Gardner & Gardner- Aims and Context/ Methodology

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What did people believe in the 1960's?
The extent to which humans & animals are dif has been examined by scientists for years. Questions were asked- "Can only humans use language?" Most people believed the crucial diff was lang. Some people believed animals were capable of human lang
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Who was Premack (1966)?
Believed that chimpanzees were capable of acquiring human lang. They taught lang to their chimp, Sarah, by getting her to use coloured shapes to represent words. She acquired 130 signs & could make sentences of up to 8 signs eg.Sarah give apple Mary.
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Who was Noam Chomsky (1957)?
He argued that only humans can use language as they have a unique part of their brain called a 'language acquisition device' (LAD). As animals such as chimps, don't have a LAD, they should never be able to acquire language.
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Waggle Dance
Researchers have looked at the way bees preform a 'waggle dance' to communicate to the hive where pollen is. Some argue that this is evidence of language, but others question this and argue that it is just communication- which is not necessarily the
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What were Gardners' aims?
-To find out if they could teach a chimp to communicate using human lang, specifically ASL. -To teach a chimp ASL cause chimps are good with their hands, therefore should cope well with the mechanics of signing.
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Reliability
:-( Not standardised procedures as was a case study- environment cannot be exactly repeated, different humans will have acted differently :-) Washoe was consistent with her signs (confirmed by 3 observers on 15 consecutive days) No-one spoke- ASL
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Internal Validity
:-( Study was not true as Washoe did not really understand language she was just imitating (Cleaver Hans effect). They changed their aim (from language to communication) so they did not test what they set out to test.
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Sampling
:-( Only 1 chimpanzee was used so no generalisations or comparisons. :-) Other chimpanzees were used but not in this study- tatu, moja.
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Data
:-) Quantitative- 7 months=4 signs, 14 months=13 signs, 21 months=30 signs :-) Qualitative- videos, 'come-gimme' was first signs she learnt, learnt 'more', 'up', 'sweet', 'open' and 'tickle' in that order
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Ethics
:-( Wasn't natural for Washoe to live like a human- psychological and physical harm. Didn't have consent. :-) Treated Washoe like a young child, cared for and encouraged her.
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Card 2

Front

Who was Premack (1966)?

Back

Believed that chimpanzees were capable of acquiring human lang. They taught lang to their chimp, Sarah, by getting her to use coloured shapes to represent words. She acquired 130 signs & could make sentences of up to 8 signs eg.Sarah give apple Mary.

Card 3

Front

Who was Noam Chomsky (1957)?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Waggle Dance

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What were Gardners' aims?

Back

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