Reddit reviews Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees
We found 7 Reddit comments about Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
I second that. It will change the way you think about intelligence and tells an amazing story in the process. Amazon link
I've read about it in Next of Kin by Roger Fouts who was one of the researchers who worked with the first chimpanzees to learn ASL. He seemed a credible source to me.
I first read about this incident in the book called Next of Kin by Roger Fouts. He was a research assistant that worked with Washoe and the others in her group. It's an amazing read if you are interested in culture (the passing on of learned behavior between two individuals) or emotion as it relates to animals and chimps in particular.
In the book Next of Kin, My Conversations with Chimpanzees, the author and researcher Roger Fouts says that the thing is that the chimps he studied (Washoe being the famous one) always made sense (in response to Noam Chompsky saying they don't have syntax so it's not language in his opinion). In the case above, Koko understands that it has to be a 'someone' who ripped the sink out of the wall. She wouldn't have said the banana ripped the sink out of the wall, because a banana is an inanimate object.
As I understand it, the Nim Chimpsky project has been pretty well discredited as being, at best, an example of rather shoddy science.
Next of Kin, by Roger Fouts, is about Washoe's family, and the insights they've given into chimpanzee cognition and language use, and the book devotes some time to discussing the various failures of Nim Chimpsky.
I don't have an answer but would love to recommend reading the book "Next of Kin" by Roger Fouts, which is all about his journey teaching and researching sign language to chimps, and specifically his relationship with a female named Washoe. It's a really fascinating and touching book, and has a lot of information about language capabilities in our ape relatives.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Forgotten-Ancestors-Carl-Sagan/dp/0345384725
Then read Next of Kin by Roger Fouts: http://www.amazon.com/Next-Kin-My-Conversations-Chimpanzees/dp/0380728222/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409067390&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=rodgers+fouts
Will change your world view forever