Savage Rumbaugh Summary
Savage-Rumbaugh
Aim
To investigate the capacity of pygmy chimpanzees to learn language compared to common chimps, and without being trained
Participants
The two pygmy chimpanzees, Kanzi and Mulika, were reared in a language rearing-environment, with access to their mother. Kanzi was age 4 and his sister, Mulika, was 3. The two common chimpanzees were also reared in the same environment. However, they were ages 9 and 10, called Austin and Sherman.
Methodology
The data was gathered across a 10 year span and the study reports on a 17 month period. It is a quasi-experiment design, where the naturally comparing IV was the species. The data gathered from the study was qualitative.
Rearing Environments
The differences between the two species of chimpanzees were;
Sherman and Austin were in a training setting whereas Kanzi and Mulika were in an observational setting
Sherman and Austin’s keyboard did not have a speech synthesiser because previous tests revealed that they did not understand spoken English language
Sherman and Austin did not use a keyboard outside the laboratory because common chimpanzees because their hands were too broad to distinguish which symbol was selected
The Communication System
Indoors - All the apes used a visual symbol system lexigram consisting of geometric symbols that brighten when touched, which was equivalent to uttering a word. Kanzi’s keyboard was the only one to be connected to a speech synthesiser.
Outdoors - Kanzia and Mulika used a pointing board, a thin laminated panel containing photographs of all the lexigram. Austin and Sherman did not use this because their hands were too broad to distinguish the symbol they selected.
Data Recording
The utterances from the lexigrams were recorded for 17 months. There were 5 classifications;
Correct
Incorrect
Spontaneous (without prompt)
Imitated (containing any part of a companion’s prior utterance)
Structured (by a question, request or being shown an object)
Vocabulary Acquisition
Aim
To investigate the capacity of pygmy chimpanzees to learn language compared to common chimps, and without being trained
Participants
The two pygmy chimpanzees, Kanzi and Mulika, were reared in a language rearing-environment, with access to their mother. Kanzi was age 4 and his sister, Mulika, was 3. The two common chimpanzees were also reared in the same environment. However, they were ages 9 and 10, called Austin and Sherman.
Methodology
The data was gathered across a 10 year span and the study reports on a 17 month period. It is a quasi-experiment design, where the naturally comparing IV was the species. The data gathered from the study was qualitative.
Rearing Environments
The differences between the two species of chimpanzees were;
Sherman and Austin were in a training setting whereas Kanzi and Mulika were in an observational setting
Sherman and Austin’s keyboard did not have a speech synthesiser because previous tests revealed that they did not understand spoken English language
Sherman and Austin did not use a keyboard outside the laboratory because common chimpanzees because their hands were too broad to distinguish which symbol was selected
The Communication System
Indoors - All the apes used a visual symbol system lexigram consisting of geometric symbols that brighten when touched, which was equivalent to uttering a word. Kanzi’s keyboard was the only one to be connected to a speech synthesiser.
Outdoors - Kanzia and Mulika used a pointing board, a thin laminated panel containing photographs of all the lexigram. Austin and Sherman did not use this because their hands were too broad to distinguish the symbol they selected.
Data Recording
The utterances from the lexigrams were recorded for 17 months. There were 5 classifications;
Correct
Incorrect
Spontaneous (without prompt)
Imitated (containing any part of a companion’s prior utterance)
Structured (by a question, request or being shown an object)
Vocabulary Acquisition