The method used was a case study - it involved a single ppt (chimpanzee called washoe). washoe was estim 2 be between 8-14 months old when 1st acquired by the Gardners. from this age she was encouraged to socialise with humans and had littlle contact with other chimps.She had been born in the wild in Africa and then taken to America. a young chimp was chosen because there is a crucial stage in human lang acquisition, so there may be the same cut-off points in chimps. A chimps was chosen b/c they are intelligent, sociable, and closely related to humans with whom they can form strong bonds.Why did the researches choose ASL - chimps physically unable to vocalise some sounds, they have the manual dexterity and motivation to imitate sounds, its a complex and complete lang which is equivalent to a spoken lang, + , ASL would allow them to compare Washoe's progress to that of deaf children. In terms of the trainers, all people who dealt with washoe had to masteer ASL. The gardners made sure that Washoe had lots of companions who were also learning ASL. Teaching strategies - operant cond - training methods used - meant that each time she produced a sign that was recogniseable she was rewarded with being tickled - positive reinforcement. Imitation - demonstrating and encouraging copying. babbling - this was encouraged and the correct ASL sign showed. shhaping of hands - her hands were moulded into the right shapes. Recording the results - to decide whther a sign had been learnt, a double blind procedure was used by the researchers. they put a box with a picture inside where washooe would play and when she opened the box and saw the picture she made a sign - the sign was observed by a researcher and noted. a 2nd researcher, who could not see the box, allso recorded what they thought the sign washoe had presented was. this was then checked and only if the sign corresponded with the picture and was used in context for a period of 15 consecutive days, was it counted as learnt.
Comments
Report