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Research
Washoe looking through a magazine |
All research at CHCI is non-invasive; the research either
does not disrupt the chimpanzees' lives or, should it be potentially
disruptive to the chimpanzees' daily activities, it is entirely
voluntary. If a research design proves to be upsetting to the chimpanzees,
the research is halted and revised to be less intrusive. Because
the nature of research involves contact with the chimpanzees, researchers
who work directly with the chimpanzees must be trained extensively.
We recognize that the presence of the researcher itself can
affect the chimpanzees' behavior. However, this is true of nearly
all
research. In some cases, the research can provide enrichment for
the chimpanzees, giving them opportunities to interact socially
with the researchers or to participate in a forage that they would
not otherwise have had.
Read more about the presentations
and theses that have developed
out of research at CHCI.
The Recent Expressive Lexicon of a Cross-Fostered
Chimpanzee
Jason M. Wallin, Mary Lee Jensvold, Roger S. Fouts, Deborah
H. Fouts Via. Friends of Washoe Newsletter, 29(4),
5-7.
NOTE: Jason Wallin presented this as a poster at both the
Rocky Mountain Psychological Association meeting in April and
Central Washington University’s Symposium on University
Research and Creative Expression in May. The poster won an award
for Outstanding Graduate Student Poster at the CWU Symposium.
INTRODUCTION
Purpose
The present study describes the recent use of signs of American
Sign Language by Tatu, a 32-year-old female chimpanzee.
Tatu
Tatu was cross-fostered by Drs. Allen and Beatrix Gardner from
January 1976 until May 1981. In every way possible, Tatu was
raised as if she were a deaf human child. In this rich and engaging
environment, Tatu (and other cross-fosterlings: Washoe, Moja,
Pili, and Dar) acquired signs of American Sign Language (ASL)
in patterns that paralleled those of human children (Gardner
& Gardner, 1989; Gardner & Gardner, 1978; Gardner &
Gardner, 1994; Rimpau, Gardner, & Gardner, 1989; Van Cantfort,
Gardner, & Gardner, 1989).
Tatu continues to be an active conversational partner at the
Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI), where she
has lived since 1981.
Reliable Signs
For this study, we considered those signs for which Tatu is
reliable. For Tatu to be considered reliable for a sign, three
different observers on three independent occasions must have
seen her use the sign appropriately and without a preceding
human model. Then, observers must have recorded Tatu’s
use of the sign for 15 consecutive days (Gardner, Gardner, &
Nichols, 1989).
Procedure
When caregivers observed a sign on Tatu’s reliable list,
they recorded it on a daily checklist. Only the first observation
each day was recorded. Thus, these are records of sign types
(see below).
Each caregiver was required to have at least one quarter of
university-level training in ASL and must have demonstrated
reliability in identifying the signs of each chimpanzee.
Sign Types
A count of sign types records the number of different signs.
The phrase FLOWER THERE SMELL FLOWER, consists of three sign
types FLOWER, THERE, and SMELL.
The dataset for this study is a record of sign types used each
day. This does not allow for calculating the absolute frequency
of Tatu’s signing (as she may repeat the same sign type
many times each day), but does permit us to describe the lexical
categories and variety of Tatu’s signs.
Results
Tatu signed an average of 17 different sign types each
day during the past 8 years.
Over the study period, Tatu increased the number of sign
types she signed each day.
Day to day, Tatu showed considerable variety in the signs
she employed in conversation.
For this measure, we divided up the dataset into pairs of consecutive
days and examined the sign types that were either 1) common
to both days or 2) unique to one day or the other. Tatu was
not repeating herself day after day. Most of her sign types
are unique to one day or the other and for every pair of consecutive
days, Tatu used a different subset of her vocabulary on the
first day than on the second.
Tatu employed a variety of lexical categories in her signing.
Lexical Category Observed Frequency Ratio of sign types observed
to Tatu’s reliable sign types
Nouns 24,451 65/72 (90%)
Inanimate objects 19,197 29/35 (83%)
Edibles 4,764 29/29 (100%)
Animates 491 7/7 (100%)
Noun/verbs 6,984 16/17 (94%)
Modifiers 5,077 12/14 (86%)
Colors 3,478 4/4 (100%)
Qualities 1,570 4/4 (100%)
Possessives 17 2/2 (100%)
Materials 12 2/2 (100%)
Quantities 0 0/1 (0%)
Markers & Traits 4230 12/13 (92%)
Locatives 4290 5/7 (71%)
Verbs 2673 15/15 (100%)
Pronouns 1539 2/2 (100%)
Names 1462 11/14 (79%)
Generic 1077 3/3 (100%)
Chimpanzees 380 3/3 (100%)
Humans 4 4/8 (50%)
Tatu used 138 (90%) of the 154 reliable signs in her vocabulary
during the past 8 years. She used 50,686 sign types over the
2,922 days.
SMELL (2313) PAINT (209) GLOVE (4)
CRACKER (2034) POPCORN (195) NO (4)
BLACK (1859) ORANGE (184) OPEN (4)
MASK (1829) QUIET (166) PEN/WRITE (4)
ONION (1820) COME (149) BELT (2)
THAT (1750) FRIEND (149) BITE (2)
MILK (1556) GRASS (148) CATCH (2)
DRINK (1477) KISS (148) CUP (2)
YOU (1473) GIRL (131) LIGHT (2)
THERE (1429) PLEASE (106) PEACH (2)
RED (1411) LAUGH (97) BALL (1)
CHEESE (1404) SLEEP (96) BART H. (1)
BANANA (1366) MEDICINE (82) COMB (1)
GUM (1192) SWALLOW (82) DR. G (1)
HURRY (1191) PEA/BEAN (75) HANDKERCHIEF (1)
GO (1180) CAT (71) HOME (1)
GIMME (1161) ME (66) MARTI G. (1)
CARROT (1134) DOG (61) RIDE (1)
CEREAL (1116) CLEAN (59) ROCK (1)
MORE (1115) SHOE (58) SOUR (1)
POTATO (1068) BLOW (54) SUSAN N. (1)
PERSON (921) BRUSH (54) SWING (1)
APPLE (916) BABY (50) WHO (1)
FOOD/EAT/TASTE (888) KEY (49) WOOD (1)
ICE/COLD (837) GRAPES (48) YOURS (1)
OUT (762) DAR (46) ARLENE K. (0)
LIPSTICK (740) HOT (40) BATH (0)
CLOTHES (732) BUG (34) BIB (0)
SWEET (692) COW (34) DIAPER (0)
MEAT (570) CRY (30) DOWN (0)
GROOM (551) POTTY (30) GOODBYE (0)
FRUIT (536) WHITE (24) MARK L. (0)
TOOTHBRUSH (531) EARRING (22) METAL (0)
NUT (530) HAT (22) MRS. G (0)
FLOWER (508) CANDY (20) NAOMI R. (0)
RICE (501) BED (17) ONE (0)
COFFEE (495) DIRTY (17) STAMP (0)
BERRY (469) TICKLE (17) STRING (0)
OIL (440) MINE/MY (16) SWAB (0)
PLANT (407) SEE (15) UP (0)
IN/ENTER (348) CAR (14) VACUUM (0)
SANDWICH (343) HUG (14) WIPER (0)
TREE (324) CAN'T (12)
TEA (323) HORSE (12)
TATU (322) MOJA (12)
WATER (312) TIME (12)
BLANKET (296) GLASS (11)
CORN (291) HEAR/LISTEN (11)
SODAPOP (287) GARBAGE/CABBAGE (8)
COOKIE (285) SHIRT (8)
CHASE (283) TOOTHPASTE (8)
HURT (278) BOY (7)
SORRY (258) GLASSES (7)
BIRD (229) FINISH (6)
ICE CREAM (226) PEEKABOO (6)
GOOD (210) WRISTWATCH (5)
CONCLUSIONS
• Tatu uses a number of different sign types from several
different lexical categories in her daily conversations.
• Tatu changes the content of her conversations day-to-day.
• Tatu’s signing is increasing in both the daily
number of signs and the day-to-day variation in her signs.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
• We plan to similarly describe Tatu’s signing from
the early 1980s to the present, and expand the study to include
Washoe, Moja, Dar, and Loulis.
• We can use this data as a baseline frequency of daily
sign types, to see if significant divergences appear as a function
of the day of the week, month of the year, periods around holidays
and significant events, etc.
REFERENCES
Gardner, B. T., & Gardner, R. A. (1994). Development of
phrases in the utterances of children and cross-fostered chimpanzees.
In R. A. Gardner, B. T. Gardner, A. B. Chiarelli, & F. X.
Plooij (Eds.), The ethological roots of culture. Dordrecht:
Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Gardner, B. T., Gardner, R. A., & Nichols, S. G. (1989).
The shapes and uses of signs in a cross-fostering laboratory.
In R. A. Gardner, B. T. Gardner, & T. E. Van Cantfort (Eds.).
Teaching sign language to chimpanzees. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Gardner, R. A., & Gardner, B. T. (1978). Comparative psychology
and language acquisition. Annals of the New York Academy of
Sciences, 209, 37-76.
Gardner, R.A., & Gardner, B.T. (1989). A cross-fostering
laboratory. In R.A. Gardner, B.T. Gardner & T.E. Van Cantfort
(Eds.), Teaching sign language to chimpanzees. Albany, NY: SUNY
Press.
Rimpau, J. B., Gardner, R. A., & Gardner, B. T. (1989).
Expression of person, place, and instrument in ASL utterances
of children and chimpanzees. In R. A. Gardner, B. T. Gardner,
& T. E. Van Cantfort (Eds.), Teaching sign language to chimpanzees.
Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Van Cantfort, T. E., Gardner, B. T., & Gardner, R. A. (1989).
Developmental trends in relies to wh-questions by children and
chimpanzees. In R.A. Gardner, B.T. Gardner & T.E. Van Cantfort
(Eds.), Teaching sign language to chimpanzees. Albany, NY: SUNY
Press.
Dialect 2004
by Shannon Reider. Friends of Washoe Newsletter,
26(1), 1.
This summer the dialect team entered yet another new phase. The
past several phases have examined the use of play, greeting, reasurance,
and grooming gestures used by the chimpanzees here at CHCI as well
as two free-living communities (one in Gombe and one in Kibale).
This year we looked at the use of "threat gestures." The
dialect team, which was made up of four summer apprentices who
are also
staying on as graduate students, looked for the presence (or the
absence) of 19 "threat gestures." Shared gestures between
communities may indicate that the gesture is a common gesture used
by chipmanzees,
while a unique gesture may indicate a cultural difference between
communities. Data was also collected on who was the actor and recipient
of the threat and of the threat gesture; the length of the gesture;
and if the gesture was used to initiate, maintain, or end a threat.
The dialect team was fabulous and worked very hard to collect the
hundreds of hours of data. Although the data is not quite yet
completely collected (there was more data than there was time),
this phase
is proving to be as interesting as the previous and the team will
keep working throught the fall to finish the data collection for
analysis.
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