Language Acquisition in Apes

Paper Summary:

The paper looks at a few studies conducted on apes and their ability to acquire language. The writer addresses the hypothesis that if researchers can learn how apes acquire language skills and how they process input from humans, it should be possible to communicate with them in a meaningful way. The paper presents a method of study, introducing the hypothesis and the test for reaching a conclusion.

From the Paper:

"The design of the study would involve a comparison of the methods by which children and apes acquire language skills. The apes and humans tested would have to be raised from birth by the same caregivers and given the same exposure to language, either acquired by listening to it or acquired in specific teaching sessions. Learning of words and their association with objects would be studied first, then sentence recognition would be studied. Controls would be used to ensure that words and sentences were really recognized, and not just remembered by rote or by cues given unknowingly by the caregiver. These would involve presenting words or sentences in different orders, and varying the order of words in sentences."

More papers on Language Acquisition in Apes:

• Research Paper # 17087 : "Non-Verbal Language Acquisition"
• Research Paper # 96001 : "Language Learning in Other Species"
• Research Paper # 96512 : "Do Apes Speak?"

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