Learning About Primates
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LEARNING ABOUT PRIMATES
I have often wondered about the language and intellectual abilities of my primate relatives. Perhaps one of the most asked questions is whether non-human primates can communicate through symbolic language? Many have claimed that communication is not common behavior among animals. They have said that primates have no proper self-consciousness; that they are incapable of apprehending the notion of sign language; and that they are incapable of language abilities.
Language they believe as distinct from communication has been considered a uniquely human achievement, but work with apes has raised doubts about that position. The assumption that Homo sapiens is the only organism capable of handling language has been brought into question by many psychologist who have achieved much success in teaching apes to communicate with symbols.
In an attempt to make clear the question of whether or not primates language and learning abilities are possible is the object of this paper. This paper will describe the successful experiments of a researcher.
Psychologist and Researcher Dr. Duane M Rumbaugh has professed to give account of evolution of the learning and language abilities of apes. His most intriguing idea started
in 1957 when he worked as a research psychologist at the Naval Medical research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. It was there that he first worked with primates, squirrel monkeys and marmosets. During this time he gained much insight into researching the relationship between evolution of the primate brain and the emergence of learning complex task and concepts.
In 1969 a golden opportunity presented itself for Rumbaugh to do research at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Atlanta Georgia. This opportunity presented for him many scientific reasons, namely, to research and evaluates the primitive thinking abilities for the great apes, to determine their ability for language. To understand their complex learning abilities whose brains varied widely in terms of cortical developments, that is, the outer gray matter of the brain. His personal reasons for doing this research, was his passion in understanding the behaviorism of primates.
The special expertise used for this research was to develop a computer – operated keyboard on which each of a large number of keys would be embossed with distinctive geometric symbols. Each symbol served as the equivalent of a word. These symbols became the medium for expressing language.
Sources of motivation for Rumbaugh during this research was from his friend and colleague, Harold Warner, a biomedical engineer at the Yerkes Center. He got assistance from the National Science Foundation for the research who supported him from the 1960sto the early 1970s. Other institutions such as the Childrens Health and Human development; the Institute for Comparative Medicine; the College of Arts and Sciences of Georgia State University were all a significant support to him.
But the highlight of the motivation was from the chimpanzee (Lana) who acquired the ability to learn the function of individual symbols on a specially built typewriter connected to a computer. For example she would say “PLEASE MACHINE GIVE MILK or PLEASE MACHINE GIVE PIECE OF BANANA”, then catches it as it is delivered by an automatic feeder. Lanas progress was magnificent. She used sentences both in their original form and in variation, to solve problems. For example, she would bring to the attention of people present that one of her vending machines was not working or that she wanted what they had. She also gave evidence that having names for objects probably enhanced her accuracy in making same difference discriminations when one object of a pair was presented visually and that other presented only for palpation or touch. (Undaunted Psychology Pg. 99)
After six months into the Research , Lana was able to recognize symbols for thirty words. She had developed skills