Gardner and Gardner

Question 1

What did Gardner and Gardner aim to do?

Answer 1

• teach chimp ASL

- find out the extent to which a chimp can learn and use human language

Question 2

How can Gardner and Gardner’s study be placed into a social context?

Answer 2

1960’s people asking about evolution such as can only humans use language. Answers to these questions would help understand what it means to be human. Research like this continues to this day with the work of Kanzi’s language

Question 3

How can Gardner and Gardner’s study be placed into an academic context?

Answer 3

Premack taught language to a chimp, Sarah, getting her to use coloured shaped chips. She learnt to use and put together 130 words

Question 4

How else can Gardner and Gardner’s study be placed in an academic context?

Answer 4

Noam Chomsky - argued only humans have a LAD (language acquisition device) animals such as a chimp don’t have a LAD and so would never be able to use language and G&G wanted to test this

Question 5

What was Gardner and Gardner’s research method?

Answer 5

Case study and observation

Question 6

What was Gardner and Gardner’s sample?

Answer 6

1 chimp - Washoe

Caught in Africa aged 8 months brought to Washoe county in the USA

Question 7

What was the sampling method?

Answer 7

Opportunist

Question 8

Where did Washoe get placed?

Answer 8

Into a human environment

Question 9

What was Washoe taught?

Answer 9

ASL - American sign language

Question 10

Who was always with her?

Answer 10

A human - whilst she was awake

Question 11

What was Washoe encouraged to do?

Answer 11

Play games

Question 12

What were the 3 training methods used?

Answer 12

Imitation
Babbling
Reinforcement

Question 13

What was Washoe rewarded with when she got something correct?

Answer 13

Tickles

Question 14

What was recorded?

Answer 14

Washoe’s signs

Question 15

How did Gardner and Gardner address some ethical issues?

Answer 15

Ensuring Washoe was cared for

Question 16

How many signs did Gardner and Gardner find Washoe could use by the age of 2?

Answer 16

30 -up, sweet, hurry, baby, dog and flower

Question 17

What could Washoe do with signs?

Answer 17

String a few signs together to make simple sentences

Question 18

How did Washoe learn most of these signs?

Answer 18

By imitating humans

Question 19

How were other signs learnt by Washoe?

Answer 19

Babbling

Question 20

What helped Washoe to learn these signs?

Answer 20

Reinforcement

Question 21

What did Washoe do with a new sign she’d learnt e.g. key?

Answer 21

Use that sign for all keys

Question 22

What were Washoe’s first words?

Answer 22

Come - gimme
More
Up

Question 23

How many signs did Washoe know at 7, 14 and 21 months?

Answer 23

7 months - 4
14 months - 13
21 months - 30

Question 24

What were the two things Gardner and Gardner concluded?

Answer 24

• It’s possible to teach a chimp basic human language (ASL)

- It’s open to discussion whether it’s language or not

Question 25

Was reliability a strength for Gardner and Gardner?

Answer 25

Yes - only recorded a sign when it was used spontaneously on 15 consecutive days and witnessed by 3 independent observers. This work is now continuing with Kanzi

Question 26

Was validity a strength for Gardner and Gardner?

Answer 26

No - concerns as to whether it was true language. Did she understand the meaning of words? Was Washoe another Clever Hans the horse that could “count”

Question 27

Was sampling for Gardner and Gardner strong?

Answer 27

No - only 1 pp, bias as pp not representative

Question 28

What data did Gardner and Gardner collect?

Answer 28

Both - qual: provided depth and detail, quan: comparisons could be made e.g. 30 signs Washoe had learnt was similar to that of a deaf child

Question 29

In terms of ethics why was Gardner and Gardner’s research problematic?

Answer 29

Washoe couldn’t give fully informed consent and had no right to withdraw. Also she wasn’t protected from harm as she wasn’t in her natural surroundings

Question 30

Whose research supports Gardner and Gardner’s and how?

Answer 30

Premack - taught language to Sarah (chimp) using coloured shaped chips, she learnt 130 words and could string them together. This supports because both are able to use human words; however could Gardner’s be an improvement on Premack’s because Washoe was tested on ASL which is used by deaf children - making it higher in validity

Question 31

What other research supports Gardner and Gardner?

Answer 31

Kanzi (chimp) used a lexigram to communicate with humans - this supports because both suggest chimps have ability to communicate with humans

Question 32

Whose research challenges Gardner and Gardner and how?

Answer 32

Terrace - used Nim Chimpsky (chimp) to argue Washoe wasn’t using human language as close analysis lead to finding Washoe was just imitating. Washoe was just responding like a circus animal and she couldn’t use grammar. This rejects G&G’s because it suggests theirs was ‘wishful thinking’. However could it be not possible to compare Nim and Washoe because of the individual differneces?