NOVA: THE FIRST SIGNS OF WASHOE (TV)
Summary
One in this documentary series. This edition examines attempts to teach language to chimpanzees, focusing primarily on the work of a husband-and-wife team of comparative psychologists, professors at the University of Nevada, who conducted a five-year experiment in the late 1960s in which they taught American sign language to a chimp they named Washoe. Topics include the following: what motivated the couple to become involved in this experiment in the first place; a look at an early experiment, performed in the 1940s, in which a couple attempted to teach verbal language skills to an ape they named Vicky; the elements of the "Washoe project," including the exclusive use of signing and an environment based on the domestic family model; the similarities between Washoe's early sign formations and those of deaf children; a look at the types of testing used to ascertain Washoe's level of development; a visit to the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, where currently a chimp named Lana is being taught language in a very different way -- living in a clear plastic box and operating a "symbol machine" which takes care of her needs; the special "unambiguous" language developed for Lana; a comparison of the Washoe and Lana approaches and results; a look at Washoe's present life under the care of a scientist at a primate station in Oklahoma where Washoe interacts with and teaches other chimps; and a discussion of a current project at the San Fransico Zoo where a gorilla named Koko is being taught sign language.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS WGBH Boston, MA
- DATE: May 5, 1974 Sunday 7:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:59:01
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:11651
- GENRE: Science/Nature
- SUBJECT HEADING: Science/Nature; Chimpanzees; Sign language
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1974-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Michael Ambrosino … Executive Producer
- Simon Campbell-Jones … Producer, Writer
- Ben Shedd … Associate Producer
- Tony Kahn … Narrator
- Washoe (chimpanzee)
- Lana (chimpanzee)
- Koko (gorilla)