Cognitive Psychology - Savage-Rubaugh (1986)

Annotations:

• Spontaneous Symbol Acquisition and Communication Use

1. Aim/Hypothesis
   1. Investigating the language acquisition capacity of a pygmy chimpanzee in contrast to common chimpanzees.
2. Participants/Sample
   1. Four Chimpanzees
      1. 2 Pygmy Chimps
         1. Kanzi

            Annotations:

            • Male. Assigned to the Language project at the age of 2 1/2. Was four at the end of the study (the information documented within this study).
            • Had watched his mother receive language training.
         2. Mulika

            Annotations:

            • Female.Assigned to the Language acquisition Project at the age of 1 1/2. Was 3 when the study ended.
      2. 2 Normal Chimps
         1. Austin

            Annotations:

            • Was around the age of 9 during the study.
         2. Sherman

            Annotations:

            • Was around the age of 10 during the study.
      3. Similarities in their rearing environment
         1. Both groups formed attachments's to their caretakers.
         2. Both had the opportunity to interact with humans.
         3. Both had exposure to human speech, gestures, photographs, novel objects and discipline.
         4. Both had the opportunity to watch television.
      4. Differences in their rearing enviroment
         1. The common chimps were in a training setting and the pygmy were in an observational one.
         2. Neither Sherman or Austin's keyboard had speech synthesiser as they could not understand the spoken language.
         3. Neither Sherman or Austin could use a keyboard outside the lab due to the size of their fingers.
3. Variables
   1. (IV) Independent Variable

      Annotations:

      • The species of the chimpanzee.
   2. (DV) Dependant Variable

      Annotations:

      • The chimpanzee's respective language acquisition results.
4. Method/Procedure
   1. Longitudinal

      Annotations:

      • Savage-Rumbaugh studied the Kanzi for around 10 years, however, the data within this study spans across 17 months, making it a longitudinal.
   2. Laboratory/Quasi-Experiment

      Annotations:

      • Savage-Rumbaugh is a Quasi-experiment as the independant variable (the species of the chimp) does not need to be manipulated.
   3. Indoors - A lexigram (battery powered keyboard with geometric symbols) was used which playsed a speech synthesiser once pushed correctly.

      Annotations:

      • For a word to be considered learnt, the chimp would have to get point to it correctly on command without hesitation 9/10 times.
   4. Kanzi had 55 acres of forest in which specific food was stored at in 17 different locations.

      Annotations:

      • The food being in different locations was structured so that Kanzi had to go and find/locate the food he wanted at the time.
   5. Outdoors - A laminated lexigram was used by the pygmy chimps but the common chimps could not use it as could not be distinguished where they were pointing due to the size of their fingers.
5. Findings
   1. The Chimps
      1. The Pygmy Chimps
         1. Kanzi
         2. Mulika
      2. The Common Chimps
   2. Type of data
      1. Quantitative
      2. Qualitiative
6. Conclusion
   1. The results show that the pygmy chimps exhibit symbolic and auditory perceptual skills that are distinctly different to the common chimps.
   2. They also suggest that the finding minimises the significance of the behaviourist differences between human and apes, and also point out that the findings highlight the power of 'culture learning' and that pygmy chimps have the capacity to understand speech.
7. How useful is this study?
   1. Psychology is meant to be a subject which focuses on the human mind. When animals are studied it is normally in an attempt to understand humans, and basic similarities provide a less complicated version of humans, epitomising the role of insect biology.
   2. The chimps displayed many of the characteristics of a human child learning language, the role of simple association made between two words for example. This helps us analyse how human children learn language and in turn, make it possible to identify and help children who display difficulties early in the language acquisition process.
   3. Helped us discover that in some animals there is the potential for animals to use language in the same way humans do, and that one day their speech could evolve to the status of humans, giving the implication that we may live alongside animals in the future (language-wise obviously).
8. Weaknesses
   2. The Sample
   3. Ethical Issues

      Annotations:

      • When it comes to animals, ethics are always being discussed. Should the pygmy chimps have been brought up within such an environment where the food is given to them (they did not have to hunt, but remember where the foods they liked wood be located), where they are allowed to watch TV and brought up differently to how a normal pygmy chimp would have been?
      • In bringing the chimps up in such an environment it is almost impossible to put them into the wild as it is unlikely that they will survive.
   4. Qualitative Data
9. Strengths
   1. High Ecological Validity

      Annotations:

      • The naturally occuring variabless allow for naturally occuring results giving the study a high validity.
   2. Controls
   3. Longitudinal

      Annotations:

      • Data could be gathered over a long length of time, continuous data which shows the development of the pygmy chimps language acquisirion.
   4. Type of data
      1. Qualitative
      2. Quantitative
10. Background
    1. 1931 - Gua the chimp was brought to Winthrop Kellogs home to be cross-reared alongside Kellogs son Donald.

       Annotations:

       • Donald and Gua were brought up like brother and sister,  Kellogs observing how both child and chimp developed.
       • Only slight differences were found. Where Donald could recognise a person by their face, Gua could only do so by the clothes someone would wear or their smell.
    2. 1951 - Viki the chimp was a study conducted by Keith and Catherine Hays. Viki managed to say the words, 'papa', 'mama', 'up' and 'cup' whilst her jaw was being manipulated.

       Annotations:

       • She was rewarded when she done an action/speech correctly.
       • It was concluded that chimps did nothave the apparatus to make human noises.
    3. 1967 - Washoe the chimp was brought the University of Nevada to learn ASL. I total she learned approximately 350 sign words.

       Annotations:

       • ASL- American Sign Language