Can an Ape Create a Sentence?

Terrace, H. S.; Petitto, Laura‐Ann; Sanders, Richard J.; Bever, Thomas G.

doi:10.1126/science.504995

Cited by 589 publications

(231 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Why is it that we can talk and they cannot? Culture must play some role, but chimpanzees that are raised in human environments do not acquire human linguistic competence, even with intensive tuition [3,4]. By contrast, groups of deaf children with restricted linguistic input can spontaneously create signing systems that have many hallmarks of natural spoken language, with structure at both word and sentence levels [5][6][7].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

FOXP2 in focus: what can genes tell us about speech and language?

Marcus

Fisher

2003

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

171

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The human capacity for acquiring speech and language must derive, at least in part, from the genome. In 2001, a study described the first case of a gene, FOXP2, which is thought to be implicated in our ability to acquire spoken language. In the present article, we discuss how this gene was discovered, what it might do, how it relates to other genes, and what it could tell us about the nature of speech and language development. We explain how FOXP2 could, without being specific to the brain or to our own species, still provide an invaluable entry-point into understanding the genetic cascades and neural pathways that contribute to our capacity for speech and language.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

FOXP2 in focus: what can genes tell us about speech and language?

Marcus

Fisher

2003

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

171

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“…Nevertheless, when Kanzi did use combinations, all of the symbols that he used typically added new elements of information to the situation. Thus, instead of forming combinations such as "play me Nim play" (Terrace, Petitto, Sanders, & Bever, 1979), Kanzi produced combinations like "ice water go" (with "go" conveyed by gesture) to ask someone to get ice water for him. himself as the agent or beneficiary of actions.…”

Section: Combinationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spontaneous symbol acquisition and communicative use by pygmy chimpanzees (Pan paniscus).

Savage‐Rumbaugh¹,

McDonald²,

Sevcik³

et al. 1986

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

404

198

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Two pygmy champanzees (Pan paniscus) have spontaneously begun to use symbols to communicate with people. In contrast to common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) using the same communicative system, the pygmy chimpanzees did not need explicit training in order to form referential symbolobject associations. Instead, they acquired symbols by observing others use these symbols in daily communications with them. In addition, the pygmy chimpanzees have begun to comprehend spoken English words and can readily identify lexigrams upon hearing the spoken words. By contrast, common chimpanzees who received similar exposure to spoken English are unable to do so. The older pygmy chimpanzee has begun to form requests of the form agent-verb-recipient in which he is neither the agent nor the recipient. By contrast, similarly aged common chimpanzees limited their requests to simple verbs, in wihch the agent was always presumed to be the addressee and the chimpanzee itself was always the recipient, thus they had no need to indicate a specific agent or recipient. These results suggest that these pygmy chimpanzees exhibit symbolic and auditory perceptual skills that are distinctly different from those of common chimpanzees.What's in a Name?The language acquisition capacity of apes has been the focus

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“…Rene Descartes used to deny the existence of consciousness for lower animals, mainly because the animals could not proclaim their consciousness by declaring, "Cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am)". The outlook has changed considerably since Koko, the gorilla, managed to learn American Sign Language, and a chimpanzee named Nim Chimpsky managed to do something similar [150,151]. Although linguists were reluctant to grant them the ability to master natural languages, few people now dared insist that they had no consciousness and that they could not think.…”

Section: Summarizing Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deciphering the Enigma of Human Creativity: Can a Digital Computer Think?

Hong¹

2013

J Comput Sci Syst Biol

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The objective of the present article is a) to explain humans' high creativity in non-mystic and unambiguous terms, b) to evaluate the performance of problem-solving computer programs and c) to make suggestions about future designs of heuristics. Unlike many previous attempts in the past century, we sought inspiration from two sources that had been neglected or excluded from considerations by experts: artificial intelligence and introspections of a number of highly creative individuals, who confessed that they had a penchant for visual thinking. Simonton's chance-configuration model was refurbished accordingly. It is now possible for the refurbished model to explain a number of outstanding puzzles that had eluded our predecessors: a) what intuition is, b) why creators had no idea about their source of inspiration even after the fact, c) a peculiar event happening at the discovery time, known as the "aha" phenomenon, d) a type of accidental discoveries known as serendipity. Moreover, the elusive concept of abduction advanced by philosopher Charles Peirce is actually visual thinking in disguise. Blessed with this new understanding, we could evaluate the performance of a number of problem-solving computer programs from a cognitive point of view. It turned out that the common thread that links human creativity and computerbased creative problem solving is heuristic searching. Recognizing that a digital computer must perform heuristic searching in a digital environment, which is not the most user-friendly environment to do so, we made suggestions about how to circumvent the restrictions without sacrificing the principles in future designs of heuristics.

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Can an Ape Create a Sentence?

Cited by 589 publications

References 30 publications

FOXP2 in focus: what can genes tell us about speech and language?

FOXP2 in focus: what can genes tell us about speech and language?

Spontaneous symbol acquisition and communicative use by pygmy chimpanzees (Pan paniscus).

Deciphering the Enigma of Human Creativity: Can a Digital Computer Think?

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