Apes and skills for human language Flashcards
Communication abilities in apes:
Kanzi (bonobo)
was able to use different kinds of vocalizations (acoustic signals) in different contects
Communication abilities in apes:
Vicki (raised as a human infant)
was given speech therapy, involving manipulation of the lower jaw. She was able to voice 4 words: mama, papa, up and cup.
Significantly hampered by physiological limitations
Communication abilities in apes:
Washoe (operant conditioning)
was able to sign “water” and “bird” to describe a duck (productivity)
Communication abilities in apes:
Nim Chimpsky (operant conditioning)
showed basic word order (grammatical knowledge)
Savage-Rumbaugh, Kanzi’s trainer, adopted a framework that explained why animals have communicative abilities:
- biological characteristics (phylogeny)
- maturational characteristics of the individual (ontogeny)
- culture or environment
Skills that contribute to human language:
Delivery system
- Tuned delivery system through which linguistic signal is transmitted (lowered larynx, central skull)
- Neural pathways related to vocalization:
affective- innate, inflexible sound production, arising from emotion.
cognitive- controlled, highly malleable sound production
Skills that contribute to human language:
Ability to combine linguistic units
Ability that is essential for the normal development of speech and language to combine linguistic units to express a great variety of complex meanings
contribution of FOXP2 gene, in chromosome 7.
Provides necessary instructions to make a protein
- unusual FOXP2 gene: impairment in motor skills and coordination and disturbances of language comprehension, grammar and syntax
Skills that contribute to human language:
Ability to use and understand intentional symbols to communicate meanings
Advanced skills in social cognition and motivational drive to communicate.
