Gardner and Gardner

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Hereward Campbell-Anderson

Gardner and Gardner Study Essay

        For comparison with the Gardner and Gardner study I have researched two other studies on language acquisition. These were of ‘Kanzi’ by Savage-Rumbaugh, started in 1980 (and still going) and of ‘Nim Chimpsky’ by Terrace in 1983.

        Nim Chimpsky was experimented with because Terrace had seen videos of Washoe’s ‘communication’ and was sceptical toward its reliability. Terrace decided to re-do the study himself using the same methods but observing and judging the results more strictly. Terrace attempted to teach Nim American Sign Language in a deaf environment (so as to avoid alienating the ape with verbal language which might inhibit its learning). Terrace used the ‘moulding and imitation’ method as had been used with Washoe. This entailed teaching Nim to imitate his experimenters by moulding his hands with theirs to match the correct sign. He was trained from the age of 9 months and Terrace was determined to make his experiment stricter than Gardner and Gardners’.

        During the 44 month duration of Nim’s training he seemed to learn over 125 signs. Most of these signs were proper nouns but he also learned many verbs and adjectives as well as a small number of pronouns and propositions.

        Savage Rumbaugh criticised Terrace’s methods by saying they were too strict and that Nim’s progress may have been inhibited by the lack of a personal relationship as she felt she had with Kanzi.

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        The method and initiation of Kanzi’s training by Savage Rumbaugh was quite different. Kanzi’s acting mother ‘Matata’ was a research subject in language acquisition studies. When Kanzi was six months old Matata was taken away to breed with another Bonobo ape. When left alone he seemed miraculously to correctly employ all 10 lexigrams that were on his mother’s learning keyboard. Although the experimenters had not intended to teach Kanzi he had been present at all his mother’s lessons (though he had not seemed to be paying any attention at the time). Not only did he seem to understand the lexigrams ...

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