http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanzi

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Examples of Kanzi's behavior

   * In an outing in the Georgia woods, Kanzi touched the symbols for "marshmallows" and "fire." "Given matches and marshmallows, Kanzi snapped twigs for a fire, lit them with the matches and toasted the marshmallows on a stick."[5]

   * Paul Raffaele, at Savage-Rumbaugh's request, performed a Maori War Dance for the Bonobos. This dance includes thigh-slapping, chest-thumping, and hollering. Almost all the bonobos present interpreted this as an aggressive display, and reacted with loud screams, tooth-baring, and pounding the walls and floor. All but Kanzi, who remained perfectly calm, and conveyed in Bonobo language (interpreted by Savage-Rumbaugh to Raffaele) that he knew that no threat was meant, but that the performance should be apart from the other bonobos so as not to upset them. So a private performance in another room was successfully, peacefully and happily carried out.[5]

   * Sue Savage-Rumbaugh has observed Kanzi in communication to his sister. In this experiment, Kanzi was kept in a separate room of the Great Ape Project and shown some yogurt. Kanzi started vocalizing the word "yogurt" in an unknown "language"; his sister, who could not see the yogurt, then pointed to the lexigram for yogurt.[5]

   * Kanzi's accomplishments also include tool use and tool crafting. Kanzi is an accomplished stone tool maker and is quite proud of his ability to flake Oldowan style cutting knives. He learned this skill from Dr. Nick Toth, who is an anthropologist with the Stone Age Institute in Bloomington, Indiana. The stone knives Kanzi creates are very sharp and can cut animal hide and thick ropes.

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FP

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I think we are in rats' alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.

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But how much of that is taught, and how much is deducted? Because if they just taught the animal, it's merely a well trained animal, and that's not very impressive.

FP

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I give unto you, this quote!

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It was a great surprise to researchers then when one day, while Matata was away, Kanzi began competently using the lexigrams, becoming not only the first observed ape to have learned aspects of language naturalistically rather than through direct training, but also the first observed bonobo to appear to use some elements of language at all.[1][2] Within a short time, Kanzi had mastered the ten words that researchers had been struggling to teach his adoptive mother, and he has since learned more than two hundred more. When he hears a spoken word (through headphones, to filter out nonverbal clues), he points to the correct lexigram.

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Quote: from FurryPanther at 8:16 am on Oct. 18, 2008

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But how much of that is taught, and how much is deducted? Because if they just taught the animal, it's merely a well trained animal, and that's not very impressive.  

 FP

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I give unto you, this quote!

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It was a great surprise to researchers then when one day, while Matata was away, Kanzi began competently using the lexigrams, becoming not only the first observed ape to have learned aspects of language naturalistically rather than through direct training, but also the first observed bonobo to appear to use some elements of language at all.[1][2] Within a short time, Kanzi had mastered the ten words that researchers had been struggling to teach his adoptive mother, and he has since learned more than two hundred more. When he hears a spoken word (through headphones, to filter out nonverbal clues), he points to the correct lexigram.

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While impressive, I'd hardly consider that 'language'. It's just interpreting sounds. Like, it you hear rock rumbling, you'll think rockslide and get out of the way. This is no different...

FP

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I think we are in rats' alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.

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Quote: from InsaneBlue at 9:18 am on Oct. 18, 2008

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Quote: from FurryPanther at 8:16 am on Oct. 18, 2008

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But how much of that is taught, and how much is deducted? Because if they just taught the animal, it's merely a well trained animal, and that's not very impressive.

  FP

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 I give unto you, this quote!  

 

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It was a great surprise to researchers then when one day, while Matata was away, Kanzi began competently using the lexigrams, becoming not only the first observed ape to have learned aspects of language naturalistically rather than through direct training, but also the first observed bonobo to appear to use some elements of language at all.[1][2] Within a short time, Kanzi had mastered the ten words that researchers had been struggling to teach his adoptive mother, and he has since learned more than two hundred more. When he hears a spoken word (through headphones, to filter out nonverbal clues), he points to the correct lexigram.

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While impressive, I'd hardly consider that 'language'. It's just interpreting sounds. Like, it you hear rock rumbling, you'll think rockslide and get out of the way. This is no different...

FP

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Pointing at lexigrams upon hearing a word is a lot different than being frightened by the sound of a rockslide.

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The man who once was but never has been.

Click Me

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Pointing at lexigrams upon hearing a word is a lot different than being frightened by the sound of a rockslide.

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Not really. The principle is the same. They hear a sound, and that causes a reaction. They hear falling rock, they run away. They hear 'marshmallow', they grab one. Simply associating a sound with an object is not the same as understanding what the sound means. It's still, in may ways, just a simple reaction.

FP

-------
I think we are in rats' alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.

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Quote: from InsaneBlue at 9:25 am on Oct. 18, 2008

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 Pointing at lexigrams upon hearing a word is a lot different than being frightened by the sound of a rockslide.

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Not really. The principle is the same. They hear a sound, and that causes a reaction. They hear falling rock, they run away. They hear 'marshmallow', they grab one. Simply associating a sound with an object is not the same as understanding what the sound means. It's still, in may ways, just a simple reaction.

FP

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You miss the point, I suggest you read the article. Bonobos are the only observed species (aside of humans of course) that naturally associate words with objects. They appear to speak in a primitive language similar to early human language rather than merely using grunts to convey simple feelings.

The specific Bonobo that I'm using as an example can request materials for and prepare toasted marshmallows and he understands - within limits - complex human actions (see the second paragraph in the quote in the first post).

There are not many animals that can do similar things. The closest I've seen in a while was the dog that was trained to call 911 on speed dial and bark into the phone, and that was done only with dozens of hours of training and is, as you'd call it, a simple reaction to the guy having a seizure.

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The man who once was but never has been.

Click Me

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Quote: from FurryPanther at 8:27 am on Oct. 18, 2008

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Quote: from InsaneBlue at 9:25 am on Oct. 18, 2008

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  Pointing at lexigrams upon hearing a word is a lot different than being frightened by the sound of a rockslide.

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 Not really. The principle is the same. They hear a sound, and that causes a reaction. They hear falling rock, they run away. They hear 'marshmallow', they grab one. Simply associating a sound with an object is not the same as understanding what the sound means. It's still, in may ways, just a simple reaction.  

 FP

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You miss the point, I suggest you read the article. Bonobos are the only observed species (aside of humans of course) that naturally associate words with objects. They appear to speak in a primitive language similar to early human language rather than merely using grunts to convey simple feelings.

The specific Bonobo that I'm using as an example can request materials for and prepare toasted marshmallows and he understands - within limits - complex human actions (see the second paragraph in the quote in the first post).

There are not many animals that can do similar things. The closest I've seen in a while was the dog that was trained to call 911 on speed dial and bark into the phone, and that was done only with dozens of hours of training and is, as you'd call it, a simple reaction to the guy having a seizure.

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I'm not saying it isn't impressive. I'm just irked by the word 'language', as that's not what is occurring. To qualify as use of language, one must be able to spontaneously convey new ideas, and create new combination of words on their own, not just simple word association.

FP

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I think we are in rats' alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.

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Quote: from InsaneBlue at 9:18 am on Oct. 18, 2008

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Quote: from FurryPanther at 8:16 am on Oct. 18, 2008

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But how much of that is taught, and how much is deducted? Because if they just taught the animal, it's merely a well trained animal, and that's not very impressive.

  FP

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 I give unto you, this quote!  

 

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It was a great surprise to researchers then when one day, while Matata was away, Kanzi began competently using the lexigrams, becoming not only the first observed ape to have learned aspects of language naturalistically rather than through direct training, but also the first observed bonobo to appear to use some elements of language at all.[1][2] Within a short time, Kanzi had mastered the ten words that researchers had been struggling to teach his adoptive mother, and he has since learned more than two hundred more. When he hears a spoken word (through headphones, to filter out nonverbal clues), he points to the correct lexigram.

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While impressive, I'd hardly consider that 'language'. It's just interpreting sounds. Like, it you hear rock rumbling, you'll think rockslide and get out of the way. This is no different...

FP

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Nor is it different from you hearing the sound for "hello" and you're thinking "that person is saying hello to me" and respond in kind.

What for you must constitute "learning a language"?
True, the bonobo is merely learning "words" and not the language itself [though it is IMPLEMENTING language]; it is not learning grammatical structuring of language.
I don't really think that that is necessary for this to be a pretty profound thing.
[though that sign language using gorilla was pretty neat, damn I forgot her name]

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Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful.It's the transition
that's troublesome.   --Isaac Asimov