123 School Work

Language The Brain

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  Language & The Brain
  
  We know that other creatures can communicate birds can, bees can, dolphins, monkeys, but do they actually have LANGUAGE?
  
  Parrots can speak but don't really seem to know what they are saying. There have been long-term experiments in teaching chimps and Bonobos how to communicate they can't speak because, like the ancient forefathers of modern man, they do not have the necessary anatomy in their mouths and throats to articulate. To get round this one of the earliest experiments was with a Chimp called Washoe who was taught ASL American Sign Language. This at first seemed to suggest that the chimp could go as far as to communicate further than just simple responses and demands (for food, drink etc.) but on a TV programme in the 1970's when Washoe was the star performer it was suggested that she just wiggled her fingers randomly and, because they wanted to believe there was communication, her trainers found the meanings in the wrigglings that they wanted. Bit like finding pictures in the clouds.
  
  Nim Chimpsky cheekily named to parody Noam Chomsky the famous Linguist and outspoken opponent of animal language ability was unable to create sentences was the reluctant conclusion of his trainer. Skeptics argued that the responses of the chimps were very like the simple conditioning shown by Pavlov's dogs.
  
  Then came the more impressive tests of Dr Savage-Rumbaugh who, in the mid '70s began with a different approach...