More Than Monkey Business
January 9, 2007 - Ann Claycombe
When Georgia State's Language Research Center started in 1981, the question driving its researchers was whether animals can learn a language. The center was at the forefront of research proving that, yes, some can. Three of its resident chimpanzees use symbols to communicate with researchers and their caretakers via specially made computer keyboards.
Now, as the center celebrates its 25th anniversary, its scientists ask a slightly different question. "What is it that language allows animals to do?" asks David Washburn, the LRC's director.
Washburn and his colleagues work with four separate primate species in the search for answers: chimpanzees, rhesus macaques, capuchin monkeys and humans. Their research is not only changing scientific views of animal intelligence, but, more specifically, views of how human intelligence develops as well.
For many years, the primary public face of the center was that of its bonobos, also known as pygmy chimpanzees. One of the bonobos, Kanzi, was the first ape to learn language in the same manner as children, through immersion, and became world-famous as a result.
The success of the bonobo project attracted the attention of Iowa philanthropist Ted Townsend. Townsend is the founder of the Great Ape Trust of Iowa, a nonprofit facility dedicated to the study and conservation of great apes. He offered the bonobos a permanent home with lifetime support for the apes and first-class facilities for researchers. So in April 2005, the bonobos moved to Iowa.
At about that time, a researcher at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center called the LRC to ask if Georgia State had any interest in studying a colony of capuchin monkeys. As social, tool-using primates, they fit perfectly into the center's research agenda.
Nine young capuchins moved to the center in July 2005 and immediately began to learn the joystick system that also allows the rhesus macaques to do simple, computer-based cognitive tests.
Because the capuchins are much smaller than the other primates at the LRC, researchers can compare how different competencies arise from brains of different sizes and structures, says Washburn. Another distinction is that the capuchins are native to South America, while chimpanzees come from Africa and rhesus macaques from Asia. The differences allow researchers to explore which mental abilities are common to all primates and which evolved to meet the needs of a particular environment.
"We want to make statements about brains and behavior," Washburn says. "The more different species you use in that comparison, the less likely it is you'll make mistakes."
The capuchins are exciting newcomers, but the four chimpanzees are currently taking part in the most exciting research. Researchers are building on their language skills to explore topics like stating the number of items in a group and delaying gratification.
Experiments like this continue to provide new insight into the way animals think, including the human animal. Through their work, LRC scientists are deepening our understanding of humans' common ground with our closest genetic relatives and, consequently, the relationship between specific nervous systems and behaviors.
Regents' Professor Emeritus and LRC founding director Duane Rumbaugh followed the bonobos to Iowa, but returned for the anniversary to celebrate and be celebrated. "It's really rewarding to see the LRC doing so well," he says. "I expect it to have a bright future."