Beatrix T. Gardner

A vocabulary test for chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ).

Chimpanzees can communicate in American Sign Language (ASL) to independent human observers whose only source of information is the ASL signs of the chimpanzees. A vocabulary test was presented to 4 cross-fostered chimpanzees (4-6 years old). Thirty-five-millimeter color slides were projected on a screen that could be seen by the chimpanzee subject but not by the human observers. There were two observers: O1 was the questioner in the testing room with the subject; O2 was in a different room. Neither observer could see the other, or the responses of the other observer. O1 and O2 agreed in their readings of both correct and incorrect signs, and most of the signs were the correct ASL names of the slides. In order to show that the chimpanzees were naming natural language categories--that the sign DOG could refer to any dog, FLOWER to any flower, SHOE to any shoe--each test trial was a first trial in that test slides were presented only once. Analysis of errors showed that two aspects of the signs, gestural form and conceptual category, governed the distribution of errors.

Early signs of language in child and chimpanzee.

In a sequel to Project Washoe, chimpanzees are being taught American Sign Language from birth by humans who are fluent in the language, including persons who are themselves deaf or whose parents were deaf. The first two subjects began to use signs when they were 3 months old, and these early results indicate that the new conditions are significantly superior to the conditions of Project Washoe. More valid comparisons can now be made between the acquisition of language by children and by chimpanzees.

Feedforward versus feedbackward: An ethological alternative to the law of effect

The view that learning is governed by positive and negative consequences has dominated theory and application throughout this century. In some systems stimulus-response connections are stamped in or stamped out by the consequences of action, in others, cognitive expectancies are formed by experience with past consequences. The evidence from early experiments with rats and pigeons and the feedback principles of early servomechanisms seemed to offer both hard evidence and a plausible model for the law of effect in either its behaviorist or its cognitive form. A large body of evidence demonstrates that the results of operant conditioning appear regardless of and often in spite of response-contingent consequences. Experiments designed to measure a residual effect of consequences exhibit an inevitable ex post facto error that vitiates all possible versions of this experimental design. Experiments designed to measure the effect of predictive contingency in Pavlovian conditioning exhibit a corresponding error. There appears to be a fundamental logical defect in all contingency models of the learning process. Meanwhile, modern developments in ethology and computer science provide a unified feedforward model of the learning of adaptive and maladaptive behavior under both laboratory and field conditions. Because the feedforward model is more parsimonious, it is also more compatible with Darwinian principles of biological economy. Research on teaching new and challenging tasks to freeliving, well-fed subjects such as children and cross-fostered chimpanzees illustrates the wide applicability and practical effectiveness of feedforward.

Discovering and Understanding the Meaning of Primate Signals

This volume, edited by a philosopher and an anthropologist, is a collection of essays on the philosophical implications of laboratory and field research. While neither the best nor the worst of the genre, it is a collection that offers a representative sample of traditional themes. As practicing scientists who view the implications of behavioural research from a somewhat different perspective we offer this critical review.

The Ethological Roots of Culture

Studying the ethological roots of culture R.A. Gardner, B.T. Gardner. Part I: Field Studies. Evidence of structure in macaque communication A. Zeller. The central-peripheral structure of the Tanaxpillo colony of stumptail macaques D.R. Rasmussen, E. Riordan, M. Farrington, E. Kelly, J. Nachman, S. Fernandez, A. Churchill. Cultural implications of differences between populations of free-ranging chimpanzees in Africa W.C. McGrew. Precultural behaviour of Japanese macaques: Longitudinal studies of the Koshima troops K. Watanabe. Bird song learning: a model of cultural transmission? P.J.B. Slater, J.M. Williams. Swarm intelligence and the emergence of cultural swarm patterns G. Theraulaz, J.-L. Deneubourg. Part II: Laboratory Studies. Mother-pup transmission of a feeding technique in the golden hamster E. Prato Previde, M.D. Poli. A study of social, genetic, and environmental determinants of cultural transmission in the house mouse P. Valsecchi, I. Bosellini, D. Mainardi, M. Mainardi. Can chimpanzees use tools by observational learning? D. Paquette. Social transmission of stimulus recognition by birds, fish and molluscs M.D. Suboski. Part III: Cross-Fostered Chimpanzees. Ethological roots of language R.A. Gardner, B.T. Gardner. Development of phrases in the utterances of children and cross-fostered chimpanzees B.T. Gardner, R.A. Gardner. Transmission of human gestural language in a chimpanzee mother-infant relationship R.S. Fouts. The use of remote video recordings to study the use of American Sign Language by chimpanzees when no humans are present D.H. Fouts. Part IV: Infant Development. Is there prenatal culture? M.-C. Busnel. The earliness and complexity of the interaction skills and social behaviours of the child with its peers H. Montagner, B. Epoulet, G. Gauffier, R. Goulevitch, V. Huvert-Ruiz, N. Ramel, B. Wiaux, A. Restoin, M. Taule. Learning by instincts, developmental transitions and the roots of culture in infancy F.X. Plooij, H.H.C. Van de Rijt-Plooij. Part V: Ethnographic and Historical Patterns. An ethological perspective on human handedness L.F. Marchant, W.C. McGrew. Culture and olfactory communication M. Kirk-Smith. Cultural evolution in man of postures, gestures, and unverbalized social relations C. Russell, W.M.S. Russell. Part VI: Paleoanthropological Patterns. Evolution of human culture: a composite pattern F. Giusti. Culture and its biological origins: a view from ethology, epigenesis and design V. Geist. Causes of our complete dependence on culture P. Slurink.