Science: Are Those Apes Really Talking?

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Part of the talking-ape lore may come from the subjectivity of researchers. The Sebeoks note that when Koko is asked to give the sign for drink and makes the proper gesture but touches her ear instead of her mouth, Psychologist Patterson assumes not that the gorilla has made a mistake but that it is joking. If Koko smiles when asked to frown, she is displaying a "grasp of opposites." Say the Sebeoks: "Real breakthroughs in man-ape communication are the stuff of fiction."

Such words touched off angry responses. The Gardners, incensed by Terrace's "weasel talk" and "innuendo," considered suing him. Patterson accused Terrace of "rather muddleheaded methodology." But some of the other researchers are taking a long, hard look at their own work. Premack, now at the University of Pennsylvania, thinks that Terrace's tactic of trying to treat Nim like a human baby was "silly and ill-advised," but he agrees that animals are incapable of spontaneous conversation. The Rumbaughs maintain that their more recent experiments preclude the possibility of trainers giving cues, consciously or sub consciously, to the subjects, but they have their own reservations about the linguistic ability of apes. Acknowledges Duane Rumbaugh: "There is no solid evidence to date that would indicate that the ape is ca pable of using syntax with competence."

As for the man in whose honor Nim was named, he has no doubts. Says Noam Chomsky: "It's about as likely that an ape will prove to have a language ability as that there is an island somewhere with a species of flightless birds waiting for hu man beings to teach them to fly."