Spontaneous symbol acquisition and communicative use by pygmy chimpanzees (Pan paniscus).

Abstract

Two pygmy chimpanzees (Pan paniscus) have spontaneously begun to use symbols to communicate with people. In contrast to common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) using the same communicative system, the pygmy chimpanzees did not need explicit training in order to form referential symbol-object associations. Instead, they acquired symbols by observing others use these symbols in daily communications with them. In addition, the pygmy chimpanzees have begun to comprehend spoken English words and can readily identify lexigrams upon hearing the spoken words. By contrast, common chimpanzees who received similar exposure to spoken English are unable to do so. The older pygmy chimpanzee has begun to form requests of the form agent-verb-recipient in which he is neither the agent nor the recipient. By contrast, similarly aged common chimpanzees limited their requests to simple verbs, in which the agent was always presumed to be the addressee and the chimpanzee itself was always the recipient, thus they had no need to indicate a specific agent or recipient. These results suggest that these pygmy chimpanzees exhibit symbolic and auditory perceptual skills that are distinctly different from those of common chimpanzees.

Cites (2)

1. Speech Perception by the Chinchilla: Voiced-Voiceless Distinction in Alveolar Plosive Consonants
   Kuhl, Patricia K., Miller, James D. · 1975 · Science
2. Can an Ape Create a Sentence?
   Terrace, H. S., Petitto, L. A., Sanders, R. J., Bever, T. G. · 1979 · Science

Show all 2 references

Cited by (8)

1. Cultural learning
   Tomasello, Michael, Kruger, Ann Cale, Ratner, Hilary Horn · 1993 · Behavioral and Brain Sciences
2. Language, tools and brain: The ontogeny and phylogeny of hierarchically organized sequential behavior
   Greenfield, Patricia M. · 1991 · Behavioral and Brain Sciences
3. A California Sea Lion (Zalophus Californianus) is Capable of Forming Equivalence Relations
   Schusterman, Ronald J., Kastak, David · 1993 · The Psychological Record
4. Comprehension of Novel Communicative Signs by Apes and Human Children
   Michael Tomasello, Josep Call, Andrea Gluckman · 1997 · Child Development
5. Recognizing facial cues: individual discrimination by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)
   Parr, Lisa A., Winslow, James T., Hopkins, William D., de Waal, Frans B. M. · 2000 · Journal of comparative psychology

See all 489