Sign acquisition in a home‐reared/free‐ranging orangutan: Comparisons with other signing apes

Shapiro, Gary L.

doi:10.1002/ajp.1350030111

Cited by 33 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(5 reference statements)

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“…When gestures only were used, performance remained high whereas when words or gazes were used in isolation, performance was poor. Our results are in line with a preference for the gestural modality (vs. the vocal modality) in studies examining the acquisition of signals used by humans in apes [18,19,20,21]. Our findings are also consistent with similar reports on dogs trained with verbal and gestural cues [37,53,54].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Investigations on whether apes are capable of learning to produce human sounds and use them in dialogue-like situations have resulted in failure [18]. Instead, researchers tried to teach gestures (inspired by sign language) to ape species [18,19,20,21]. While considerable doubt has been cast on the productivity of the rule system that was learnt [22,23], it appears that apes exhibited fluency with the acquisition and/or comprehension of signals employing gestural modality [19], a conclusion consistent with a growing body of research on the rich inventory of gestures naturally produced by apes [24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Orangutans’ Comprehension of Zoo Keepers’ Communicative Signals

Dezecache

Bourgeois

Bazin

et al. 2019

Animals

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Zoological institutions often encourage cooperative interactions between keepers and animals so as to promote animals’ welfare. One useful technique has been conditioning training, whereby animals learn to respond to keepers’ requests, which facilitates a number of, otherwise sensitive, daily routines. As various media have been used to convey keepers’ instructions, the question remains of which modality is best to promote mutual understanding. Here, we explored this question with two captive female orangutans. In the first experiment, we compared orangutans’ understanding of previously acquired instructions when those were performed with verbal signals only, gazes only, gestures only, and when all those modalities were combined. Our results showed that gestures were sufficient for successful comprehension by these two apes. In the second experiment, we asked whether this preference could be driven by the non-arbitrary relationship that gestures bear to what they refer to, through iconicity or pointing. Our results revealed that neither iconicity nor pointing helped the subjects comprehend the keepers’ instructions. Our results indicate a preference for instructions given through gestural signals in two captive female orangutans, although its cause remains elusive. Future practice may encourage the use of gestures in communication between keepers and orangutans in general or potentially other animals.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Orangutans’ Comprehension of Zoo Keepers’ Communicative Signals

Dezecache

Bourgeois

Bazin

et al. 2019

Animals

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“…1. The complex communicative skills of great apes, including both referential and intentional gesturing and vocalisation (Corballis 1992) and their use of sign language (Savage-Rumbaugh 1990; Savage-Rumbaugh et al 1978; Shapiro 1982;Shapiro & Galdikas 1999).…”

Section: Cerebral Asymmetry and Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

An evolutionary theory of schizophrenia: Cortical connectivity, metarepresentation, and the social brain

2004

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Schizophrenia is a worldwide, prevalent disorder with a multifactorial but highly genetic aetiology. A constant prevalence rate in the face of reduced fecundity has caused some to argue that an evolutionary advantage exists in unaffected relatives. Here, I critique this adaptationist approach, and review – and find wanting – Crow's “speciation” hypothesis. In keeping with available biological and psychological evidence, I propose an alternative theory of the origins of this disorder. Schizophrenia is a disorder of the social brain, and it exists as a costly trade-off in the evolution of complex social cognition. Paleoanthropological and comparative primate research suggests that hominids evolved complex cortical interconnectivity (in particular, frontotemporal and frontoparietal circuits) to regulate social cognition and the intellectual demands of group living. I suggest that the ontogenetic mechanism underlying this cerebral adaptation was sequential hypermorphosis and that it rendered the hominid brain vulnerable to genetic and environmental insults. I argue that changes in genes regulating the timing of neurodevelopment occurred prior to the migration of Homo sapiens out of Africa 100,000–150,000 years ago, giving rise to the schizotypal spectrum. While some individuals within this spectrum may have exhibited unusual creativity and iconoclasm, this phenotype was not necessarily adaptive in reproductive terms. However, because the disorder shared a common genetic basis with the evolving circuitry of the social brain, it persisted. Thus schizophrenia emerged as a costly trade-off in the evolution of complex social cognition.

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“…Chantek also alternated his eye gaze between the referent and his conversation partner when pointing (Miles, 1990). Pointing signs were also reported for Princess, a home reared/free ranging, language-trained orangutan (Shapiro, 1982), but information on eye gaze and hand shapes were not provided.…”

Section: Gesturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Perspectives on Pointing and Joint Attention in Children and Apes

Krause¹

1997

International Journal of Comparative Psychology

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The comprehension and production of manual pointing and joint visual attention are already well developed when human infants reach their second year. These early developmental milestones mark the infant's transition into accelerated linguistic competence and shared experiences with others. The ability to draw another's attention toward distal objects or events facilitates the development of complex cognitive processes such as language acquisition. A comparative approach allows us to examine the evolution of these phenomena. Of recent interest is whether non-human primates also gesture and manipulate the eye gaze direction of others when communicating. However, all captive apes do not use referential gestures such as pointing, or appear to understand the meaning of shared attention. Those that show evidence of these abilities differ in their expression of them, and this may be closely related to rearing history. This paper reviews the literature on the topic of pointing and joint attention in non-human primates with the goal of identifying why these abilities develop in other species, and to examine the potential sources of the existing individual variation in their expression.By the time they reach their second year, human children engage in social interactions that often include pointing and the establishment and manipulation of joint visual attention. The developmental course of pointing follows a relatively predictable pattern. In its earliest form, pointing is probably a self-orienting reflex or an alertness reaction, rather than an attempt to manipulate the attention of others (Bates, 1976; Hannan & Fogel, 1987; Lock, Young, Service, & Chandler, 1990;Trevarthen, 1977). The earliest form of visual orientation may be present as early as two months of age (Scaife & Bruner, 1975), with infants shifting their eye gaze in relation to an adult's gaze direction, though a specific referent is rarely the focus of the infant's

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Sign acquisition in a home‐reared/free‐ranging orangutan: Comparisons with other signing apes

Cited by 33 publications

References 11 publications

Orangutans’ Comprehension of Zoo Keepers’ Communicative Signals

Orangutans’ Comprehension of Zoo Keepers’ Communicative Signals

An evolutionary theory of schizophrenia: Cortical connectivity, metarepresentation, and the social brain

Comparative Perspectives on Pointing and Joint Attention in Children and Apes

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