Association for Behavior Analysis International

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39th Annual Convention; Minneapolis, MN; 2013

Event Details


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B. F. Skinner Lecture Series Paper Session #387
CE Offered: PSY/BACB

Ape Language Studies

Monday, May 27, 2013
4:00 PM–4:50 PM
Ballroom B (Convention Center)
Area: TPC; Domain: Theory
Instruction Level: Basic
CE Instructor: Marleen T. Adema, Ph.D.
Chair: Marleen T. Adema (Dutch Association for Behavior Analysis)
SUE SAVAGE-RUMBAUGH (Great Ape Trust)
Sue Savage-Rumbaugh obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma (1975). For 23 years, she was based at the Language Research Center of Georgia State University. Currently, she is executive director and senior scientist at Great Ape Trust, a world-class research center dedicated to studying the behavior and intelligence of great apes. Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh is the first scientist to conduct language research with bonobos. She helped pioneer the use of new technologies for working with primates, such as a keyboard providing for speech synthesis, allowing the animals to communicate using spoken English. Her work with Kanzi, the first ape to learn language in the same manner as children, was detailed in Language Comprehension in Ape and Child (1993), which is listed in the top 100 most influential works in cognitive science in the 20th century (University of Minnesota Center for Cognitive Sciences, 1999). Her work is also featured in Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind (1996), and Apes, Language, and the Human Mind (2001). Savage-Rumbaugh received honorary doctorates from the University of Chicago (1997) and Missouri State University (2008), and was invited speaker to the Nobel Conference XXXII (1996). In 2011, she was recognized as one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.  
Abstract:

Language has always been assumed to be uniquely human. And many linguists (for example, Chomsky and Pinker) still subscribe to this assumption. However, extensive research since the 1970s has shown that primates are capable of acquiring language skills. This presentation focuses on language studies with bonobos at the Language Research Center of Georgia State University and at Great Ape Trust, using a keyboard with lexigrams as a communication system. The language environment the bonobos were exposed to will be described, as well as their language acquisition process and the language skills they acquired. Theoretical and philosophical implications of these studies will be discussed along with methodological issues and criticism this research raised. The ape language studies have challenged traditional views on language and cognition: findings regarding the abilities of nonhuman primates to acquire symbols, comprehend spoken words, decode simple syntactical structures, learn concepts of number and quantity, and perform complex perceptual-motor tasks have helped change the way humans view other members of the primate order.

Photo: Russ RuBert, RuBert Studios 2012

Target Audience:

General.

Learning Objectives: Forthcoming.
 

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