Gardner and Gardner Flashcards by Thomas Sutton

What did Gardner and Gardner aim to do?

teach chimp ASL

- find out the extent to which a chimp can learn and use human language

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How can Gardner and Gardner’s study be placed into a social context?

1960’s people asking about evolution such as can only humans use language. Answers to these questions would help understand what it means to be human. Research like this continues to this day with the work of Kanzi’s language

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How can Gardner and Gardner’s study be placed into an academic context?

Premack taught language to a chimp, Sarah, getting her to use coloured shaped chips. She learnt to use and put together 130 words

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How else can Gardner and Gardner’s study be placed in an academic context?

Noam Chomsky - argued only humans have a LAD (language acquisition device) animals such as a chimp don’t have a LAD and so would never be able to use language and G&G wanted to test this

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What was Gardner and Gardner’s research method?

Case study and observation

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What was Gardner and Gardner’s sample?

1 chimp - Washoe

Caught in Africa aged 8 months brought to Washoe county in the USA

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What was the sampling method?

Opportunist

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Where did Washoe get placed?

Into a human environment

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What was Washoe taught?

ASL - American sign language

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Who was always with her?

A human - whilst she was awake

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What was Washoe encouraged to do?

Play games

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What were the 3 training methods used?

Imitation
Babbling
Reinforcement

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What was Washoe rewarded with when she got something correct?

Tickles

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What was recorded?

Washoe’s signs

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How did Gardner and Gardner address some ethical issues?

Ensuring Washoe was cared for

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How many signs did Gardner and Gardner find Washoe could use by the age of 2?

30 -up, sweet, hurry, baby, dog and flower

What could Washoe do with signs?

String a few signs together to make simple sentences

How did Washoe learn most of these signs?

By imitating humans

How were other signs learnt by Washoe?

Babbling

What helped Washoe to learn these signs?

Reinforcement

What did Washoe do with a new sign she’d learnt e.g. key?

Use that sign for all keys

What were Washoe’s first words?

Come - gimme
More
Up

How many signs did Washoe know at 7, 14 and 21 months?

7 months - 4
14 months - 13
21 months - 30

What were the two things Gardner and Gardner concluded?

It’s possible to teach a chimp basic human language (ASL)

- It’s open to discussion whether it’s language or not

Was reliability a strength for Gardner and Gardner?

Yes - only recorded a sign when it was used spontaneously on 15 consecutive days and witnessed by 3 independent observers. This work is now continuing with Kanzi

Was validity a strength for Gardner and Gardner?

No - concerns as to whether it was true language. Did she understand the meaning of words? Was Washoe another Clever Hans the horse that could "count"

Was sampling for Gardner and Gardner strong?

No - only 1 pp, bias as pp not representative

What data did Gardner and Gardner collect?

Both - qual: provided depth and detail, quan: comparisons could be made e.g. 30 signs Washoe had learnt was similar to that of a deaf child

In terms of ethics why was Gardner and Gardner's research problematic?

Washoe couldn't give fully informed consent and had no right to withdraw. Also she wasn't protected from harm as she wasn't in her natural surroundings

Whose research supports Gardner and Gardner's and how?

Premack - taught language to Sarah (chimp) using coloured shaped chips, she learnt 130 words and could string them together. This supports because both are able to use human words; however could Gardner's be an improvement on Premack's because Washoe was tested on ASL which is used by deaf children - making it higher in validity

What other research supports Gardner and Gardner?

Kanzi (chimp) used a lexigram to communicate with humans - this supports because both suggest chimps have ability to communicate with humans

Whose research challenges Gardner and Gardner and how?

Terrace - used Nim Chimpsky (chimp) to argue Washoe wasn't using human language as close analysis lead to finding Washoe was just imitating. Washoe was just responding like a circus animal and she couldn't use grammar. This rejects G&G's because it suggests theirs was 'wishful thinking'. However could it be not possible to compare Nim and Washoe because of the individual differneces?