Nim Chimpsky

Group Project #1

Exercise 1: Nim Chimpsky

Part B:

The scientists succeeded by replicating the environment in which a child learns language for Nim Chimpsky.  His environment was controlled and monitored by humans and treated like a child.   The experimenters understood that a controlled environment would yield the desired results.  The results may have not been as reliable if they taught ASL in a primate-controlled environment if they were comparing them to a human child’s ASL acquisition.  Nim had opportunities to use ASL to communicate with humans like a child would in the setting he was raised in, thus the results were more aligned with the desired outcome.  

Part C:

Many argue that the experiment was unethical to Nim Chimpsky.  Fostering a wild animal in a human environment caused Nim to attack one of the researchers.  Wild animals have natural instincts that can’t be conditioned or ignored and they need to live in their natural habitat. Once the experiment ended he was sent to a primate facility without the proper social tools to thrive on his own.  Nim’s mental health and development was put aside for a psychological experiment, which many believe to be the biggest downfall of this experiment.      

Part D:

(i) In the article titled, “Chimpanzees consider their audience when communicating” Victoria Gill explains an experiment that was done to learn more about chimp’s “hooing” noise. When a chimpanzee makes this noise, he is warning other individuals of threats (i.e. snakes). Researchers placed plastic snakes on well-used paths and monitored what chimps did and did not see them. When the chimps saw the snake, they would leap away and then return to approach it and then make their “hoo” sound to warn others of the near by danger. The researchers were able to learn that chimpanzees have the ability to recognize ignorance and knowledge in others, similar to humans. Their information processing and need to warn others works the same for them, but as we learned with Nim Chimpsky, they do not communicate exactly like we do.

(ii) Joseph Dussault write about bonobos and their communication and how it is related to human communication in the article, “Bonobos speak like human babies.” The article starts with a statement saying that babies and bonobos have in common the way they express emotions – using peeping noises. Bonobos are only found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and they are the closest related species of apes to humans. Bonobos peep in just about every situation possible, but also have other calls for specific functions. Dr. Clay, who researched these apes, says that human babies use similar peeps before learning language skills, which are called protophones, and seem to be present in the bonobos as well. In the Nim Chimpsky experiment, it was concluded that maybe chimps do not communicate exactly like humans… maybe Nim was just copying. But according to this article, it could be possible that chimps and apes have a similar way of processing and developing their communication to what we humans have and do.

Exercise 2: English Parts of Speech (lexical categories)

Pro     V             N              TO       V                      Pre Det       A       Conj                                  N      Pre     N

 “It requires courage not to surrender oneself to the ingenious or compassionate counsels of despair 

Pro                   V                 TO                                 Pre   Det    N  Pre Det     N    Conj                         V      Pre

that would induce a man to eliminate himself from the ranks of the living; but it does not follow from