Efforts to teach non-human primates to communicate with humans
Facial expressions can be used to convey a message.
Research into great ape language has involved teaching chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans to communicate with humans and each other using sign language, physical tokens, lexigrams, and imitative human speech. Some primatologists argue that the use of these communication methods indicate primate "language" ability, though this depends on one's definition of language. The cognitive tradeoff hypothesis suggests that human language skills evolved at the expense of the short-term and working memory capabilities observed in other hominids.
By that extension, contemporary animal cognition research leans toward not teaching apes human forms of communication, but rather observing apes in their inter-species communication.[1][2][3][4] Additionally, earlier distinguished case studies in the research field such as Nim Chimpsky, and Koko have been criticized as having subjects produce results based on operant conditioning.[5][6][7]
However, there is still evidence of certain apes, such as Kanzi the Bonobo, understanding crucial aspects of human language such as grammar, extensive vocabulary and reservable sentences.[8]
^Amici, Federica; Liebal, Katja (1 April 2023). "Testing Hypotheses for the Emergence of Gestural Communication in Great and Small Apes (Pan troglodytes, Pongo abelii, Symphalangus syndactylus)". International Journal of Primatology. 44 (2): 319–340. doi:10.1007/s10764-022-00342-7. ISSN 1573-8604.
^Amici, Federica; Liebal, Katja (26 September 2022). "The social dynamics of complex gestural communication in great and lesser apes ( Pan troglodytes , Pongo abelii, Symphalangus syndactylus )". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 377 (1860). doi:10.1098/rstb.2021.0299. ISSN 0962-8436. PMC 9358312. PMID 35934967.
^Fröhlich, Marlen; Wittig, Roman M.; Pika, Simone (1 May 2016). "Should I stay or should I go? Initiation of joint travel in mother–infant dyads of two chimpanzee communities in the wild". Animal Cognition. 19 (3): 483–500. doi:10.1007/s10071-015-0948-z. ISSN 1435-9456. PMC 4824811. PMID 26833496.
^Hobaiter, Catherine; Byrne, Richard W. (1 September 2011). "The gestural repertoire of the wild chimpanzee". Animal Cognition. 14 (5): 745–767. doi:10.1007/s10071-011-0409-2. hdl:10023/4445. ISSN 1435-9456. PMID 21533821. S2CID 13793972.
^Petitto, Laura A.; Seidenberg, Mark S. (1 September 1979). "On the evidence for linguistic abilities in signing apes". Brain and Language. 8 (2): 162–183. doi:10.1016/0093-934X(79)90047-6. ISSN 0093-934X. PMID 487067. S2CID 39620186.
^Pepperberg, Irene M. (1 February 2017). "Animal language studies: What happened?". Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 24 (1): 181–185. doi:10.3758/s13423-016-1101-y. ISSN 1531-5320. PMID 27368639.
^Neisser, Arden (1990). The Other Side of Silence: Sign Language and the Deaf Community in America. Gallaudet University Press. ISBN 9780930323646.
^Schoenemann, P. Thomas (21 July 2022). "Evidence of Grammatical Knowledge in Apes: An Analysis of Kanzi's Performance on Reversible Sentences". Frontiers in Psychology. 13. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.885605. ISSN 1664-1078. PMC 9355523. PMID 35936253.
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