PSYCH 3F03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 35: American Sign Language, Intentionality, 18 Months
23 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
Chimpanzees combine signs in a novel fashion to create their own, they are not treating language as if it has strict rules. Robert yorkie in 1927 first suggested to use sign language to communicate and said chimpanzees could be taught gestural language. Keith and cathy hayes taught a chimpanzee (cid:494)mom(cid:495) (cid:494)pop(cid:495) (cid:494)cup(cid:495) and (cid:494)up(cid:495) Allen and beatrix gardner could understand this chimpanzee better with the sound off - and so - taught chimpanzees american sign language. Penny paterson (stanford) teaches koko sign language, hand gestures used to convey words. She can produce 300 words, but can understand probably 300-500 more. Koko would sign spontaneously (two at once) which is not easy for humans to do without consciously thinking of it. She has invented compound names for objects, i. e. someone gave her a stale cookie and she named it (cid:494)cookie rock(cid:495) She uses signs to lie, i. e. questioned about stealing a stick, she said (cid:494)smoking(cid:495)
