Lessons From The Language Studies Flashcards
(42 cards)
What are the sociological issues surrounding nonhuman language capabilities?
language to many is:
- sacred
- gift from God
- what separates us from the beasts
- what makes us special
How did Chomsky explain language learning in humans?
Humans designed with basic language acquisiton device in brain
Why did the attempts to teach Kelloggs how to speak fail?
-do not have human articulatory appartaus (mouth shape, tongue position, sensori-motor coord)
How did scientists decide to go from teaching chimps how to speak to teaching them sign language?
notice chimps’ spontaneous use/development of gesture
How did they teach the chimps sign language?
some by imitation, mostly involved shaping ape’s hands into signs
What are examples of the multiple species trained in sign language and their names?
Chimps (Washoe)
Gorillas (Koko)
Orangutan (Chantek)
What limits dolphins so that they cannot learn sign language?
no hands, cannot make gestures
What are dolphins trained for mainly to understand language? What is this an example of?
- trained mainly for comprehension (vs. production of signs/sign sequences)
- example of species appropriate designs
What other attempts did scientists make to teach dolphins language?
imitation of acoustic computer-generated symbols
-started to learn but stopped
What were examples of poor data recording within language studies?
animals were home-raised, naturalistic signing day in/out, no record of learning process
What were examples of little to no scientific “controls” within language studies?
inadvertent cueing by trainers (i.e. Patterson and Koko), situation-specific associations, etc.
What were examples of poor data reporting in language studies?
early studies especially only report successful use of signs, not nonsense or incorrect
What were examples of biased reporting in language studies?
Patterson/Koko over-rich interpretations (conversations about death, capture)
What was the critical method shift in language studies?
change from sign language to using tokens or keyboards
Why was the critical method shift important for language studies?
every “utterance” by trainers and animals is recorded and analyzed, also included blind control w/ Kanzi test and other tests following
How did Premack/Sarah show good ability of semantics within chimps?
- Sarah shown blue triangle as symbol for apple
- asked “color of”
- Sarah answers “RED”
Why is Sarah’s response to the color question important?
responds based on properties of evoked representation, not perceptual properties of that symbol
What are examples of instances of dolphins and apes exhibiting the ability to transfer symbol to novel context?
-dolphins, apes can immediately respond to learned symbol for “give ball” in “Is Ball here?” or “What’s this?”
What are the exceptions to the transfer symbol task?
- some chimps fail; post route sequence learning, cannot transfer symbol to new task
e. g. Rumbaugh/Lana and Terrace/Nim (regularity of signing drills, no transfer)
What are some examples of novel combinations by apes?
using signs to say WATER BIRD = swan; WHITE TIGER = zebra
What is an example of semantics?
understanding arbitrary word “dog” to represent “dog” although no like features with word to actual symbol
Overall, what are the results of semantic tests on cetaceans and primates?
overall good evidence for use and comprehension of symbols
What is the overall result of syntactical studies for primates and cetaceans?
support for some simple aspects, not for more complex
What are the results of order effects tests for semanticity?
- dolphins, apes discriminate ROGER TICKLE WASHOE vs. WASHOE TICKLE ROGER
- can also discriminate put A on B vs. put B on A (map order to spatial relations)