Gardner And Gardner

Question 0

How can the study be placed in a social context?

Answer 0

In 1960s people were asking important questions about evolution eg “can only humans use language?” “What’s the difference between apes and humans?” The answers to these Qs will help us understand what it means to be human, research like gardners started flourishing & continues now with kanzi

Question 1

Aims of study

Answer 1

Find out what extent to which a chimp is able to learn and then use a human language
To teach a chimp American Sign Language

Question 2

How can the gardners study be placed in an academic context?

Answer 2

Premack 1966 taught language to Sarah by getting her to use chips that represent words she could string together 130 words eg Sarah give Apple Mary
Noam Chomsky argued only humans have a “language acquisition device” which enables us to develop a language by age of 5. Chimps don’t have this so wouldn’t be able to do asl, gardners wanted to test this

Question 3

What was gardners research method? P

Answer 3

Case study and observation

Question 4

What was gardners sample? P

Answer 4

Opportunist, just 1 female chimp caught in wild in Africa aged about 8 months and brought to washoe county in USA

Question 5

What environment did they place washoe in? P

Answer 5

Human, similar to dead child

Question 6

What did they teach washoe? P

Answer 6

ASL as it built on natural hand gestures

Question 7

A human was always with her why she was awake. True or false?

Answer 7

True, this enabled her to build up close relationships with humans using asl

Question 8

How did they encourage washoe to interact? P

Answer 8

Games play and fun

Question 9

What training methods were used to teach washoe asl?

Answer 9

Imitation- copy a sign such as dog
Babbling- when washoe signed something via babbling it was signed back to her like with a young child
Reinforcement- tackling washoe when she used a sign correctly

Question 10

How did they reward washoe? P

Answer 10

Tickles

Question 11

How did they gather the info? P

Answer 11

Recording washoes learned signs at different ages, and spontaneously on 15 consecutive says confirmed by 3 observers

Question 12

How did they address some ethical issues ? P

Answer 12

Ensured washoe was cared for and encouraged in a way a young child would be

Question 13

How old was she when she learned 30 signs? F&C

Answer 13

2 eg up- arms extend upwards
Sweet finger touches tongue
Hurry hand shaken at wrist
Baby rocking arms

Question 14

What words could she string together? F&C

Answer 14

Give me sweet

Please open hurry

Question 15

How did washoe learn toothbrush F&C

Answer 15

Imitation

Question 16

How did she learn funny F&C

Answer 16

Babbling - reinforcing random gestures

Question 17

How did she learn more F&C

Answer 17

Reinforcement as she wanted more tickles and food

Question 18

What was interesting about the key? F&C

Answer 18

She learned the sign for key and used it for all keys not just one key

Question 19

After 7 months how many signs did she know? F&C

Answer 19

4

Question 20

By 14 months how many signs did she know F&C

Answer 20

13

Question 21

By 21 months how many signs did she know F&C

Answer 21

30

Question 22

What were her first words? F&C

Answer 22

Come gimme, more and up

Question 23

What did the gardners conclude? F&C

Answer 23

It is possible to teach a chimp basic human communication in the form of asl
It is open to discussion wether it’s a language or not