664954
Description
Mind Map by katherine.crick, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by katherine.crick
over 10 years ago
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Savage-Rumbaugh 1986
- Background
- Associative symbol learning
occurs when an individual
learns to associate specific
symbols with specific objects,
for example naming pictures
in a book.
- It has been demonstrated
that a more sophisticated
type of learning can appear
when chimps are
systematically taught how to
request, label and
comprehend objects.
- Associative symbol learning
occurs when an individual
learns to associate specific
symbols with specific objects,
for example naming pictures
in a book.
- Evaluation
- Strengths
- Longitudinal- allows in depth data to be
collected about development over time. For
example, utterances made by Kanzi was
documented over a 17 month period.
- Data was gathered under rigorous
controls (e.g. the formal tests) and
is therefore are less likely to be
open to bias and subjectivity. This
improves reliability and validity.
- Triangulation- Both qualitative and
quantitative data was gathered which
improves the richness of the study and
allows for analysis and comparison.
- Longitudinal- allows in depth data to be
collected about development over time. For
example, utterances made by Kanzi was
documented over a 17 month period.
- Weaknesses
- Ecological
validity is low as
the subjects
were not reared
in their natural
environment.
- Ethical issues- it could be considered
unethical and unnecessary to remove
chimpanzees from the wild and study
them in a human environment and to
test their language skills in a formal way.
- Ecological
validity is low as
the subjects
were not reared
in their natural
environment.
- Strengths
- Results/Findings
- Kanzi and Mulika
spontaneously began
to use gestures to
communicate between
6-16 months, it took
Sherman and Austin
between 2-4yrs.
- Kanzi and Mulika’s
gestures were more
explicit than Austin
and Sherman's.
- Kanzi and Mulika did well on
formal tests from the beginning
- Austin and Sherman became
confused, so they had to slow
down the process.
- Kanzi and Mulika had a better
understanding of spoken
language, used the lexigram
spontaneously and could
distinguish between
categories and refer to
requests involving others.
- Kanzi's recognition of
symbols preceded his
production of them for
63% of the words in
his vocabulary. More
than 80% of Kanzi's
utterances were
spontaneous, with
only 11% being
imitated or prompted.
- Kanzi produced
2,540 combinations
within 17 months,
764 of which were
unique.
- This was 6% of his total utterances.
All of his three word utterances
were to instruct someone else (eg
Person tickle Kanzi).
- 36% of the time it was initiated
by Kanzi and not imitated.
- This was 6% of his total utterances.
All of his three word utterances
were to instruct someone else (eg
Person tickle Kanzi).
- Kanzi and Mulika
spontaneously began
to use gestures to
communicate between
6-16 months, it took
Sherman and Austin
between 2-4yrs.
- Method
- Aim: to investigate the
language acquisition of two
pygmy chimpanzees and two
common chimpanzees.
- Subjects
- Principal subject: a male
pygmy chimpanzee called
Kanzi aged 30-47 months.
- Kanzi was born in
captivity and assigned
at 6 months old with his
mother (Matata), a wild
caught chimp.
- Studies suggest that they are a
more social species with more
developed social skills. This
suggests that they may be more
able to acquire language.
- Mulika was Kanzi's younger
sister, aged 11-21 months. Both
Kanzi and Mulika spent several
hours a day with their mother,
but they appeared to prefer
human company.
- Kanzi was born in
captivity and assigned
at 6 months old with his
mother (Matata), a wild
caught chimp.
- Two common chimpanzees were used
for comparison: Austin and Sherman.
They were assigned at 1.5 and 2.5 years
of age. They were removed from their
mothers before the study.
- Principal subject: a male
pygmy chimpanzee called
Kanzi aged 30-47 months.
- Longitudinal Quazi experiment
- IV= Species (bonobo/common)
- DV= Language Acquisition
- IV= Species (bonobo/common)
- Procedure
- Utterances were recorded
in three categories.
- Spontaneous- without prompting.
- Imitated- containing words from the researcher's utterance.
- Structured- in response to a question/request.
- Lexigram: a system of geometric
symbols. Kanzi's was connected to a
speech synthesiser which speaks the
words when the symbols are touched.
- Researchers also used ASL
(American Sign Language)
gestures to accompany the
lexigrams. Approximately 100 ASL
gestures were used by the
experimenters. None of the
experimenters were fluent in ASL.
- Researchers also used ASL
(American Sign Language)
gestures to accompany the
lexigrams. Approximately 100 ASL
gestures were used by the
experimenters. None of the
experimenters were fluent in ASL.
- Spontaneous- without prompting.
- Kanzi and Mulika were tested by 4
tests: Photograph to lexigram/ Spoken English
to photograph/ Spoken English to lexigram
/Synthesised speech to lexigram
- Utterances were recorded
in three categories.
- Aim: to investigate the
language acquisition of two
pygmy chimpanzees and two
common chimpanzees.
- Conclusions
- Pygmy chimps
can learn in a
very similar way
to humans but the
language may not
be uniquely
human.
- Similar to children:
taught by parents and
teachers/trainers.
Observations- symbols
and images from
picture books, etc.
- Similar to children:
taught by parents and
teachers/trainers.
Observations- symbols
and images from
picture books, etc.
- Showed that pygmy chimps have the ability to acquire
symbol use to a greater extent than other species of apes.
- Pygmy chimps
can learn in a
very similar way
to humans but the
language may not
be uniquely
human.
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