Download or read book Nim Chimpsky written by Elizabeth Hess and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2008 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles an experiment with a young chimpanzee who was brought up with a human family and taught to use sign language proficiently, until the funding for the study ended and he spent two decades shuttled in and out of various facilities.
Download or read book Why Chimpanzees Can t Learn Language and Only Humans Can written by Herbert S. Terrace and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1970s, the behavioral psychologist Herbert S. Terrace led a remarkable experiment to see if a chimpanzee could be taught to use language. A young ape, named “Nim Chimpsky” in a nod to the linguist whose theories Terrace challenged, was raised by a family in New York and instructed in American Sign Language. Initially, Terrace thought that Nim could create sentences but later discovered that Nim’s teachers inadvertently cued his signing. Terrace concluded that Project Nim failed—not because Nim couldn’t create sentences but because he couldn’t even learn words. Language is a uniquely human quality, and attempting to find it in animals is wishful thinking at best. The failure of Project Nim meant we were no closer to understanding where language comes from. In this book, Terrace revisits Project Nim to offer a novel view of the origins of human language. In contrast to both Noam Chomsky and his critics, Terrace contends that words, as much as grammar, are the cornerstones of language. Retracing human evolution and developmental psychology, he shows that nonverbal interaction is the foundation of infant language acquisition, leading up to a child’s first words. By placing words and conversation before grammar, we can, for the first time, account for the evolutionary basis of language. Terrace argues that this theory explains Nim’s inability to acquire words and, more broadly, the differences between human and animal communication. Why Chimpanzees Can’t Learn Language and Only Humans Can is a masterful statement of the nature of language and what it means to be human.
Download or read book Nim Chimpsky written by Elizabeth Hess and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2008-02-26 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Now Elizabeth Hess’s unforgettable biography is the inspiration for Project Nim, a riveting new documentary directed by James Marsh and produced by Simon Chinn, the Oscar-winning team known for Man on Wire. Hess, a consultant on the film, says, “Getting a call from James Marsh and Simon Chinn is an author’s dream. Project Nim is nothing short of amazing.” Could an adorable chimpanzee raised from infancy by a human family bridge the gap between species—and change the way we think about the boundaries between the animal and human worlds? Here is the strange and moving account of an experiment intended to answer just those questions, and the astonishing biography of the chimp who was chosen to see it through. Dubbed Project Nim, the experiment was the brainchild of Herbert S. Terrace, a psychologist at Columbia University. His goal was to teach a chimpanzee American Sign Language in order to refute Noam Chomsky’s assertion that language is an exclusively human trait. Nim Chimpsky, the baby chimp at the center of this ambitious, potentially groundbreaking study, was “adopted” by one of Dr. Terrace’s graduate students and brought home to live with her and her large family in their elegant brownstone on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. At first Nim’s progress in learning ASL and adapting to his new environment exceeded all expectations. His charm, mischievous sense of humor, and keen, sometimes shrewdly manipulative understanding of human nature endeared him to everyone he met, and even led to guest appearances on Sesame Street, where he was meant to model good behavior for toddlers. But no one had thought through the long-term consequences of raising a chimp in the human world, and when funding for the study ran out, Nim’s problems began. Over the next two decades, exiled from the people he loved, Nim was rotated in and out of various facilities. It would be a long time before this chimp who had been brought up to identify with his human caretakers had another opportunity to blow out the candles on a cake celebrating his birthday. No matter where he was sent, however, Nim’s hard-earned ability to converse with humans would prove to be his salvation, protecting him from the fate of many of his peers. Drawing on interviews with the people who lived with Nim, diapered him, dressed him, taught him, and loved him, Elizabeth Hess weaves an unforgettable tale of an extraordinary and charismatic creature. His story will move and entertain at the same time that it challenges us to ask what it means to be human, and what we owe to the animals who so enrich our lives.
Download or read book Nature Culture and Society written by Gísli Pálsson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reflecting upon the changing human condition, Palsson addresses various conflated zones of life at particular times and scales. Engaging with topical issues on the public agenda, from personal genomics to human-animal relations to the global environment, the book sets out a compelling case for meaningful change.
Download or read book Anthropology and Nature written by Kirsten Hastrup and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-08-15 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the basis of empirical studies, this book explores nature as an integral part of the social worlds conventionally studied by anthropologists. The book may be read as a form of scholarly "edgework," resisting institutional divisions and conceptual routines in the interest of exploring new modalities of anthropological knowledge making. The present interest in the natural world is partly a response to large-scale natural disasters and global climate change, and to a keen sense that nature matters matters to society at many levels, ranging from the microbiological and genetic framing of reproduction, over co-species development, to macro-ecological changes of weather and climate. Given that the human footprint is now conspicuous across the entire globe, in the oceans as well as in the atmosphere, it is difficult to claim that nature is what is given and permanent, while people and societies are ephemeral and simply derivative features. This implies that society matters to nature, and some natural scientists look towards the social sciences for an understanding of how people think and how societies work. The book thus opens up a space for new forms of reflection on how natures and societies are generated.
Download or read book Silent Partners written by Eugene Linden and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 1987-07-12 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Kanzi s Primal Language written by P. Segerdahl and published by Springer. This book was released on 2005-08-05 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sue Savage-Rumbaugh's work on the language capabilities of the bonobo Kanzi has intrigued the world because of its far-reaching implications for understanding the evolution of the human language. This book takes the reader behind the scenes of the filmed language tests. It argues that while the tests prove that Kanzi has language, the even more remarkable manner in which he originally acquired it - spontaneously, in a culture shared with humans - calls for a re-thinking of language, emphasizing its primal cultural dimensions.
Download or read book Half Brother written by Kenneth Oppel and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Printz-Honor-winning author of Airborn comes an absorbing YA novel about a teen boy whose scientist parents take in a chimpanzee to be part of the family.For thirteen years, Ben Tomlin was an only child. But all that changes when his mother brings home Zan -- an eight-day-old chimpanzee. Ben's father, a renowned behavioral scientist, has uprooted the family to pursue his latest research project: a high-profile experiment to determine whether chimpanzees can acquire advanced language skills. Ben's parents tell him to treat Zan like a little brother. Ben reluctantly agrees. At least now he's not the only one his father's going to scrutinize.It isn't long before Ben is Zan's favorite, and Ben starts to see Zan as more
Download or read book The Language of Animals written by Stephen Hart and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2014-09-16 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kanzi the chimp, Koko the ape, singing whales, trumpeting elephants, and dolphins trained for naval service--all of them make the news each year. Members of these species learn to communicate both with their voices and with body language, and without the signals they develop, each would be an island, unable to survive on Earth. How much do we know about how animals communicate with each other or with humans? Scientific American Focus: The Language of Animals examines the sometimes subtle differences between the nature of communication and what we call "language" or "intelligence." We explore how scientists study animal communication, and we learn about various species and their ways of "talking" and passing on their own "cultural" patterns. From dancing bees and chirping crickets to schooling fish and flocking birds; from birdsong to whale song to the language of our closest relatives in the animal kingdom--the chimpanzees--these overviews of thoroughly detailed case studies are a window to understanding the constant chatter and movement of the animal kingdom.
Download or read book Project Hail Mary written by Andy Weir and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this “propulsive” (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science—in development as a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling. HUGO AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST BOOKS: Bill Gates, GatesNotes, New York Public Library, Parade, Newsweek, Polygon, Shelf Awareness, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal • “An epic story of redemption, discovery and cool speculative sci-fi.”—USA Today “If you loved The Martian, you’ll go crazy for Weir’s latest.”—The Washington Post Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.
Download or read book Smithy written by Amanda Desiree and published by Inkshares. This book was released on 2021-04-27 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This original haunted house tale, with a unique plot and compellingly vivid characters, moves from uneasy to creepy to all-out 'keep the lights on' terror." —Library Journal, starred review. In the tumultuous summer of 1974, in the shadowy rooms of a rundown mansion in Rhode Island, renowned psychologist Dr. Piers Preis-Herald brings together a group of seven collegiate researchers to study the inner lives of man’s closest relative―the primate. They set out to teach their subject, who would eventually be known to the world as Smithy, American Sign Language. But as the summer deepens and the history of the mansion manifests, the messages signed by their research subject become increasing spectral. Nearly twenty-five years after the Smithy Project ended in tragedy at Trevor Hall, questions remain: Was Smithy a hoax? A clever mimic? A Rorschach projection of humanity’s greatest hopes and fears? Or was he indeed what devotees of metaphysics have claimed for so long: a link between our world and the next?
Download or read book The Song of the Ape written by Andrew R. Halloran and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2012-02-28 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An absorbing investigation of chimpanzee language and communication by a young primatologist While working as a zookeeper with a group of semi-wild chimpanzees living on an island, primatologist Andrew Halloran witnessed an event that would cause him to become fascinated with how chimpanzees communicate complex information and ideas to one another. The group he was working with was in the middle of a yearlong power battle in which the older chimpanzees were being ousted in favor of a younger group. One day Andrew carelessly forgot to secure his rowboat at the mainland and looked up to see it floating over to the chimp island. In an orchestrated fashion, five ousted members of the chimp group quietly came from different parts of the island and boarded the boat. Without confusion, they sat in two perfect rows of two, with Higgy, the deposed alpha male, at the back, propelling and steering the boat to shore. The incident occurred without screams or disorder and appeared to have been preplanned and communicated. Since this event, Andrew has extensively studied primate communication and, in particular, how this group of chimpanzees naturally communicated. What he found is that chimpanzees use a set of vocalizations every bit as complex as human language. The Song of the Ape traces the individual histories of each of the five chimpanzees on the boat, some of whom came to the zoo after being wild-caught chimps raised as pets, circus performers, and lab chimps, and examines how these histories led to the common lexicon of the group. Interspersed with these histories, the book details the long history of scientists attempting (and failing) to train apes to use human grammar and language, using the well-known and controversial examples of Koko the gorilla, Kanzi the bonobo, and Nim Chimsky the chimpanzee, all of whom supposedly were able to communicate with their human caretakers using sign language. Ultimately, the book shows that while laboratories try in vain to teach human grammar to a chimpanzee, there is a living lexicon being passed down through the generations of each chimpanzee group in the wild. Halloran demonstrates what that lexicon looks like with twenty-five phrases he recorded, isolated, and interpreted while working with the chimps, and concludes that what is occurring in nature is far more fascinating and miraculous than anything that can be created in a laboratory. The Song of the Ape is a lively, engaging, and personal account, with many moments of humor as well as the occasional heartbreak, and it will appeal to anyone who wants to listen in as our closest relatives converse.
Download or read book Language Learning by a Chimpanzee written by Duane M Rumbaugh and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2014-05-10 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Language Learning by a Chimpanzee: The Lana Project brings together several disciplinary endeavors, such as primatology, experimental psychology, cognitive psychology, computer and information sciences, and neurosciences. This book is composed of two sets of data—one relates to language learning in the chimpanzee, while the other deals with language construction by Homo sapiens. The fundamental issue of mind-brain dualism and difference between man and beast are also covered. This text mainly describes the LANA project that aims to develop a computer-based language training system for investigation into the possibility that chimpanzees may have the capacity to acquire human-type language. This publication is recommended for biologists, specialists, and researchers conducting work on language learning in nonhuman primates.
Download or read book Talk to Me written by T.C. Boyle and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From bestselling and award-winning author T.C. Boyle, a lively, thought-provoking novel that asks us what it would be like if we could really talk to the animals When animal behaviorist Guy Schermerhorn demonstrates on a TV game show that he has taught Sam, his juvenile chimp, to speak in sign language, Aimee Villard, an undergraduate at Guy's university, is so taken with the performance that she applies to become his assistant. A romantic and intellectual attachment soon morphs into an interspecies love triangle that pushes hard at the boundaries of consciousness and the question of what we know and how we know it. What if it were possible to speak to the members of another species—to converse with them, not just give commands or coach them but to really have an exchange of ideas and a meeting of minds? Did apes have God? Did they have souls? Did they know about death and redemption? About prayer? The economy, rockets, space? Did they miss the jungle? Did they even know what the jungle was? Did they dream? Make wishes? Hope for the future? These are some the questions T.C. Boyle asks in his wide-ranging and hilarious new novel Talk to Me, exploring what it means to be human, to communicate with another, and to truly know another person—or animal…
Download or read book Monsters and Miracles written by Gary Kaskel and published by Information Press. This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monsters and Miracles is the story of a complex and conflicted warrior for children and animals who changed the consciousness of a nation more than a century ago. As an animal advocate, I love the story of Henry Bergh, founder of the first animal protection society in America. It is simply a must-read for anyone interested in the humane movement and true American heroes. - Rory Freedman, author of Beg and co-author of Skinny Bitch Henry. Bergh is widely thought to have started the animal protection movement in America and now, thanks to Gary Kaskel's intelligent and compelling biography, we know how how this came to be. Kaskel paints a detailed and personal portrait of the man who taught us to respect animals. This is an important book that will be on the shelf for years to come-and it's a great read. - Elizabeth Hess, author of Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who would Be Human and Lost and Found. Kaskel has woven an urbane and atmospheric tale of New York and Europe in the mid-19th century and an aristocrat's passionate crusade not only to bring America forward on the subject of animal cruelty and children's rights but for meaning and purpose in his own life. - Andrew Gross, author of The Dark Tide and The Blue Zone
Download or read book First and Second Steps in Statistics written by Daniel B Wright and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2009-03-18 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ′This engagingly written and nicely opinionated book is a blend of friendly introduction and concisely applicable detail. No-one can recall every statistical formula, but if they have this book they will know where to look′ - Professor Jon May, University of Plymouth ′This is one of the best books I have come across for teaching introductory statistics. The illustrative examples are engaging and often humorous and the explanations of ′difficult′ concepts are written in a wonderfully clear and intuitive way′ - Nick Allum, University of Essex Selected as an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Magazine, January 2010 First (and Second) Steps in Statistics, Second Edition provides a clear and concise introduction to the main statistical procedures used in the social and behavioural sciences and is perfect for the statistics student starting their journey. The rationale and procedure for analyzing data are presented through exciting examples with an emphasis on understanding rather than computation. It is ideally suited for introductory courses in statistics given its gentle beginning, yet progressive treatment of topics. In addition to descriptive statistics, graphs, t-tests, oneway ANOVAs, Chi-square, and simple linear regression, this Second Edition now includes some new, more advanced topic areas as well as a host of additional examples to help students confidently progress through their studies and apply the techniques in lab work, reports and research projects. Key features of this new edition: - the reoganization of the first three chapters giving more attention to univariate statistics and providing more examples to work through at this level - more advanced ′second step′ content has been added on factorial ANOVA and multiple regression - the robust methods chapter from the first edition is now spread throughout the book, and is linked with common teaching practices. - many more examples have been added to enhance the book′s practical potential. - a host of exercises as well as further reading sections at the end of every chapter. An accompanying Web page includes information for each chapter using the statistical packages SPSS and R.
Download or read book Nim written by Herbert S. Terrace and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1986 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
