ARTIFICIAL SYMBOL SYSTEMS IN DOLPHINS AND APES:ANALAGOUS COMMUNICATIVE EVOLUTION?

摘要

Complex cognitive and communicative abilities have been documented indolphins and chimpanzees in three longitudinal studies. Two used interactive keyboard systems, one a study with bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)(Dolphin Keyboard Project – DKP) (Reiss & McCowan, 1993) and the other aseries of studies with bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pantroglodytes) (Brakke & Savage-Rumbaugh, 1996; Savage-Rumbaugh,McDonald, Sevcik, Hopkins, & Rupert, 1986) (Language Research Center –LRC). In these studies a key press resulted in an automated auditory response bya computer (a computer-generated whistle in the case of the dolphins, or anEnglish word in the case of the primates) and a response by the researchers,often the offering of the associated object or activity. The early acquisition ofkeyboard use in these two studies have been compared in earlier research (Lyn,Reiss, & Savage-Rumbaugh, in revision).