Richard Lynch Garner was the first researcher to explore in depth the communication skills of nonhuman primates. He began … See more

Washoe and the Gardners
In 1966, the husband-and-wife research team of Beatrix T. Gardner and Robert Allen Gardner initiated a new generation of language research. After the failed efforts of teaching apes to speak, the Garners wondered whether … See more

Language abilities
Controversy in the 1970s and early 1980s centered on different understandings of language. The Gardners, Roger Fouts and Penny Patterson — … See more

Joseph Jordania suggested that the ability to ask questions is probably the central cognitive element that distinguishes human and animal … See more

The next line of research came out of cross-fostering studies, where chimpanzees were raised in homes as if they were human children. In the 1920s, Luella and See more

Sarah and two other chimpanzees, Elizabeth and Peony, in the research programs of David Premack, demonstrated the ability to produce grammatical messages of token selections. The selections came from a vocabulary of several … See more

Among primates, autonomous behaviors such as body posture, facial expressions, vocalizations and scent production have been observed to … See more