Primates and ASL

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MoniqueMarie

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I am writing a research paper for my ASL class (and I'm also interested to know just for my own personal understanding) about teaching ASL and other forms of sign language to primates. I wanted to know how the deaf community feels about this topic. Is it controversial or do most deaf individuals share similar opinions?

Thanks in advance :cool:
 
Uhh...my opinion is that I think most people keep get primate sign language and ASL mixed up. Both are different even though they share some similar signs.

Primates cannot use most of ASL due to it's thumb where ASL requires easy movement of the thumbs and fingers. This is why you see some of changes in sign language, often a simple form of signs.

And ASL has it own grammar structures and rules which is too advanced for primates.

It's annoy when they said they used ASL for primates even though it's not. It's just a simple sign language, often used with voices to back it up. Human talks and signs to the primates.

But that's my opinion.

But other than that, it's pretty cool that primates can communicate through sign language, just like parrots can mimic human sounds.
 
Thank you!

yeah I did figure out that none of the primates use ASL, but that there were many attempts to teach ASL specifically to primates. The most famous, Koko the gorilla, does use many similar signs to ASL, with some she herself has made up, and some that are just more literal than the complex signs we use in ASL. But it does seem that if someone who knew ASL wanted to communicate with her, it would not be a hard transition
 
No problem.

I learned that primate such as apes have mind of three years old child. So, I don't know...It would seem like a hard thing to do, trying to teach someone with child's mind an ASL.

Even hearing child at that age does not speak like adult do, or even a teenager.

I don't know...I have not studied in that area very much...I just know that sign language used by deaf people and primates are different.
 
Interpretrator said:
Deaf people are primates. So are hearing people, for that matter. ;)
Click to expand...

I wanted to post this so badly, lol! I agree with the original statement's intent, but we (humans) do have a tendency to assume too easily that we're vastly different than non-humans!
 
If you are speaking of the Washoe studies, those studies were inherently flawed. The research wa extremely sloppy, criteria varied from session to session, and the entire experimental design was such that the researchers could not help but see exactly what they wanted to see.

A) Any motion that even approximated a sign was counted as spontaneously communicating with sign.

B) The researchers and research assistants were not native, or even fluent signers themselves.

C) The primates involved never used any form of a sign spontaeously, nor did they attempt to teach the communication they were supposedly being "taught" to other primates or to their young. Only upon prompting, to include an assistant actually molding their hand into an approximation of the sign, did they actuallly produce the sign.

D) Motion that was recorded as being spontaneous communication with sign included those motions that could not readily be recognized as a formalized sign. In addition, they were used out of context, and no relation to the object for which the researcher was requesting the sign.

E) As the primates never used sign language for spontaneous communication, nor did they attempt to teach it to other primates, they did not acquire the language of signs.

Check out the book, The Other Side of Silence for a realistic review of the inadequacies of these types of studies. I also believe that Oliver Sacks book, I See a Voice mentions these research studies, and analyzes the results from a very scientific point of view.
 
I think researchers get excited at the notion that we may discover a way to communicate with animals. Either through Sign language and/or "keyboard" devices with buttons and symbols (known as lexigrams) that animals push to produce artificial language, or observe humans pushing to comprehend it.

Bee dances, whale songs, parrots (mimic humans), and meerkats; all communicate within their own species. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find a way to exchange a few words with them? While I was visiting a pet store a parrot called me "sweetheart". I was so intrigued that a bird could speak words; truly mesmerizing. I was ready to shell out $1000 for this phenomenal creature.

Maybe I’d like to communicate with KoKo. What does he have to say that's so important?
I see Planet of the Apes evolving here. Take cover. :rl:
 
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mouse said:
I think researchers get excited at the notion that we may discover a way to communicate with animals. Either through Sign language and/or "keyboard" devices with buttons and symbols (known as lexigrams) that animals push to produce artificial language, or observe humans pushing to comprehend it.

Bee dances, whale songs, parrots (mimic humans), and meerkats; all communicate within their own species. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find a way to exchange a few words with them? While I was visiting a pet store a parrot called me "sweetheart". I was so intrigued that a bird could speak words; truly mesmerizing. I was ready to shell out $1000 for this phenomenal creature.

Maybe I’d like to communicate with KoKo. What does he have to say that's so important?
I see Planet of the Apes evolving here. Take cover. :rl:
Click to expand...


I agree that it would be cool--like modern day Dr. Dolittle! But, when an animal merely imitates a word or a sign, they have no cognitive concept of what that word or sign mean, and therefore, do not use it spontaneously. So it's not really communication, just imitation.
 
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