Apes and Human Language

Question 1

The Clever Hans Effect

Answer 1

Hans (the horse) ‘responded’ to the trainer’s questions by stopping the tapping when the body language of the trainer changed

Question 2

Gua the Chimpanzee
1930-1933

Answer 2

Gua was ‘raised’ alongside her brother and her development was documented by the Kellogg family. She had better motor skills around the age of 1, but did not progress well enough when looking at the language aspect. Gua could understand around 100 words, but couldn’t say any of them.

Question 3

Washoe 1965-2007

Answer 3

She was raised in a domestic household, but taught sign language. Her trainers only used sign language around her, never spoken language. She learned about 350 signs and invented some of her own

Question 4

Koko 1971-2018

Answer 4

Gorilla raised to use sign language, but was also exposed to spoken language. Significant amounts of info were released to the press, but small amounts of info made it to scientific papers

Question 5

Nim Chimpsky 1973-2000

Answer 5

The success of Washoe was attempted to be reproduced with Nim, but Nim only was reproducing signs as a conditioned trick to get a reward

Question 6

Kanzi 1980-present

Answer 6

A chimpanzee named Kanzi was taught lexigrams to communicate