RIP, Washoe: Chimp Who Knew Sign Language Dies


	RIP, Washoe: Chimp Who Knew Sign Language Dies

arifsali

11-1-2007 8:23 PM

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tags:

chimpanzee, language

2 Comments |

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11-2-2007 6:32 PM

Kore7

First Alex, then Washoe, who was even more famous in the fields of cognitive science and psycholinguistics. Sad news. Our best animal superstars are passing on.

11-3-2007 1:51 PM

n2teaching

Yes, I agree. We learned all about Washoe when I was in college. I am always surprised that more primates, in captivity, are not taught to sign.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/d484fcb0-50d6-4041-8610-6b1f2a4ba0dd/7AFCF236-DA86-4580-8D16-314D3874F048/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/rip-washoe-chim.html" href="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/rip-washoe-chim.html" style="font-size: 11px;">blog.wired.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/rip-washoe-chim.html">
 Washoe, the female chimpanzee who scientists say was the first non-human primate to learn sign language, passed away on Tuesday night. She was 42 years old.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/rip-washoe-chim.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/blog.wired.com/img/FC6944DF-BBF6-45B8-8CEC-78301E733CF4" alt="Washoe_2" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/rip-washoe-chim.html">Washoe was born and captured in West Africa, briefly used for research by the US Air Force, and finally adopted by psychologists Beatrix and R. Allen Gardner, who raised her in their home and treated her like a deaf human child.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/rip-washoe-chim.html">She was then adopted by Roger and Deborah Fouts, the directors of Central Washington University's Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute. In her lifetime, Washoe mastered the use of more than 250 signs and even taught them to another chimpanzee. As reported by the <EM>New York Times</EM>, she shared something else with humans, particularly women: an obsession with shoes.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/rip-washoe-chim.html"><P>“She always checked out your shoes, and if you had new ones
she’d sign for you to show them to her,” Dr. Jensvold said. “Then she
might sign something about the color. She was a real shoe lady that
way.”</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/7AFCF236-DA86-4580-8D16-314D3874F048/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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