Career
In 1967, Fouts' future took a decisive turn when he interviewed for a half-time assistantship position at the University of Nevada. Fouts had intended on a career working with nonverbal children and needed this job -- teaching sign language to a chimp -- to pay for graduate school. [4] : 12 The plan was almost derailed by a disastrous job interview with Dr. Allen Gardner, who felt Fouts' career goals were not aligned with the project's scientific bent. [4] : 13–14 However, Washoe, the chimpanzee subject, took an immediate liking to Fouts and leapt into his arms. A few days later Fouts was told he had got the job. [6]
In Norman, Oklahoma
The Gardners initially used operant conditioning to teach Washoe signs from American Sign Language (ASL). [7] Fouts, as their employee, was to reward Washoe with praise and treats and use a step-by-step process to get Washoe to sign correctly. But Fouts found more success by catering to Washoe's desire to imitate and socially connect. When introducing a new sign, he would gently guide the chimp toward making the proper gesture (manipulating her hands into the required shapes) while emphasizing social connection over "training." [8]
Fouts' method proved to be more effective in Washoe's acquisition of new signs, and the Gardners adopted it in future chimp studies. Conditioning practices, they found, inhibited a primate's natural curiosity and desire to learn. [9] [4] : 76–80, 274
In Oklahoma, Fouts' primary research project was exploring whether Washoe would teach signs to an infant. Unfortunately, as a captive-raised chimpanzee, Washoe did not know how to properly mother an infant and both of the babies she gave birth to died. Fouts arranged for Washoe to "adopt" an older infant from another primate lab, named Loulis. Loulis, Washoe's adopted son, was ultimately said to have learned over 70 signs directly from Washoe. [10] During this period, Fouts also worked with nonverbal Autistic children and found that teaching sign language helped the children interact with others and in some cases even prompted speaking. [11] [4] : 188–189
An animal lover since childhood, Fouts struggled with his conflicting responsibilities as a research scientist and chimpanzee guardian. He was in frequent conflict with William Lemmon, the head of the Institute for Primate Studies, and the owner of most of the chimps. [12]
The chimpanzees who survived into adulthood were housed in small cages and, in most cases, ultimately since to medical labs. Fouts, unable to control their circumstances, began drinking heavily and became, in his words, “an absent father and a lousy husband.” [4] : 207
At Central Washington University
In 1980, Fouts accepted a tenured position as Professor of Psychology at Central Washington University (CWU) and arranged to take three of the chimpanzees with him to Ellensburg: Washoe, Loulis and Moja. [13] : 19 In 1981, the Gardners sent Fouts two more chimps that they had finished working with, 4-year-old Dar and 5-year-old Tatu, bringing the total to five. As the ape communication studies progressed, they found that the animals used signs to communicate with each other. The apes created phrases from combinations of signs to denote new things that were brought into their environment.
In 1986, an animal rights group called True Friends broke into a National Institute of Health (NIH) lab in Rockville, Maryland. The group videotaped AIDS-infected primates held in unfavorable conditions and mailed tapes to Jane Goodall, Roger Fouts and major media outlets. [13] : 23 In response to the negative press, Congress organized a panel of experts, including Roger Fouts, to address USDA standards for NIH-funded labs. Fouts urged to panel to require larger cages for chimpanzees (currently held 5' x 5' isolation cubes); he was opposed by every other participant, including primatologist Frans de Waal. [14] In 1991, Fouts partnered with the Animal Legal Defense Fund and sued the USDA for its treatment of captive chimpanzees, arguing that it violated the Animal Welfare Act. [15] The U.S. District Court ruled in their favor, but the decision was overruled on appeal. [4] : 327
Roger and Deborah Fouts founded the nonprofit Friends of Washoe to fundraise for their chimps' care. They also founded the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI).
Roger Fouts has served as a consultant for the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, [16] and the film Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan . [17]
Retirement
In June tired 2011, the Fouts' retired and promoted Mary Lee Jensvold to director of CHCI. Two years later, Tatu and Loulis, the two surviving chimps, were sent to Fauna Foundation and CHCI was closed. [18] A 2023 study found that over an eight-year period at the Fauna sanctuary, used signs to communicate with staff and each other. [19]
The chimpanzee, also simply known as the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close relative the bonobo was more commonly known as the pygmy chimpanzee, this species was often called the common chimpanzee or the robust chimpanzee. The chimpanzee and the bonobo are the only species in the genus Pan. Evidence from fossils and DNA sequencing shows that Pan is a sister taxon to the human lineage and is thus humans' closest living relative.
Primatology is the scientific study of non-human primates. It is a diverse discipline at the boundary between mammalogy and anthropology, and researchers can be found in academic departments of anatomy, anthropology, biology, medicine, psychology, veterinary sciences and zoology, as well as in animal sanctuaries, biomedical research facilities, museums and zoos. Primatologists study both living and extinct primates in their natural habitats and in laboratories by conducting field studies and experiments in order to understand aspects of their evolution and behavior.
Neam "Nim" Chimpsky was a chimpanzee used in a study to determine whether chimps could learn a human language, American Sign Language (ASL). The project was led by Herbert S. Terrace of Columbia University with linguistic analysis by psycholinguist Thomas Bever. Chimpsky was named as a pun on linguist Noam Chomsky, who posited that humans are "wired" to develop language.
Washoe was a female common chimpanzee who was the first non-human to learn to communicate using signs adapted from American Sign Language (ASL) as part of an animal research experiment on animal language acquisition.
Comparative psychology is the scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of non-human animals, especially as these relate to the phylogenetic history, adaptive significance, and development of behavior. The phrase comparative psychology may be employed in either a narrow or a broad meaning. In its narrow meaning, it refers to the study of the similarities and differences in the psychology and behavior of different species. In a broader meaning, comparative psychology includes comparisons between different biological and socio-cultural groups, such as species, sexes, developmental stages, ages, and ethnicities. Research in this area addresses many different issues, uses many different methods and explores the behavior of many different species, from insects to primates.
Animal languages are forms of communication between animals that show similarities to human language. Animals communicate through a variety of signs, such as sounds and movements. Signing among animals may be considered a form of language if the inventory of signs is large enough. The signs are relatively arbitrary, and the animals seem to produce them with a degree of volition.
Great ape language research historically involved attempts to teach chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans to communicate using imitative human speech, sign language, physical tokens and computerized lexigrams. These studies were controversial, with debate focused on the definition of language, the welfare of test subjects, and the anthropocentric nature of this line of inquiry.
Steven M. Wise was an American lawyer and legal scholar who specialized in animal rights, primatology, and animal intelligence. He taught animal rights law at Harvard Law School, Vermont Law School, John Marshall Law School, Lewis & Clark Law School, Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, and at the Master’s in Animal Law and Society of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He was a former president of the Animal Legal Defense Fund and founder and president of the Nonhuman Rights Project. The Yale Law Journal had called him "one of the pistons of the animal rights movement."
The Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI) was located on the campus of Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. CHCI included a sanctuary for chimpanzees who have learned to communicate with humans and each other using American Sign Language. CHCI's director was Mary Lee Jensvold. It was founded by former co-directors Roger Fouts and Deborah Fouts. The institute was closed in 2013 when the remaining chimpanzees were transferred to facilities in Quebec, Canada and the building the facility was housed in, was demolished in 2018. Portions of the specialized structures used to house the chimps were dismantled and moved to the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in Cle Elum, for future use.
The Mind of an Ape is a 1983 book by David Premack and his wife Ann James Premack. The authors argue that it is possible to teach language to (non-human) great apes. They write: "We now know that someone who comprehends speech must know language, even if he or she cannot produce it."
Loulis is a chimpanzee who has learned to communicate in American Sign Language.
Lucy (1964–1987) was a chimpanzee owned by the Institute for Primate Studies in Oklahoma, and raised by Maurice K. Temerlin, a psychotherapist and professor at the University of Oklahoma and his wife, Jane.
Deborah Fouts was the co-director of the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI). CHCI was the home of Washoe, the first non-human to acquire a human language, and three other chimpanzees who use the signs of American Sign Language to communicate with each other and their human caregivers. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology (Research) at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. She is married to former co-director, now retired Roger Fouts.
Mary Lee Jensvold is a senior lecturer at Central Washington University. She was the Director of the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI) located on the campus of Central Washington University. CHCI was the home of the chimpanzee Washoe and four other chimpanzees who use the signs of American Sign Language to communicate with one another and their human caregivers.
Comparative cognition is the comparative study of the mechanisms and origins of cognition in various species, and is sometimes seen as more general than, or similar to, comparative psychology. From a biological point of view, work is being done on the brains of fruit flies that should yield techniques precise enough to allow an understanding of the workings of the human brain on a scale appreciative of individual groups of neurons rather than the more regional scale previously used. Similarly, gene activity in the human brain is better understood through examination of the brains of mice by the Seattle-based Allen Institute for Brain Science, yielding the freely available Allen Brain Atlas. This type of study is related to comparative cognition, but better classified as one of comparative genomics. Increasing emphasis in psychology and ethology on the biological aspects of perception and behavior is bridging the gap between genomics and behavioral analysis.
The Fauna Foundation is the only accredited chimpanzee sanctuary in Canada. Located just outside Chambly, on the South Shore of Montreal, the story of Fauna started in 1990 by Gloria Grow and Dr. Richard Allan on their 150-acre (0.61 km2) farm. Later in 1997, it became the Fauna Foundation. Its primary objective, the rescue and care of chimpanzees who have been used in research, began in the wake of the shutdown of LEMSIP.
Primate cognition is the study of the intellectual and behavioral skills of non-human primates, particularly in the fields of psychology, behavioral biology, primatology, and anthropology.
Herbert S. Terrace is a professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at Columbia University. His work covers a broad set of research interests that include behaviorism, animal cognition, ape language and the evolution of language. He is the author of Nim: A Chimpanzee Who Learned Sign Language (1979) and Why Chimpanzees Can't Learn Language and Only Humans Can (2019). Terrace has made important contributions to comparative psychology, many of which have important implications for human psychology. These include discrimination learning, ape language, the evolution of language, and animal cognition.
Beatrix Tugendhut Gardner was an Austrian-American zoologist who became well known for the primate research that she conducted in the United States. She taught sign language to Washoe the chimpanzee, who was the first ape to learn American sign language.
