virus: ape talk
Eva-Lise Carlstrom (eva-lise@efn.org)
Wed, 8 Jul 1998 08:35:54 -0700 (PDT)
Some time ago, somebody posted here that some researchers had tried
applying the same intensive techniques that have been used to teach apes
sign language to teaching humans with Down syndrome, and managed to
offset their apparent handicap. The poster of that claim did not remember
a source for it. Serendipitously, I have just discovered the probable
source in an editorial in the current (Jul/Aug 98) _Analog_ magazine. In
his article "King of the Hill (No Matter What)", Stanley Schmidt discusses
attitudes toward the possibility of non-human intelligence (animal or
computer). In a section on the language ability of apes, he says that Sue
Savage-Rumbaugh, a researcher who worked with bonobos (pygmy chimps),
later tried applying the same techniques to retarded humans and got the
same impressive results. According to Schmidt, this is detailed in
chapter seven of Savage-Rumbaugh and Roger Lewin's book _Kanji: The Ape at
the Brink of the Human Mind_, which he recommends all of and particularly
the first chapter.
--Eva,
making delayed footnotes to other people's posts
PS: It was not I who called avocados a vegetable. However, since
"vegetable" is a general term for plant substances, *and* also a more
specific food term for plant foods generally treated in a savory rather
than sweet fashion, I'd call it an acceptable use, despite their botanical
fruithood.