• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Primates that understand English?

Miss Anthrope

Illuminator
M
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
3,575
Just found this article on primates understanding spoken English.

You can talk to the apes, and they know what you are saying.

The residents of the Great Ape Trust are part of groundbreaking language research where the apes are being taught to communicate with humans by pressing 350 lexigrams -- symbols that appear on a screen and represent thoughts and objects.



The superstar is 26-year-old Kanzi, whom Bill Fields has been working with for years. To communicate, Fields speaks to Kanzi, who then points to the lexigrams to respond and demonstrate a level of understanding.
"Qualitatively, there is no difference between Kanzi's language and my language," Fields said. "It's a matter of degree."
Click to expand...
 
The "matter of degree" is the issue. My dog understood enough English to go fetch people in other rooms by name, knew the difference between being ordered to the front door and back door, and knew a bunch of other verbal commands. That didn't make her Chaucer.
 
Did you read all three pages of the article?

No one is claiming they are Chaucer. But they can understand and press the corresponding button, and they can also take control of the conversation, as noted in the article when they ask for candy or let them know their head or stomach hurts. They can express fear. It's a cool development. How cool remains to be seen, given it's an article rather than a published study, but quite interesting.

I'm still skeptical/uncertain of what it truly means, but it certainly merits research.
 
If you can't summon up grammar, forget about it. Making associations is a widespread talent. And taking control of a conversation has nothing to do with language. Not amongst primates.

Except when HomSap engages with its fellows, of course, and even then less than is commonly assumed, IMO. In this case you have mixed primates, some of whom know - and care to know - that they could tear your arm off and beat you to death with it, and others who entertain no such notions and assume you don't. Absent any evidence that the arm-ripping thing would increase the flow of treats, stick with the easy stuff. Bish, bosh, banana. And a sense of superiority.
 
Define grammar. Kanzi assembles lexigrams appropriately to resemble English conversation.
 
andyandy said:
ook
Click to expand...

My fellow primates ... :cool:

I'm with you, joined the big club, we are at heart bracchiationising (?ook) primates up against, firstly, cats and secondly animals that don't appreciate beer.

The secrets of which will be freely provided to HomPongo, in recognition of the redhead swingers that have left such an imprint on our shared male primate inheritance.
 
Jeff Corey said:
Define grammar. Kanzi assembles lexigrams appropriately to resemble English conversation.
Click to expand...
How's their Future Imperative coming on?

"Appropriate" to "resembling" something to people that were looking and hoping for it? And English in particular? I'd have thought that Chinese ideograms would cut out a middleman.
 
Miss Anthrope said:
Did you read all three pages of the article?

No one is claiming they are Chaucer. But they can understand and press the corresponding button, and they can also take control of the conversation, as noted in the article when they ask for candy or let them know their head or stomach hurts. They can express fear. It's a cool development. How cool remains to be seen, given it's an article rather than a published study, but quite interesting.

I'm still skeptical/uncertain of what it truly means, but it certainly merits research.
Click to expand...
I didn't say that was he claim, but language studies of non-human speakers are a pain because the animal typically signals one of two words, or lexigraphs, or whatever it's been trained to use, and the people involved use a fairly liberal amount of interpretation.
 
I look forward to the Great Ape Trust collaborating with current cognitive psychologists so that the appropriate changes to the literature can be made.
 
they ask for candy or let them know their head or stomach hurts.
Click to expand...

I bet they ask for candy! What animal couldn't be trained to depress the appropriate 'buttons' to summon up candy on demand. Who's to say 'letting the trainer know their head or stomach hurts' isn't another way the grape apes are saying:

"Give me some more candy, fool!"
 
Both Kanzi and Pansheba are Bonobos and they do understand speech--even without facial cues or body cues--very well. There was a great documentary on them recently called "Chimps are People Too"--they have a website with clips, I think. It was very impressive--Pansheba made Ramen noodles and followed directions, including flicking a burning piece of plastic off the stove. Kanzi, lights matches and puts meat on the barbecue (in another video). Sue (his trainer) wore a welders mask and leads him through some bizarre and detailed instructions which he follows--without receiving any facial or body clues (.e.g. "give the stuffed dog a shot"; "put the key in the fridge".) The whole documentary is very impressive. And both chimpanzees and bonobos show gestures very similar to humans--(e.g. putting hand out with open palm when begging)

The bonobos bark...almost as if they are trying to talk,--apes lack the vocal apparatus to talk like we do, but there's no reason they can't hear and understand language.
 
Last edited:
articulett said:
Both Kanzi and Pansheba are Bonobos and they do understand speech--even without facial cues or body cues--very well. There was a great documentary on them recently called "Chimps are People Too"--they have a website with clips, I think. It was very impressive--Pansheba made Ramen noodles and followed directions, including flicking a burning piece of plastic off the stove. Kanzi, lights matches and puts meat on the barbecue (in another video). Sue (his trainer) wore a welders mask and leads him through some bizarre and detailed instructions which he follows--without receiving any facial or body clues (.e.g. "give the stuffed dog a shot"; "put the key in the fridge".) The whole documentary is very impressive. And both chimpanzees and bonobos show gestures very similar to humans--(e.g. putting hand out with open palm when begging)

The bonobos bark...almost as if they are trying to talk,--apes lack the vocal apparatus to talk like we do, but there's no reason they can't hear and understand language.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. At their site I found a video of the welder mask where Kanzi follows the instructions, pretty cool stuff. This video is under "novel sentences" here.

ETA: One thing made me pause. In that video, when she asks for the Perrier water, it seems that Kanzi reaches for the jam before the instruction to pour into the jam is given. Could be audio drift for internet video, but it could be a sign of rote rather than true comprehension, no?
 
Last edited:
Both Kanzi and Pansheba are Bonobos and they do understand speech--even without facial cues or body cues--very well. QUOTE]

They can do almost anything with CGI these days!:)
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom