Gardner And Gardner Flashcards
Context and Aims of gg
The acquisition of language among other species of animal, many studies had been conducted before gardner and gardner on animals such as Dolphins, primates and parrots. If they were not able to acquire language it was suspected that this was due to the cognitive ability that they lacked which is evident in humans.
One such study is Kellogg and Kellogg’s in (1933) where they attempted to teach a chimpanzee spoken language, however this was a fail as there are differences in the biochemistry of apes, who have different lips and vocal chords called the larynx, which means that they are more likely to make spontaneous vocalisations in times of excitement and danger, she could however recognise up to 100 words of the spoken language, this suggests that cognitive ability is not the reason to the incapability to speak.
Hayes and Hayes (1951) replicated Kellogg and Kellogg’s study and only succeeded at teaching the chimp Vicky 4 words of the English language, ‘mama’ ‘papa’ ‘up’ and ‘cup’ they concluded that there are limitations to the vocal cords of chimps.
Procedure of gg
The use of one monkey called was home, she was taken from the wild between the ages of 8-14 months, this was essential to Gardner and Gardner’s study as they needed to be sure that no genetic limitations were exposed to her.
When people communicated around Washoe they were to only use ASL so that there were no visible differences in status, creating a confounding variable against wahoo who may be reluctant to communicate.
Washoe was taught signs through three methods
Imitation, this was done through teaching Washoe a sign if she was to repeat correctly she would be rewarded with for example a tickle.
Babbling is spontaneous noises which is done by human infants, Gardner and Gardner felt that by doing this which is similar to the spontaneous vocalisations that monkeys make in times of danger and excitement Washoe could better acquire ASL.
Operant conditioning, by rewarding desired behaviours Washoe’s acquisition could be reinforced.
Situations and days out were devised so that Washoe could better learn new signs, this was successful in the fact that she quickly expanded her vocabulary, things were only recorded if
They were Spontaneous
Occurred in the appropriate context.
3 researchers
At least Once a day for 15 consecutive days
Findings and conclusions of gg
The three methods of teaching
Imitation toothbrush this was demonstrated through delayed imitation as she was taught it but showed her acquisition through spontaneous means, she had her teeth brushed after every meal however was resilient to it.
Babbling late it was manual and tended to demonstrate incorrect gestures, however the researchers would reinforce the learning and repeat it correctly for her until she eventually repeated it correctly herself.
Operant conditioning is the process of reinforcing desired behaviours, Washoe would bang on the door for it to be opened, g and g reinforced this through evolving to the actual sign of opening, teaching Washoe the correct and desired sign, she also learned to combine and transfer the sign for door.
Demonstrated acquisition of 34 signs in 22 months
Open as a method of transfer was generalised from one to three doors, to also other doors such as that of doors on cupboards. And to switch on taps
Washoe could also differentiate between signs e.g. She would sign more when she wanted to sign “do it again”
Please was combined in sentences for excessiveness I.e. If she wanted a door opened “please open hurry”
The conclusion made, stated that ASL was beneficial for communication with chimps, it demonstrated the cognitive ability to understand better than any other method.
Evaluation of gg
One ppt cannot be generalised easily to the rest of the primate world, what if Washoe had a better cognitive ability because of the time of her removal, this also means that the study had low ecological validity as it is not a true picture, there was control over extraneous variables for instance how people interacted around Washoe and many people are likely to verbally talk to monkeys.
In the instance of the study, Washoe never had verbal communication only babbling and manual language this was a strength as previous studies such as that conducted by Hayes and Hayes show that chimps are not capable of acquiring language as they have different lips and voice boxes to humans.
A strength of using a chimpanzee for the experiment is that they have good sociability and are able to use their hands in dexterous ways, both in the wild and in zoo’s chimps can also ‘beg’ so she would be able to replicate a sign easily.
Although Washoe could combine signs Gardner and Gardner were never able to prove that she learned language because they did not analyse whether she understood differences in word combinations, this is a weakness of the methodology.
A strength of the method is the fact that they used inter-rater methods to discover whether three researchers interpreted Washoe’s signs correctly before stating that she had mastered a sign, gives way to bias as if three people agree there is consistency.
In terms of ethics, the study was around a wild caught monkey, this is controversial as some believe that it is unethical to remove an animal from its natural habitat. However, Gardner and Gardner did not cage her or detain her in any way, treat her in any way which was unethical, so this was a strength.
As chimps are dexterous, the selection of a wild chimp to acquire manual communication means that she would be completely able to do it. If she wasn’t it would’ve been due to cognitive barriers.
Alternative evidence of gg
The study was conducted on one chimp, found that in total she could acquire 132 signs over 4 years
Nim Chimpsky, was a laboratory chimp used by the American psychologist Terrace was an attempt to develop Gardner and Gardner’s research however they didn’t as there was a failure to acquire syntax. Which means that they both couldn’t have been said to learn language as there was no proof that they could understand language.
A lexigram is an board of arbitrary image with 256 keys.
A study conducted with a chimp Kanzi, developed Gardner and Gardner’s study by the use of a lexigram, to show that he had acquired language the method could change the sentence order and it was proven that kanzi, knew the difference between put the pin on the ball and put the ball on the pin etc.
These studies had more rigorous controls than Gardner and Gardner’s
