Timothy V. Gill

Reading and Sentence Completion by a Chimpanzee (Pan)

Four studies revealed that a 2�-year-old chimpanzee (Pan), after 6 months of computer-controlled language training, proficiently reads projected word-characters that constitute the beginnings of sentences and, in accordance with their meanings and serial order, either finishes the sentences for reward or rejects them.

Mastery of naming skills by a chimpanzee

Abstract The acquisition of naming skills by a chimpanzee in a computer-controlled language-training situation is described. Initial training consisted of presenting one of two exemplars coupled with the question, What name of this? Upon mastery of that phase, two transfer-of-naming tasks were given, results of which demonstrated that the subject had come to learn that things can be referred to by name.

The learning skills of great apes

Abstract Through use of a refined measurement of learning-set capacity, a comparative study of 45 great apes, six gibbons, and representative monkey groups was conducted to determine the relationship between cortical evolution and cognitive skills. The measurement employed. termed the Transfer Index, entailed criterional achievement on each of a series of two-choice visual discrimination problems, then test trials in which the initial cue values were reversed. The pre-reversal criterional mastery served as an empirical basis for matching subjects of the diverse primate groups on a performance criterion prior to the procurement of the critical measures taken on the reversal trials to assess learning and transfer-to-training capabilities. The results reveal the following: (1) general superiority of the great apes over all other primate groups tested; (2) interactions between species, pre-reversal criterional level employed, and reversal performance; and (3) support for the conclusion that learning and transfer-of-training skills are positive correlates of cortical evolution.

chapter 13 – Acquisition and Use of Mathematical Skills by a Linguistic Chimpanzee

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of acquisition and use of mathematical skills by a linguistic chimpanzee. As of summer, 1976, Lana has demonstrated her competence in answering more and less questions directed toward discrete numbers of variable sizes of washers. As surface area and mass were randomly varied in the selection of the washers on any trial, Lana was only consistently rewarded for correctly labeling number. Lanas high test performance at the 89% level also suggested that number was the cue to which she was responding, especially as her errors occurred on the ratios with large numbers of washers or on the ratios with very similar component portions. The results from the two control tests further suggested that Lana was making her responses based on number of washers. Future mathematical research with Lana includes teaching her the names of precise numbers and the ordinal relationships involved among the numbers 1–10. It is conceivable that mental number manipulation in terms of summing (addition) might already be in Lanas repertoire of mathematical skills. If it is not, it is probable that such operations as addition, subtraction, and intersection can be taught to her as these operations have their correlates in environmental actions and linguistic operations. As Lana is also a language project chimpanzee, it may be possible to delimit the meanings involved in the linguistic operations of and by the mathematical operations of addition and intersection.

A computer-controlled language training system for investigating the language skills of young apes

A computer-controlled language training system was designed and constructed to enhance the objectivity and efficiency of inquiry into the language-relevant behaviors of apes. The system allows the S to gain control over the events of the 24-h day in direct correspondence with its competence in using a keyboard on which each key represents a word. Various incentives can be obtained through the selection and depression of appropriate keys in accordance with rules of sentence structure monitored by a computer. The system is flexible and allows for eventual conversation between man and ape, with the computer as the intermediary. A Teletype records all that transpires. Achievements of the chimpanzee S over the course of the first 8 months of the system’s operation attest to the worth of the system and training methods.

chapter 9 – Lana's Acquisition of Language Skills

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses Lanas acquisition of many critical language skills. Lana progressed rapidly in her training and mastered the system more readily than had been anticipated. All of these spontaneous innovations reveal a considerable degree of abstracting and generalizing ability; Lanas performances on occasion involved transferring information learned in one situation to another and generalizing skills learned in limited contexts to deal with broader problems. The first instance of Lanas spontaneous acquisition of linguistic-type skills was the most crucial—her learning to read lexigrams. Without specific training, Lana did learn how to read the projected lexigrams, and she also grasped the importance of their serial order to the point that she could complete valid sentences begun for her or erase invalid sentence beginnings presented to her by the experimenter. Lanas novel use of stock sentences reflects in a different way her mastery of the abstract concepts that underlie language use. In response to a problem situation, she spontaneously began using stock sentences for purposes different from those she had originally been taught were appropriate, and yet her novel uses of these sentences were completely suitable to the situations at hand. Subsequently, Lana moved beyond the stock-sentence phase and began composing entirely novel and appropriate sentences on her own.

THE MASTERY OF LANGUAGE-TYPE SKILLS BY THE CHIMPANZEE (PAN)*

Studies of chimpanzee language-relevant skills stimulated by Project Washoe’ are having a major impact upon scientific thought regarding the nature of language, ape, and man. The purpose of this paper is ( I ) to examine certain basic assumptions, methods, and findings of these studies, (2) to examine implications for the definitions of communication and language, (3) t o consider shortand long-term directions of chimpanzee language research and its possible applications, and finally, (4) to survey the results of the Lana Language Project.

Language Relevant Object- and Color-Naming Tasks

Publisher Summary This chapter presents the language relevant object-and color-naming tasks of the LANA project. Lana can reliably designate objects using either their colors or their names as a means of identification. In the course of doing this, she demonstrated that she was both reading the question posed to her and responding differentially to the different question formats. Furthermore, when increasing the number of objects present increased the difficulty of the task, she introduced a review of a second visual scan for her own benefit and at her own initiative. In the tasks where one object had to be mentally selected from several others, Lana was able to single out objects on the basis of either name or color. That is, her language-relevant skills gave her a means of selective attention. Lana did not confine the six color and six object names to the pool of 36 training objects that were used for the training and initial formal testing of the color and object name terms.

Readiness to attend to visual foreground cues

Abstract Nonhuman primate genera are differentially inclined to attend to stimuli of the immediate foreground. When great apes were trained to a criterion on each of a series of two-choice visual discrimination problems and then given critical test trials with irrelevant visual cues ( 1 2 in wire mesh) positioned immediately in front of each problems objects, accuracy of performance was significantly more disrupted in orang-utans (Pongo) than in chimpanzees (Pan) and gorillas (Gorilla). Two groups of chimpanzees known to differ profoundly in complex-learning skills did not differ in their readiness to attend to irrelevant foreground cues; hence, it is concluded that the observed differences among the three genera of great apes must be species related and associated with how arboreal/terrestial they are in their natural habitats.

chapter 12 – Conversations with Lana

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses some of the parameters of conversations with Lana. One of the most interesting developments to come out of this study was Lanas change in strategy during the first half of Experiment I. Lana initially responded to questions that were inappropriate to the time of day by going along with them; that is, if she were asked whether she wanted to eat in the morning, she would request food and if she were asked whether she wanted to drink in the afternoon, she would request a drink. She then stopped complying in such situations and began stating that she did not want to do what was being asked of her. It is interesting that this change did not occur until after she had positive results from her two requests that the water be removed from the machine. Perhaps her success with these two requests for the removal of an unwanted item gave her a feeling of greater control over the situation. This infuriated Lana, as evidenced by increased screaming, and she then had to ask to move back into the room before any other question could be answered. Still she persisted in using out-of in this manner. The increase in the variety of Lanas sentences may have been because of her sense of increasing control and probably also to an increasing awareness of the possibilities afforded her through the use of her language system. Her use of negation tends to support this idea as do her requests for the removal of unwanted items from the vending devices.