How anthropoids were taught language

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

This controversy has long been outdated, for over the past thirty years, work on the teaching of primates language has advanced far ahead. In the experimental group of bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees), the third generation is growing up, using the language - and not one, but three! Language is no longer a prerogative of man, since it was possible to realize it in other species, and more than once. So the time has come to assess the phenomenon of language objectively. The February meeting of the Moscow Ethological Seminar was devoted to this problem. Its center was a speech by the famous anthropologist, Doctor of Biological Sciences Marina Lvovna Butovskaya and a film about "talking" bonobos. We hurried there and, as it turned out, not in vain. And now we want to share our impressions.

In the beginning there was a word - "more!"

Unfortunately, the conversation about the linguistic possibilities of animals always revolves around an invisible axis, the name of which is anthropocentrism. The audience prefers to discuss not what is the nature of the mechanisms for transmitting information, but whether the language has remained the property of man, or where is the line between us and animals. But these "riddles" have long lost their relevance - it is impossible to extract any interest or benefit from them. As the twentieth century lasted, with its cult of positive science, immense knowledge accumulated - both about animals and about the mechanisms of behavior, and about how to avoid bias. Man had to be extremely reluctant, but to share with the higher animals his monopoly on reason. Recognize that in the emotional sphere he is far from the beasts, since his feelings are suppressed by conscious control. With a reluctance of heart, I agree that many "fibers of the soul" are the result of adaptive evolution. The only thing he didn’t want to part with was speech.

The intransigence of a person "on the question of speech" is ridiculous and … correct. Indeed, living speech is the property of the only species on Earth. We, the eloquent ones, are surrounded by wordless creatures. Everything is true, but with two caveats. First, speech is by no means the only form of manifestation of language (and even more so of reason). Secondly, the "wordlessness" of animals does not prove their fundamental inability to master the language. The fact that anthropoids are able to think and are able to master a language was established at the beginning of the 20th century by N. N. Ladygina-Kots and Wolfgang Kehler. However, it was not clear what this language would be. How to communicate with them? In English? Or invent something new?

A real surge of interest in the possibilities of anthropoids occurred in the 1960s. In those years, a wave of experiments with the expansion of consciousness swept through. The foundations of music, literature, ethics, and even science were shaken. Down with generally accepted canons! What a time it was … "The continent of skyscrapers" was filled with "children of flowers", wandering philosophers were looking for new meanings in the intoxicated world. The transcendental shaking of the fundamental principles of language was undoubtedly an absolutely hippie exercise. But scientists, even with patches and in tattered jeans, continued to be scientists. And they were willing to undo their skepticism about the "language of animals" only when there was strong evidence.

Professor Washoe and others

In 1966, Allen Gardner and his wife Beatrice (a student of N. Tinbergen) decided to bypass the "dumbness" of chimpanzees by teaching them a real sign language - Amslen. And the famous chimpanzee Washoe appeared to the world. Her first word was the sign "more!", With which Washoe asked to be tickled, hugged or treated, or - introduced to new words. Washoe's story is described in detail in Eugene Linden's book "Monkeys, Language and Man" (created in 1974 and published in our country in 1981). Washoe studied and taught: her cub mastered 50 signs in five years, observing no longer people, but only other monkeys. And several times we noticed how Washoe correctly "puts his hand" - corrects the gesture-symbol.

In parallel, under the direction of David Primack, Sarah's chimpanzee was taught the "language of tokens". This way of communication allowed for a better understanding of aspects of the syntax. Sarah, without any compulsion, mastered 120 symbols on plastic tokens, and with their help she explained herself, and she laid the tokens not from left to right, but from top to bottom - it seemed more convenient to her. She reasoned, assessed the similarities, picked up a logical pair.

Not only chimpanzees, but also orangutans (taught to Amslen by H. Miles) and gorillas took part in the works (it is difficult to call communication with such advanced creatures "experiments"). Their abilities were no less. Gorilla Coco has become a real celebrity. She came to the psychologist Frances Patterson as a one-year-old baby back in 1972. Since then, they have not lived as a researcher and object, but as one family. Coco studied at the keyboard, with which you can display characters on the screen. Now she is a gigantic and wise "professor" who knows 500 characters (sporadically uses up to a thousand) and makes a sentence of five to seven words. Coco perceives two thousand English words (active vocabulary of a modern person), and many of them not only by ear, but also in printed form (!).

She meets with another "educated" gorilla - the male Michael (who joined Koko a few years after the start of work and uses up to four hundred characters). Koko knows how to joke and adequately describe her own feelings (for example, sadness or discontent). Her most famous joke is how she coquettishly called herself "a good bird", claiming that she could fly, but then admitted that it was a make-believe. Coco also had strong expressions: "toilet" and "devil" (the latter for her, as well as for us, is a perfect abstraction). In 1986, Patterson reported that her favorite, solving IQ tests, showed a level that is normal for an adult.

Today, Coco is dedicated to a separate website on the Internet, where you can get acquainted with her painting and drop a letter to her. Yes, Coco draws. And you can learn from her that, for example, the red and blue drawing that resembles a bird is her tame jay, and the green stripe with yellow teeth is a toy dragon. The drawings are similar in level to the works of a three to four year old child. Coco understands the past and the future perfectly. When she lost her beloved kitten, she said that he had gone where they were not returning. All this is amazing, but we were amazed by the very fact: she has pets! Moreover, the attention to them is so strong that they become a topic, one might say, of self-expression in art and philosophy. It seems that in Coco we see the beginnings of that mysterious feeling that made humans patronize animals. This is a very serious force - it literally sculpted the anthroposphere (for what would we do without tamed species). And it is very difficult to explain this power. (In any case, here one cannot get rid of the maternal instinct, since man is an infantile creature.)

Speak Bonob?

The work continues in a new direction. Scientists at the Yerksonian Regional Primate Research Center Susan and Dewane Rumbo decided to train the bonobos. This is a good choice. Bonobos are the closest primates to humans, and have recently been increasingly compared to early hominids. The branches of chimpanzees and hominids are believed to have split over 5.5 million years ago. But chimpanzees not only "separated", but went their own path of evolution - no less winding than the path of human ancestors. And many "monkey traits" are the result of specialization that the ancient anthropoids did not yet possess. As far as bonobos are concerned, they are probably less advanced on the path of becoming ape than chimpanzees. Bonobos have smaller canines and jaws, are more outgoing (and incredibly sexy) and less aggressive. And even outwardly, they give the impression of the greatest humanity, especially the cubs. But, like chimpanzees, bonobos are incapable of verbal speech. The Rumbo spouses solved this problem as follows: they made a keyboard of about five hundred buttons, on which they applied all kinds of symbols. If you press a key, the mechanical voice plays the English word - the meaning of the symbol. The result is a whole language called yerkish (after the research center). The complexity of the yerkish is impressive - a kind of large chessboard, dotted with cunning signs, which reminded … the control panel of the "flying saucer" in the movie "Hangar-18". Moreover, the symbols are completely different from the designated objects.

Initially, the experiments were carried out with an adult female Matata. But she and the yerkish were at odds. And here the unexpected happened. During the lessons, her adopted son, baby Kenzi, was constantly turning around. And then one day, when Matata could not answer the question, Kenzi, indulging himself, began to jump up to the stand and answer for her. Although no one taught him or forced him to do this. At the same time, he tumbled, ate stewed fruit, climbed to kiss and poked at the keys in the most careless way, but the answer was correct! Then they discovered that he also spontaneously learned to understand English.

With the help of the yerkish, bonobos communicate with people and with each other. It looks like this: one presses a combination of keys with his fingers, the machine speaks the words, the other observes and listens, and then gives his answer. In fact, the difficulty is threefold: you need to understand all these symbols, remember which sign is under your finger, and understand the "pidgin-English" issued by the machine - after all, these phrases are far from continuous live speech, which bonobos understand well. In addition to "yerkish courses", bonobos had the opportunity to passively learn amslen by observing people who voiced their gestures during the dialogue.

Today Kenzi speaks four hundred Amslen characters and understands two thousand English words. Even more capable than Kenzi was Matata's daughter, who was named Bonbonisha. She knows three thousand English words, amslen and all the lexicograms of the yerkish. Moreover, she teaches her one-year-old son and translates for her elderly mother, who is not used to yerkish and does not want to press buttons (how all this resembles the naturalization of a family that moved to the States!).

Sideshow: documentary evidence

As Kenzi - Kenzi

As a continuation of the seminar, a film was shown, which we watched with wide eyes - and there was something to be amazed at. Bonobo Kenzi is on the screen. He is very handsome. Straightening up, he walks completely freely - much more confident than a chimpanzee. The figure is strong, there is very little body hair. The arms are incredibly muscular, not much longer than human arms. Here is Kenzi going on a picnic (he loves it). Gently breaks fire branches. Adds them up. Looking for fire. "Get it in the back pocket of my trousers!" He takes out and lights a fire (our son, by the way, still does not know how to use such a lighter). "Your task is to spread the bread." Lays out anyhow. Eats a kebab. Blowing hot. "Now light up the fire." Knowing how it is customary for our boys to light a fire, we doubted whether the next shot would be politically correct. But Kenzi is American. He gently pours water from a special canister into the fire. By the way, in the movie, bonobos jump naked. The butt sticks out. This is probably not good from the point of view of militant state puritanism. Yes, and Washo was filmed in a dress - although she was at the most innocent age. And here - complete naturalism.

New footage: Kenzi gets behind the wheel of an electric car, presses the pedal and dashingly drives off into the bushes. Next: Kenzi opens his "remote" and casually shows something in this unthinkable maze (while chewing and distracted). And it shows this: "Ride me on the backs". They roll him. Another time: "Let's run a race." With him, respectively, they run a race.

There is a pretty cute dog in the frame (for which bonobos have an innate dislike). Kenzi walks up to her, and she immediately falls to the side. He pinches her, and the dog runs off resentfully. Kenzi scolds: "Bad!" Depression, he pokes at the keys: "No, good!".

Upon returning to the house, Kenzi dons a King Kong mask and becomes a "monster" (although not much has changed). Younger bonobos sluggishly run away from him. "Roar, roar!" Kenzi growls. And here is the scene in the kitchen: lunch is being prepared, Kenzi is helping. “Pour water into a saucepan. Add more. Close the tap. Have you washed the potatoes? We need to wash it. " Kenzi quite deftly and obediently does whatever is asked. The soup is stirring.

In their intelligence and practical abilities, the bonobos from this film seem to be comparable to an eight-year-old child. Incidentally, in Africa, colonists sometimes kept chimpanzees in their homes as servants. They believed that it was no worse than taking a stupid girl from the locals.

The next scene resembles a movie about astronauts. Kenzi works in the laboratory. Sits in headphones with a dignified air - a cross between an astronaut and a hairy Chu-bakka from "Star Wars". He is given all sorts of very difficult tasks. It is important that he does not see the experimenter and cannot receive a hint. Initially, to avoid prompting with facial expressions, Susan Rumbo put on … a welder's mask. And it began:

- Put the key in the freezer.

- Give your toy dog a shot.

- Bring the ball from outside the door.

- First, treat the toy, and then eat it yourself.

- Take off my boot. Yes, not together with the leg - unlace!

- Spread the toothpaste on the hamburger.

Perhaps Kenzi's work is odd at times. There was something unhappy about the way he uncomplainingly carried out these tasks. But Kenzi loves those around him and forgives them eccentricity.

Kenzi gets in touch on the phone. Hearing a voice, he runs around the room and looks for where the speaker is hiding. He knocks on the phone (clean Hottabych!) And turns his head. Finally, I believed that the pipe was something like headphones. Listens: "What should I bring you?" - and presses the keys: "Surprise", and also orders a ball and juice.

And, probably, the most amazing shot: a bonobo twirls the joystick of a slot machine, where a "tadpole" is running through the maze on the screen. He was taught to play the electronic game only with words - without any "do as I do". Plays great - better reaction than ten-year-olds.

I rate "raisins"

After the film, a discussion flared up. It is always interesting to watch how a speaker (who has just gone to great lengths to cover a problem) is forced to take the rap for a whole area of science (if not for the whole). In this case, M. L. In the eyes of the audience, Butovskaya embodied the families of Gardner, Rumbo, Primakov, ethology and linguistics taken together. "This is training and tricks, but a person learns the language freely!" - this was the first exclamation. To which it was reasonably noted: "Try to learn Chinese - can you do without training?"

We were all biased. In general, bias is not an easy thing. The philosopher Michael Polani has proven how important it is in science. After all, the work with "talking primates" was originally started as proof by contradiction: to confirm that monkeys are only capable of tricks and will not be able to master the human language, no matter how much you fight with them. Even the Gardners preferred to see Washoe's behavior as an imitation of human action rather than an intellectual choice. Their experiments were flawed. But these were only the first steps.

At first, the Gardners were very cautious and preferred not to notice any of Washoe's successes, rather than attribute too much to her. But the successes were evident. The public outraged this. A wave of criticism arose. The main objective argument "against" was the presence of training. Indeed, Washoe was forced to pay attention and repeat the gesture, folded her fingers "right," and for the correct answer she received raisins.

Then a number of alternative studies were organized to prove that monkeys will not learn a language if they are not forced to do so. This is how Roger Foots (who continues to work with Washoe), F. Patterson and the Rumbo couple acted. And everywhere the monkeys have made amazing progress. And the most convincing was the experiment of the linguists of the Noam Chomsky school (known for the theory of "deep structures" of syntax common to all languages). Chomsky used all his considerable authority to prove the failure of the monkey training program. His colleague G. Terrey himself began to work with the chimpanzen, being sure that he would not "speak" if he did not impose any form of training on him. The cub was named accordingly - Nim Chimpsky (which was similar to the English sound of Chomsky's name). But Nim showed a rare perseverance and curiosity, asking Terrey: "What is this?" As a result, he himself learned to express emotions with the help of signs, to report objects out of sight and not related to survival - all these are signs of language. Terrey was forced to admit that the experiment refuted his own beliefs. In a duel between two natural-born linguists, Nim Chimsky pressed Nom Chomsky, and the latter was forced to change his concept, recognizing the linguistic possibilities of anthropoids.

The Rumbo couple pursued a similar goal: to exclude reinforcements and not to impose training. Bonobos themselves mastered new words, demandingly asking the question: "What is this?" However, the film showed that this is not entirely true: persistent praises were constantly heard in the headphones (and this affects pets no worse than a delicacy). But we also praise our children while we teach, while we correct their speech. This is our main "carrot". There is also a "whip": children are condemned and ridiculed if they do not speak like everyone else. And teaching children with speech impairments, deaf-dumb or autistic people includes long-term exercise (or training, if you like). By the way, while studying with the monkeys, Foots made sure that the "raisin lovers" learned words faster, but on the exam (when they were not given raisins) they answered worse.

Talk about talk

The next exclamation from the audience was that the communication of monkeys did not reach the title of the Language, great and mighty. And primatologists themselves were once sure of this. So they set out to test whether the “talking monkeys” would achieve the seven key properties of language outlined by linguist Charles Hockett. And everything was confirmed. We will not prove this now by rewriting Hockett. In the 1990s, it became obvious that anthropoids independently mastered the language, communicate in it using the beginnings of grammar and syntax, expand it (by inventing new words), teach each other and their offspring. In fact, they have their own information culture.

The monkeys passed the exam with dignity. They invented new symbols through a combination (walnut - "stone-berry", watermelon - "candy-drink", swan - "water-bird") and imitation (depicting a piece of clothing). They resorted to metaphors (intractable minister - "nut" or "dirty Jack"). The transfer of meaning was first demonstrated by Washoe, when she began to apply the "open" sign not only to the door, but also to the bottle. Finally, Kenzi, placing the order over the phone, leaves no doubt about the ability to deep abstraction. Foots and his colleagues even contrived to teach a chimpanzee named Ellie the Amslen gestures, presenting not objects, but … English words. And when Ellie saw, for example, a spoon, he remembered the word spoon and showed the gesture learned only on the basis of this word. This ability is called cross-modal transfer and is considered key to language acquisition.

From the beginning, abstraction was most evident when it came to danger. One of the first signs learned by monkeys is "dog". Bonobos designate them both Chihuahua and St. Bernard, and also associate it with footprints and barking. Once, while walking, Bonbonicha became agitated, showing: "Dog tracks!" - "No, it's a squirrel." - "No, a dog!" "There are no dogs here." - "Not. I know there are many of them here. There are many dogs in sector "A". Other monkeys told me. " These are already the beginnings of real myth-making.

Was afraid of dogs and Washoe. So much so that for the first time she used "no" (she was not given denials for a long time), when she did not want to go out into the street, where, as she was told, "there is an angry dog." Washoe also naively gestured “dog, go away” when she chased her car. By the way, becoming an adult, Washoe took revenge. She became very important, stopped obeying, and in order to keep her in check, they acquired a "scarecrow" - a fierce dog, which was tied to a tree. Unexpectedly, while walking, Washoe decisively went to the barking mastiff (immediately between his tail) and gave him a good spank (perhaps dumbfounded with her own courage). Why, at that time she felt like a big shot, pushing a whole staff of monkeys and researchers …

By the way, we were surprised that in the monkey dictionary one of the first places is “please”. But this magic word is an abstraction that a child has to instill this way and that. Where does it come from in monkeys, and even so deep in the blood? And if you look closely, many animals are able to express a request. Even our guinea pig successfully begs for food (sometimes it seems that this is the only "word" that she knows). That is, human "polite request" goes back to begging signals that are as old as the world.

Anthropoids are able to empathize and deceive (solving the problem of the level "I know that he knows that I know"). They recognize themselves in the mirror (which sometimes children up to three years old do not know how to do) and preen or pick their teeth, directing their movements "by eye". They are by no means "objects", but individuals - each has their own speed of language acquisition, their own preferences for words (gourmets started with food, cowards - with dangers), their own jokes.

Mom, why are they threatening ?

During the discussion, we were not left with the feeling that everyone sitting in the hall was split into a Specialist and a Person. The specialist realizes how important and interesting the results of the experiment are, and the Person is deeply offended and struggles to maintain the barrier, to isolate himself from the “smaller brothers”. Speaking about the abilities of chimpanzees, many could not hide that they were humiliated and insulted. That they want to return the status quo. And in Linden's book, no, no, yes, and even skips: "Washaw's achievements do not threaten humans", "the citadel of human nature" and even "by teaching the chimpanzee colony to Amslen, we transfer our most precious tool to animals, already perfectly prepared by nature for existence in this world and without the help of people. And we do not know yet how they will use this tool. " What's happened? Is the threat great? Nobody flinches at the fact that billions of talkers threaten each other and agree on the most dangerous things. But as soon as several monkeys, almost exterminated in the wild, learn to communicate, reaching the level of small children - and a chill flowed down your spine?

Is it really possible to take something away from a person? He himself will take from whoever you want. Why are there such fearful moods? Perhaps, in the face of monkeys, we are afraid of our pathologies, deviations from the norm. This is an archaic feeling. After all, we are moving away from psychopaths, downs, epileptics, autists, as well as AIDS patients. Even though it's unethical.

And fear and a strip of alienation are dictated by evolution: man has always actively exterminated his closest neighbors - "strangers" and considered their appearance repulsive. The Australopithecines, all kinds of Homo disappeared, including modern ones, referred to as "wild tribes". By the way, each of the "talking anthropoids" identified himself with people, and the other monkeys were classified as animals. Even Washoe called her neighbors "black creatures" and considered herself human. Washaw seems to be providing a clue to anthropocentrism: it is nothing more than an exacerbation of the selfishness that underlies the survival of any species.

In general, in the audience in front of the anthropologist there are always those who want to demonstrate offended spirituality. Usually, such disputants are looking not for the truth, but for a reason for self-affirmation. But there is nothing to argue about: in reality, "talking monkeys" do not exist - hence the quotation marks. Exactly so: the monkeys spoke only after learning the language of man. In natural populations, anthropoids do not have a real language (and they do not need it). And if we return our bonobos to nature, their skill will most likely fade away after a few generations. It is now known that wild chimpanzees inherit the tradition of using tools. But not sign language. But in humans, language is an indispensable element of a species culture.

Of course, they are not us. But the qualitative line between man and anthropoids is not so much in the "computer" of the brain (as Chomsky believed), but in the program. The language is the development of millions of talented "programmers" that Homo sapiens gave birth to. And here a much more interesting question arises: what made people create, pass on to posterity and improve languages? This is not an idle question, since the absence of a language does not prevent any living creature from surviving. It did not interfere with both anthropoids and early hominids. Why did such a need arise in man? Why in different places of the planet independently began a rigorous selection to complicate the brain, allowing you to speak incessantly? But this is a topic for a separate article.

And personally, we were very pleased with the successes of the bonobos. And there was nothing frightening or outrageous about them. Although who knows, who knows - for some reason, after the seminar, we urgently acquired an intensive English course, put on headphones and began to mutter something under our breath. Day and night. No indulgence. All the same, with training - it will be more reliable.:)

"Knowledge is power"