Animals are smarter than you think. Joseph Poulshock, PhD

It’s not going to be Planet of the any time soon. But animal communicators are still amazing.

Key Words/Outline Design Features Animals?

• Duality--二重性 Main ! Point • Birds and Duality Vervet Monkeys • Arbitrariness--恣意性 Animals can communicate. They can use symbols or calls to • communicate with each other. When working with humans, • Gray Parrots • Displacement --転位; Stimulus Freedom they can learn to communicate with humans and use human • the --刺激反応自由 language in surprising ways. • Lucy the Chimp • Structure Dependence --構造依存性 • • Creativity--創造性 • and Chaser • Recursion --帰納 (反復)

Once upon a time, N’kisi: Gray Parrot Alex a lady went for a walk, and she met a parrot. The parrot said:

N'Kisi is a gray parrot. • New York times, reporting on the death • of Alex. • Aimee Morgana is N’kisi’s human. • He learned more than 100 English • Morgana claims N'Kisi knows 950 words. words.

Dr. Irene Pepperberg & Griffin Parrots The Vervet Monkey

• Vervet have a special alarm call for each enemy. • Talking birds show the design feature of duality. • A “rraup” for eagles/hawks. • They can learn many words and phrases. • ワシ • Do they produce words and phrases based on structural rules, or • A “chutter” for snakes. are they memorizing chunks? • ヘビ • A “chirp” for lions/leopards. Can Monkeys Talk? • ライオン／ヒョウ The Vervet Monkey Vervet Monkeys

• Specific calls for each predator. • They use alarm calls to escape predators. Chimps and Hawk! Run to the center of the tree. Each call shows a different kind of • danger. Each call causes monkeys to • Snake! Stand up and look. respond in a unique way. • Leopard! Go to the end of the branches. • Are these calls “arbitrary symbols?”

Koko Lucy and

• Koko is a gorilla. He was taught sign. He • Fouts: WHAT THAT? learned *645 signs, with a working vocab Lucy: WHAT THAT? of 375. • • EYE HAT (mask); • Fouts: YOU KNOW. WHAT THAT? • WHITE TIGER (zebra). • Lucy: DIRTY DIRTY. Fouts: WHOSE DIRTY DIRTY? • SORRY BITE SCRATCH (Why?) • BECAUSE MAD (Why mad?) DON’T • Lucy: SUE. KNOW.

Lucy and Roger Fouts Lucy Kanzi Kanzi

• Fouts: IT NOT SUE. WHOSE THAT? What 2 things are significant about this conversation? • Kanzi is a Chimp. He learned • English as a baby. • Why is the researcher wearing the mask? • Lucy: ROGER! • Lucy lied. • On tests, Kanzi gets between 57% and • What is special about Kanzi’s responses? • Fouts: NO! NOT MINE. WHOSE? 74% correct answers. Lucy apologized. • Would you like to try this? • Lucy: LUCY DIRTY DIRTY. SORRY LUCY. • • His answers are above chance.

Primates And border collies are the smartest Apes may be the • Primates are the most impressive of the non-human linguists. smartest animals with • They cannot make words from meaningless sounds (no duality). • But they use symbols in an arbitrary (but limited) way. language, but dogs are • They express somme creativity, structure, and displacement. our friends. RICO

• Border Collie • Knows 200+ Words • Learns new words. • He remembers.

Chaser Chaser Chaser Chaser

• In the fourth experiment, In the second experiment, Chaser • In the third experiment, • Four experiments over 3 years with Chaser. • • Chaser GUESSED or INFERRED the meaning of a new word. UNDERSTOOD THE DIFFERENCE between names and commands. • Chaser showed the ability to learn labels for CATEGORIES. • In the first experiment, • • For example, there are four toys in a room. She could understand that “bring” is an action, and “cat” is a • She knew that “ball” referred to one set of objects. • Chaser learned the NAMES of 1022 objects or toys. • • Chaser knows “cat,” “dog,” and “mouse,” but not “pig.” name. • “Toy” referred to another set of objects. • If the researchers said, “Bring the pig,” Chaser could do it.

Dogs Conclusions Conclusions Concluding Points

• Some animals show minimal language • Compared to human language, animal Complex language is unique to humans. design features. communication is simple. • • Uniqueness of human language • Chaser shows us that dogs are especially adapted to live with • No animal shows all the features. • Animals are clearly not innately supports the idea of an innate humans. • Which design feature do none of the programmed to learn language. grammar acquiring ability. animals show? • Dogs don’t walk on two legs. • Universal Grammar • Recursion. • Gorilla’s don’t speak words. Mr. Ed the Talking and Singing Horse

Main ! Point Animals can communicate. They can use symbols or calls to communicate with each other. When working with humans, they can learn to communicate with humans and use human language in surprising ways.