Monkeys are unable to learn grammer

01-22-2004, 07:52 PM

Monkeys Unable to Master Grammar Crucial to Human Language

Nonhuman primates appear capable of understanding only very basic grammatical structures

Cambridge, Mass. - January 15, 2004 - Nonhuman primates are unable to grasp a fundamental grammatical component used in all human languages, researchers at Harvard University and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland report this week in the journal Science. Their work provides the clearest example to date of a cognitive bottleneck during the evolution of human language, suggesting a sharp limit to animals' capacity to generate open-ended communication and possible restrictions on other domains of thought.

"There is no doubt that human communication is fundamentally different from that of other animals; the key question is, what computational, conceptual, motor and sensory systems have evolved to create this difference?" says Marc D. Hauser, professor of psychology and Harvard College Professor. "The ultimate goal of our studies is to figure out what things changed and what things stayed the same over the course of pri-mate evolution, and to help pinpoint areas of convergence and divergence."

Grammar is essentially a system of rules for taking a finite set of discrete ele-ments and combining them into a limitless range of novel expressions. For humans, grammar cobbles together words to create sentences. There is no evidence that animals have a similar system to produce sequences of calls with more expressive meaning.

Together with W. Tecumseh Fitch of the University of St. Andrews, Hauser ex-posed cotton-top tamarins to two novel grammars based on patterns of meaningless syllables - such as ba la tu li pa ka - spoken by a male and female speaker. The grammars differed only in the order in which the male and female voices alternated. The simpler language structure featured strictly alternating male and female voices (MFMF). The more powerful grammar used more complicated patterns such as multiple female voices followed by multiple male voices, such that a pair of male and female voices could be embedded within other voices (e.g., M[MF]F, F[FM]M, [M[M[MF]F]F]).

Following this initial exposure, the tamarins heard a series of recordings, some of them violating the rules of Hauser and Fitch's grammars. When the animals perceived such inconsistencies, they tended to glance toward the speaker piping out the sounds, a behavior often used as an indicator of novelty detection in studies involving both ani-mals and infants. Based on the percentage of the time the tamarins looked to the speak-ers, Hauser and Fitch determined that the animals were able to perceive violations of the simpler grammar but did not take note of infractions involving the more complex grammar.

"The tamarins probably don't understand explicitly the rules of these grammars we created," Hauser says. "They're likely distinguishing between familiar and unfamil-iar sound sequences, responding more to the unfamiliar or unexpected."

Researchers have known for some time that animals can extract relatively ab-stract rules, such as those underpinning the weakest grammars. But Hauser and Fitch's work suggests that tamarins are only able to comprehend simple associations of word pairs, and cannot process grammars where words fall outside this rigid pattern, or where related words are not adjacent.

"This work will greatly refine our understanding of what has changed over evolution, and suggest possible hypotheses concerning the selective pressures that led to such changes," Hauser says. "Our finding may also refocus investigations of infant de-velopment and when different capacities develop during language acquisition, and could yield benefits for linguists seeking insights into the universal toolkit underlying all languages."

Hauser and Fitch's work is supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the McDonnell Foundation.

###

01-23-2004, 09:22 PM

Hah.

Sometimes I think there's got to be better things these scientists could spend their life working on....

~mariofreak~

01-23-2004, 09:37 PM

Whatever happened to Koga? He's apparently got some sort of linguistic interest, and he's pointed this out many many times.

Incidentally, this is related to what Noam Chomsky does when he's not doing the political thing. He's very big on "universal grammar," the idea that there's a grammar built into the human brain.

01-24-2004, 03:26 PM

...

01-25-2004, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Partially posted by MarioFreak:

Sometimes I think there's got to be better things these scientists could spend their life working on....

Too True!

01-25-2004, 09:59 PM

Boo-freaking-hoo.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote:

Behind the shed in Dorter, I used to... heh, heh... -Marilyn, Final Fantasy Tactics

What's Zalbag looking at? To find out, go to the Sacred Realm for the answer!
Visit Final Fantasy Compendium for all your Final Fantasy Questions!
And remember kids: WARK.

01-26-2004, 03:30 PM

Oh come on. This is neat stuff. By being able to figure out how different kinds of brains proccess intellegence, we might be able to someday produce a race of superintellegent beings!

Or, if you're one of those "but I like being a human being" weirdoes, this could be used to help prevent learning disorders or something.

At any rate, sometimes it's good to just get knowledge with the hope that eventually we'll find a use for it.

01-26-2004, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by UserGoogol:
Oh come on. This is neat stuff. By being able to figure out how different kinds of brains proccess intellegence, we might be able to someday produce a race of superintellegent beings!

That would proceed to put us into slavery and dominate the human race.

01-27-2004, 06:02 AM

Like how to set VCR clocks?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote:

Behind the shed in Dorter, I used to... heh, heh... -Marilyn, Final Fantasy Tactics

What's Zalbag looking at? To find out, go to the Sacred Realm for the answer!
Visit Final Fantasy Compendium for all your Final Fantasy Questions!
And remember kids: WARK.

01-22-2004, 07:52 PM	#1
Banned from VGF Guest Posts: n/a	Monkeys Unable to Master Grammar Crucial to Human Language Nonhuman primates appear capable of understanding only very basic grammatical structures Cambridge, Mass. - January 15, 2004 - Nonhuman primates are unable to grasp a fundamental grammatical component used in all human languages, researchers at Harvard University and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland report this week in the journal Science. Their work provides the clearest example to date of a cognitive bottleneck during the evolution of human language, suggesting a sharp limit to animals' capacity to generate open-ended communication and possible restrictions on other domains of thought. "There is no doubt that human communication is fundamentally different from that of other animals; the key question is, what computational, conceptual, motor and sensory systems have evolved to create this difference?" says Marc D. Hauser, professor of psychology and Harvard College Professor. "The ultimate goal of our studies is to figure out what things changed and what things stayed the same over the course of pri-mate evolution, and to help pinpoint areas of convergence and divergence." Grammar is essentially a system of rules for taking a finite set of discrete ele-ments and combining them into a limitless range of novel expressions. For humans, grammar cobbles together words to create sentences. There is no evidence that animals have a similar system to produce sequences of calls with more expressive meaning. Together with W. Tecumseh Fitch of the University of St. Andrews, Hauser ex-posed cotton-top tamarins to two novel grammars based on patterns of meaningless syllables - such as ba la tu li pa ka - spoken by a male and female speaker. The grammars differed only in the order in which the male and female voices alternated. The simpler language structure featured strictly alternating male and female voices (MFMF). The more powerful grammar used more complicated patterns such as multiple female voices followed by multiple male voices, such that a pair of male and female voices could be embedded within other voices (e.g., M[MF]F, F[FM]M, [M[M[MF]F]F]). Following this initial exposure, the tamarins heard a series of recordings, some of them violating the rules of Hauser and Fitch's grammars. When the animals perceived such inconsistencies, they tended to glance toward the speaker piping out the sounds, a behavior often used as an indicator of novelty detection in studies involving both ani-mals and infants. Based on the percentage of the time the tamarins looked to the speak-ers, Hauser and Fitch determined that the animals were able to perceive violations of the simpler grammar but did not take note of infractions involving the more complex grammar. "The tamarins probably don't understand explicitly the rules of these grammars we created," Hauser says. "They're likely distinguishing between familiar and unfamil-iar sound sequences, responding more to the unfamiliar or unexpected." Researchers have known for some time that animals can extract relatively ab-stract rules, such as those underpinning the weakest grammars. But Hauser and Fitch's work suggests that tamarins are only able to comprehend simple associations of word pairs, and cannot process grammars where words fall outside this rigid pattern, or where related words are not adjacent. "This work will greatly refine our understanding of what has changed over evolution, and suggest possible hypotheses concerning the selective pressures that led to such changes," Hauser says. "Our finding may also refocus investigations of infant de-velopment and when different capacities develop during language acquisition, and could yield benefits for linguists seeking insights into the universal toolkit underlying all languages." Hauser and Fitch's work is supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the McDonnell Foundation. ###

01-23-2004, 09:22 PM	#2
MarioFreak Guest Posts: n/a	Hah. Sometimes I think there's got to be better things these scientists could spend their life working on.... ~mariofreak~

01-23-2004, 09:37 PM	#3
UserGoogol Guest Posts: n/a	Whatever happened to Koga? He's apparently got some sort of linguistic interest, and he's pointed this out many many times. Incidentally, this is related to what Noam Chomsky does when he's not doing the political thing. He's very big on "universal grammar," the idea that there's a grammar built into the human brain.

01-26-2004, 03:30 PM	#7
UserGoogol Guest Posts: n/a	Oh come on. This is neat stuff. By being able to figure out how different kinds of brains proccess intellegence, we might be able to someday produce a race of superintellegent beings! Or, if you're one of those "but I like being a human being" weirdoes, this could be used to help prevent learning disorders or something. At any rate, sometimes it's good to just get knowledge with the hope that eventually we'll find a use for it.