Please excuse the multiple cross posting. I can't stand Koko (the idea of what she represents not the innocent animal) and would like to help this guy out. I have his permission to pass this on. His email is at the bottom of this forwarded message.
Nancy Melucci Long Beach City College et al ****************************************************************************** ******************************************** Dear Nancy Melucci, I hope this reaches you somehow, I'm responding to a very old (2004) posting of yours on the old evo-psych website. I'm a British science writer and broadcaster who is writing a book for OUP on ideas about human evolution in the light of what we have gleaned thus far from comparative genomics and cognitive psychology. Much of this, of course, is comparison between us and the great apes, and, historically, there have been both tendencies to over-estimate the cognitive gulf between humans and great apes, countered by trends that under-emphasise the gulf and suggest we are more or less on a cognitive continuum - along the lines of Sue Savage Rumbaugh's book 'Kanzi: An ape at the brink of the human mind"etc. Although I will not be spending too long on the subject of ape language studies I do want to give the area some mention. I want to spend a little time taking a hard look at some of the claims for the language capacity of non-human primates and am looking at your correspondence to the above site which emanates from a posting called "Gorilla Signs request for Surgery" - one of the more florid claims by Penny Patterson for Koko's "prodigious" linguistic talents. You stated " I have heard from people who know sign language and have seen Koko that most of her signage is rubbish....I also fear that Koko is more a political tool than an amazing example of animal language....." I am trying to find a few people who are expert at ASL, and have worked with Koko, and are un-impressed with her signs. There is a woman in the Bay Area called Kendra Keller who was hired as an ASL expert to work with Koko and subsequently fired, allegedly because she refused to allow Koko to fondle her naked breasts! Keller stated at the time that she didn't believe Koko was capable of expressing herself properly in ASL at all - it was simply delusion on the part of the staff at Gorilla Foundation. i wonder if you have any way of contacting Keller herself (I am trying through her former attorney), or whether you would be kind enought to give me one or two suggestions for skeptics with hands-on experience of Koko - or, indeed, any of the other prominent signing apes. Sincerely, Jeremy Taylor. -- Jeremy Taylor 4 Gatcombe Rd. LONDON N19 4PT +44 (0)20 7281 7166 +44 (0) 7966 531264 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com ---
