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Biomedical subjects

D M Rumbaugh

Publications and source records attributed to D M Rumbaugh.

52 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1978

Symbolic communication between two chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Through use of learned symbols, two chimpanzees accurately specified 11 foods by name to one another when the food item's identity was known by only one. They could not do this when denied use of the symbols. The chimpanzees then spontaneously requested specific foods of one another by name. Requests resulted in cooperative and reciprocal symbolically mediated food exchange.

Animal Communication↗
PubMed1975

Conversations with a chimpanzee in a computer-controlled environment.

The linguistic-type skills of a young chimpanzee (Pan) acquired in a computer-controlled language-training situation are reviewed. Those skills include facile acquisition of vocabulary, object naming, color naming, appropriate use of "yes" and "no" in response to certain questions, and conversation. In conversations the subject has formulated novel sentences and without special training has asked that objects be named, whereupon requests were made that they be given to her. These findings are interpreted in terms of how enriched environments can serve to bring forth novel communication skills in the chimpanzee, which is otherwise alinguistic; how the challenge of the environment can serve to limit manifest intelligence; and how a cognitive, rather than the traditional stimulus-response, framework is required for understanding the communication skills and psychological processes of the chimpanzee.

Animals↗