as a means of obtaining an outcome, unlike a human child's, which can serve to generate or express meanings, thoughts or ideas. There was nothing Nim could be taught that could not equally well be taught to a pigeon using the principles of operant conditioning. The researchers therefore questioned claims made on behalf of Washoe, and argued that the apparently impressive results may have amounted to nothing more than a "Clever Hans" effect, not to mention a relatively informal experimental approach.
Critics of primate linguistic studies include Thomas Sebeok, American semiotician and investigator of nonhuman communication systems, who wrote:
In my opinion, the alleged language experiments with apes divide into three groups: one, outright fraud; two, self-deception; three, those conducted by Terrace. The largest class by far is the middle one.[37]
Sebeok also made pointed comparisons of Washoe with Clever Hans. Some evolutionary psychologists, in effect agreeing with Noam Chomsky, argue that the apparent impossibility of teaching language to animals is indicative that the ability to use language is an innately human development.[38]
Washoe's advocates disagreed that the research had been discredited, attributing the failure of the Nim Chimpsky and other projects to poor teaching, and to Nim's being consistently isolated in a sterile laboratory environment, and often confined in cages, for his entire life. Nim did most of his learning in a white eight-foot-by-eight-foot laboratory room (with one of the walls containing a one-way mirror), where he was often trained to use signs without the referent present. Living in this setting, Nim did not receive the same level of nurturing, affection, and life experience, and many have suggested that this impaired his cognitive development, as happens with human children subjected to such an environment.[39][40][41]
Other great ape language research projects, such as on
See also
- Kanzi
- Animal cognition
- Great ape language
- Koko (gorilla)
- List of individual apes
- Alex (parrot), talking parrot
- Batyr (elephant)
References
- ISBN 978-0-300-06961-7.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-44706-5.
- ISBN 978-0-88706-965-9.
- ISBN 978-1-56368-123-3.
- ISBN 978-0-521-47906-6.
- ^ a b ""Signing" chimp Washoe broke language barrier". The Seattle Times. November 1, 2007.
- ^ Gardner, R. Allen, Beatrix T. Gardner, and Thomas E. Van Cantfort. Teaching Sign Language to Chimpanzees. State University of New York Press, 1989, p. 1
- ISBN 978-0-674-11649-8.
- ISBN 978-0-671-56271-7.
- ^ Prof. Mark Kruase, Southern Oregon University, January 20, 2011.
- ^ a b Carey, Benedict (November 1, 2007). "Washoe, a Chimp of Many Words, Dies at 42". The New York Times.
- ISBN 978-0-306-47739-3.
- ISBN 978-0-306-47739-3.
- ISBN 978-0-521-01771-8.
- ISBN 978-0-312-11818-1.
- ISBN 978-0-19-511908-4.
- ^ Gardner, R. A. & Gardner, B. T. (1998). The structure of learning from sign stimuli to sign language. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- ]
- ISBN 978-0-306-47739-3.
- ^ Gardner, R. A. & Gardner, B. T. (1984). A vocabulary test for chimpanzees. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 98, pg. 381–404
- PMID 6509904.
- ISBN 978-0-306-47739-3.
- ^ Sapolsky, Robert M. Human Behavioral Biology 23:Language. Stanford University. May 2010
- ISBN 978-1-57181-424-1.
- ]
- ^ ISBN 978-0-202-36384-4.
- ISBN 978-0-8203-2206-3.
- ISBN 978-0-19-510109-6.
- ISBN 978-1-59385-117-0.
- ]
- ^ "Meet Washoe – Friends of Washoe". www.friendsofwashoe.org. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-8138-0489-7.
- ^ a b c d e f g Extract from Teaching Sign Language to Chimpanzees, Gardiner
- ISBN 978-0-521-00970-6.
- ISBN 978-0-8018-7197-9.
- ISBN 978-1-56368-123-3.
- ^ Wade, N. (1980). "Does man alone have language? Apes reply in riddles, and a horse says neigh". Science. Vol. 208. pp. 1349–1351.
- ^ Pinker, S.; Bloom, P. (1990). "Natural language and natural selection". Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Vol. 13. pp. 707–784.
- ISBN 978-0-393-04089-0.
- ISBN 978-0-7914-3125-2.
- ISBN 978-0-8153-1281-9.
- ^ Herbert Terrace (December 4, 1980). "More on Monkey Talk". Retrieved May 4, 2019.
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Further reading
- Fouts, Roger (1997). Next of Kin: what chimpanzees have taught me about who we are. William Morrow and Company. ISBN 0-688-14862-X.
- Beckoff, Marc, ed. (2010). "Chimpanzees in captivity". Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-313-35257-7.
- Wolfe, Cary (2003). "In the Shadow of Wittgenstein's Lion: Language, Ethics, and the Question of the Animal". In Wolfe, Cary (ed.). Zoontologies: the question of the animal. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-4105-5.
External links
- Friends of Washoe—a non-profit organization
- A conversation with Warshoe Archived 2018-07-02 at the Wayback Machine – When Her Caretaker Told The Chimp She Had Lost Her Baby