Why Chimpanzees Can't Learn Language and Only Humans Can by Herbert S. Terrace

Author:Herbert S. Terrace
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LAN009060, Language Arts & Disciplines/Linguistics/Syntax, SCI090000, Science/Cognitive Science
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2019-01-09T16:00:00+00:00

a stimulating loving environment in which their natural capacities will flourish. A child that is raised in an orphanage… may be very restricted in his abilities. In fact, it may not learn language properly [italics added].5

The obvious place to study that “stimulating loving environment” is the relation between an infant and her mother.6 Like other nonhuman primates, human infants form a strong attachment to their mothers that begins at birth. That is evident from their tendency to cling, cry, and seek comfort during stressful situations. Infants are also primed to share and coordinate other emotional and cognitive experiences with their mothers. Such sharing and coordination are needed for the development of language.

During the first few months, human infants and their mothers develop a reciprocal communicative bond, in which they take turns sharing gaze and emotion. That stage is called intersubjectivity. Toward the end of her first year, an infant learns to share her mother’s attention to external objects. That stage is called joint attention. Both stages are uniquely human.

An infant’s activities during these stages are represented in what psychologists refer to as “procedural” memory. Unlike “declarative” memory, which is conscious, and which a child uses to recall information once she learns language, procedural learning is not conscious. It is often established by repetitive activities, such as smiling at a caretaker and singing songs. At about six months, an infant begins to play peek-a-boo, an absorbing game that doesn’t require any words but which does require the infant to take turns.

It’s easy to remember when an infant utters her first words. Episodes of intersubjectivity and joint attention are less memorable because they are not verbal, but that should not detract from the importance of intersubjectivity and joint attention. Language would never develop without those experiences.

Intersubjectivity. Among primates, only humans cradle their infants. As discussed in chapter 3, newborn human infants are the least developed of all primates. At birth, the volume of the infant brain is only about 25 percent of its adult size. In chimpanzees, it is 45 percent.7 Because the infant’s skeletal system is also poorly developed, she can’t even crawl until she is about six months old.

An important benefit of cradling is the proximity of the infant’s and mother’s eyes. That allows them to share each other’s gaze, one of many quirks of evolution that contributed to the development of language. Cradling provides ample opportunities for human infants and their mothers to observe and anticipate each other’s behavior and to develop patterns of social coordination.

Cradling and, in particular, shared eye gaze contribute to a dramatic example of intersubjectivity right after birth. In a classic experiment, Meltzoff showed that infants can imitate another’s facial expression a mere 42 minutes after birth.8 In that study, an actor protruded his tongue while the infant was sucking on a pacifier. A few seconds later, the actor removed the pacifier. During the next two minutes, the infant protruded her tongue, gradually approximating the actor’s movement. Some psychologists objected that the infant’s response was

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