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Dr. Tony Rose at IPS conference with fellow primatologists
Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International, and
Jan van Hoof a founder of primate communication research. |
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Gorilla Foundation Director of Conservation, Dr. Tony Rose, with Associate Director of Research, Dr. Christa Nunes, spent an intense week participating in the 22nd Congress of the International Primatological Society (Aug. 3-8, 2008). Dr. Rose presented three papers and a poster, and Dr. Nunes presented a research paper. Both connected with hundreds of professionals who share our mission of conservation through communication.
Dr. Rose’s first talk and poster were part of a daylong Forum on Conservation Education. This presentation, co-written with our Field Director Penelope Fraser and Consultant Denis Ndeloh, reviewed our eight years developing “A Holistic Approach to Conservation Education.” Many of the other educators at the forum expressed interest in collaborating, reinforcing our need to publish more materials and offer seminars and classes more widely across Africa.
The second presentation, co-authored with Dr. Penny Patterson, was titled “Biosynergy and Interspecies Bonds Influence Life and Science in Laboratory, Zoo, and Field.” It was given in a special symposium on the impact of interspecies bonds on primate research, and elucidated Rose and Patterson’s research on the powerful synergy that develops between humans and other primates. The symposium leaders have asked Tony and Penny to contribute to a publication on interspecies bonding and to participate in other symposia at future professional conferences.
Dr. Rose’s third talk, co-authored with Dr. Patterson and Dr. Gary Stanley (GF Director of Education Technology) was given in a paper session on captive primate welfare. “Biosynergy and Interspecies Communication: Crucial Missing Links in Primate Research, Conservation and Welfare” focused on the ground-breaking work of Gorilla Foundation using two-way communication between humans and gorillas to enhance the understanding, protection and well-being of great apes. The foundations Zoo Enrichment Sign Training (ZEST) program was a feature element of this talk, and evoked interest in primatologists from many countries to partner with us in applying sign training in research, zoo and sanctuary settings.
Dr. Nunes' talk was given within a "communication and cognition" session. Koko’s ability to discriminate minimal pairs (words differing by just one phoneme – the smallest distinctive units of speech sound) was tested and her results were compared to those of human children. The language skills required to perform minimal pair-discrimination tasks, like the one done with Koko, include phoneme discrimination, word segmentation (knowing where word boundaries are in the continuous stream of speech) and knowledge of word meaning.
Human children improve with age in these tasks, unable to perform better than chance at under 2 years old (Shavachkin, 1973; Garnica, 1973; Eilers and Oller 1976), getting 81% correct in children under 3 years old (Barton, 1973), and 91% in children just over 3 years old (Gerrits, 2003). In this experiment Koko was presented with individual pictures representing words taken from her vocabulary (55 sets of 2, 3, or 4). Within each set, the words differed by either initial, medial or final position phonemes.
For example, these test items were among the minimal pairs included: honey/money/bunny/funny that differ by initial position phoneme, boat/bite that differ by medial position phoneme, and worm/word/work, which differ by final position phoneme. Koko was presented with each set of pictures and then asked vocally to "Show me ____" or "Give me the ____."
Koko was able to significantly discriminate minimal pairs in a linguistic context responding correctly 78.2% of the time. Koko's scores were best when tested for final word sounds (100%) and when offered 4 words per test item (90%). Her poorest performance was with medial consonant word sounds when offered only 2 words per item (55.6%). Interestingly, Koko’s performance improved as the task became more difficult.
These results suggest that motivational as well as perceptual factors may have played a role in test performance. Nevertheless this finding indicates minimal pair discrimination ability in a gorilla that is similar to that of human children and shows phonological skills with respect to a human language can be found in another species.
All four of the above talks were well-received at the IPS 2008 Congress, with audience members encouraging us to publish and share more about the Gorilla Foundation's unique methods and discoveries. Additionally, Drs. Rose and Nunes attended dozens of scientific presentations and met with scores of old and new colleagues, updating one another on progress and discoveries, renewing friendships, and planning for future contact and collaboration.
The participants at this conference demonstrated a growing interest in the interaction between humans and other primates. In fact, the International Primatological Society just announced that the theme of the 2010 IPS Congress, to be held in Japan, will be "The Quest for Coexistence with Nonhuman Primates." Because Gorilla Foundation's mission and programs focus directly on this theme, we hope to contribute substantially to that event. Our staff intends to have a host of new discoveries and achievements to report to the primatological community, two years from now in Kyoto.
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| This article was co-authored
by Dr. Anthony Rose (right), Director of Conservation and Dr. Christa Nunes (left), Associate Director of Research and Lead Caregiver at the Gorilla Foundation / Koko.org. |
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To learn more about the
22nd Congress of the International Primatological Society
go to IPS2008.co.uk
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