 | |
| Species | Chimpanzee |
|---|---|
| Born | 1965 West Africa |
| Died | October 30, 2007 (aged 42) Ellensburg, Washington, United States |
| Cause of death | Complications fromSAIDS[citation needed] |
| Known for | Use of sign language |
Washoe (1965 – October 30, 2007) was a female commonchimpanzee who was the first non-human to learn to communicate using signs adapted fromAmerican Sign Language (ASL) as part of ananimal research experiment onanimal language acquisition.[1]
Washoe learned approximately 350 signs of ASL,[2] also teaching her adopted sonLoulis some signs.[3][4][5] She spent most of her life atCentral Washington University.
Washoe was born inWest Africa in 1965. She was captured for use by theUS Air Force for research for theUS space program.[6] Washoe was named afterWashoe County,Nevada, where she was raised and taught to use ASL.[7]
In 1967, R. Allen Gardner andBeatrix Gardner established a project to teach Washoe ASL at theUniversity of Nevada, Reno. At the time, previous attempts to teach chimpanzees to imitate vocal languages (theGua andViki projects) had failed. The Gardners believed that these projects were flawed because chimpanzees are physically unable to produce thevoiced sounds required for oral language. Their solution was to utilize the chimpanzee's ability to communicate through gesture, which is how they communicate in the wild, by starting a project based on American Sign Language.[8][9] The Gardners raised Washoe as one would raise a child. She frequently wore clothes and sat with them at the dinner table. Washoe had her own 8-foot-by-24-foot trailer complete with living and cooking areas. The trailer had a couch, drawers, a refrigerator, and a bed with sheets and blankets. She had access to clothing, combs, toys, books, and a toothbrush. Much like a human child, she underwent a regular routine with chores, outdoor play, and rides in the family car.[10] Upon seeing a swan, Washoe signed "water" and "bird". Harvard psychologistRoger Brown said that "was like getting anS.O.S. from outer space".[11]
When Washoe was five, the Gardners moved on to other chimp projects, and returned her to theUniversity of Oklahoma's Institute of Primate Studies inNorman, Oklahoma, under the care ofRoger Fouts andDeborah Fouts.[12]
Washoe was raised in an environment as close as possible to that of a human child, in an attempt to satisfy her psychological need for companionship.[13][14][15]
While with Washoe, the Gardners and Foutses communicated exclusively in ASL, avoiding vocal communication, on the assumption that this would create a less confusing learning environment for Washoe. This technique was said to resemble that used when teaching human children language.[16]
After the first couple of years of the language project, the Gardners andRoger Fouts discovered that Washoe could pick up ASL gestures without direct instruction; she learned by observing humans around her who were signing amongst themselves. For example, the scientists signed "toothbrush" to each other while they brushed their teeth near her. At the time of observation, Washoe showed no signs of having learned the sign, but later reacted to the sight of a toothbrush by spontaneously producing the correct sign. Moreover, the Gardners began to realize that rewarding particular signs with food and tickles—the approach used inoperant conditioning—interfered with the learning process. Instead, they set up a conversational environment that evoked communication, without the use of rewards for specific actions.[17][18]
Washoe learned approximately 350 signs.[2] For researchers to consider that Washoe had learned a sign, she had to use it spontaneously and appropriately for 14 consecutive days.[19][20]
These signs were then further tested using adouble-blind vocabulary test. This test demonstrated 1) "that the chimpanzee subjects could communicate information under conditions in which the only source of information available to a human observer was the signing of the chimpanzee;" 2) "that independent observers agreed with each other;" and 3) "that the chimpanzees used the signs to refer to natural language categories—that the sign DOG could refer to any dog, FLOWER to any flower, SHOE to any shoe."[21][22]
Washoe and her mates were allegedly able to combine the hundreds of signs that they learned into novel combinations (that they had never been taught, but rather created themselves) with different meanings. For instance, when Washoe's mate Moja did not know the word for "thermos", Moja referred to it as a "METAL CUP DRINK." However, Washoe's combinations were open to interpretation. Herbert S. Terrace contended that seeming sign combinations did not stand for a single item but rather represented three individual signs.[23][24] Taking the thermos example, rather than METAL CUP DRINK being a composite meaning thermos, it could be that Washoe was indicating there was an item of metal (METAL), one shaped like a cup (CUP), and that could be drunk out of (DRINK).
One of Washoe's caretakers was pregnant and missed work for many weeks after she miscarried. Roger Fouts recounts the following situation:
People who should be there for her and aren't are often given the cold shoulder—her way of informing them that she's miffed at them. Washoe greeted Kat [the caretaker] in just this way when she finally returned to work with the chimps. Kat made her apologies to Washoe, then decided to tell her the truth, signing "MY BABY DIED". Washoe stared at her, then looked down. She finally peered into Kat's eyes again and carefully signed "CRY", touching her cheek and drawing her finger down the path a tear would make on a human (Chimpanzees don't shed tears). Kat later remarked that one sign told her more about Washoe and her mental capabilities than all her longer, grammatically perfect sentences.[25]
Washoe herself lost two children. One baby chimpanzee died of aheart defect shortly after birth; the other baby, Sequoyah, died of astaph infection at two months of age.
When Washoe was shown an image of herself in the mirror, and asked what she was seeing, she replied: "Me, Washoe."[26][27] Primate expertJane Goodall, who had studied and lived with chimpanzees for decades, believed that this might indicate some level ofself-awareness.[27][28] Washoe appeared to experience anidentity crisis when she was first introduced to other chimpanzees, seeming shocked to learn that she was not the only chimpanzee. She gradually came to enjoy associating with other chimpanzees.[29]
Washoe enjoyed playing pretend with her dolls, which she would bathe and talk to and would act out imaginary scenarios.[30][31] She also spent time brushing her teeth, painting and takingtea parties.[32]
When new students came to work with Washoe, she would slow down her rate of signing for novice speakers of sign language, which had a humbling effect on many of them.[33]
(In this section double quotes are signed by Washoe, single by someone else.)
Washoe was moved toCentral Washington University in 1980. On October 30, 2007, officials from theChimpanzee and Human Communication Institute on the CWU campus announced that she had died at the age of 42.[6][11]
Some believe that the fact that Washoe not only communicated, but also formed close and personal relationships withhumans indicates that she was emotionally sensitive and deserving ofmoral status.[35]
Work with Washoe and other signingprimates motivated the foundation of theGreat Ape Project, which hopes to "include the non-humangreat apes:chimpanzees,orangutans andgorillas within the community of equals by granting them the basic moral andlegal protections that only humans currently enjoy", in order to place them in the moral category of "persons" rather thanprivate property.[36]
The publication of the Washoe experiments spurred a revival in the scholarly study of sign language, due to widespread interest in questions it raised about the biological roots of language.[37] This included additional experiments which attempted to teach great apes to communicate in a more controlled environment.
In 1979, after Herbert Terrace and Thomas Bever'sNim Chimpsky project failed to demonstrate a chimps' ability to use sentences, Terrace criticized Project Washoe as well. Drawing on public film clips of Washoe, Terrace questioned Washoe's purported ability to create novel expressions and statements. He andThomas Sebeok argued that the apparently impressive results may have amounted to nothing more than a "Clever Hans" effect.[38]
Washoe's advocates responded by pointing out a number of methodological problems with Terrace's Nim study, issues later documented in Elizabeth Hess'sNim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human and the documentaryProject Nim.
