Baboon foot hitting a word on the screen to indicate if it is an English word.
(Credit: Image courtesy of CNRS (Délégation Paris Michel-Ange))
27 comments:
Jordan
said...
I think the monkeys also pick up the new words by listening to people talk. It is really interest how they can distinguish the different words based on different word patters.
That is so interesting! I still don't really understand how the baboons can recognize that "bank" is a word and "jank" isn't. I would understand if it was "bank" and "jnka". I think that it would be even cooler if, using these new discoveries, scientists could teach apes to understand speech. Now that would be a breakthrough in science!
I always knew baboons were really smart and close to humans. It's pretty cool that they can recognize the patterns and which letters go next to each other for the most part. At first I couldn't believe that they would go in the booths by choice, but then he said that they were rewarded with a piece of cereal every time they got it right. I wonder what other animals this might work on. That would be a pretty cool science fair project, except where would you get the baboons? I also agree with Sinclaire about the fact that it would be cool if the baboons could be taught to understand speech.
Wow...just wow. I never imagined baboons could do this kind of stuff. I realized upon reading this article that the baboons weren't really reading the words, but recognizing different orders of symbols, in this case letters. Namely, they didn't know what the words meant. That is the difference between us and baboons. Baboons can learn orders of symbols, but we can learn orders of symbols as well as understand what strings of them mean. I think any animal could accomplish this kind of task, because it did take thousands of times for the baboons to learn it. I also wonder if you could get an animal like a parrot to not only learn how to spell the words, but also read them out loud and fully understand them. I asked my mom, and she said that a lot of animals are smart enough to do this, but some don't have the vocal capacity to speak our words. This is the reason why I ask if parrots can do this, because parrots can mimic words already and if we could teach them to know what the words mean, we could have a parrot that could talk to us intelligently!
This is really cool! The fact that baboons can read english amazed me. WHile reading the article though, I was wondering if these baboons were from the wild, or from a zoo. If they were from a zoo, they might already have learned tiny bits of English, just by being around so many signs and people speaking english. However, if they were wild, it seems like they might have a harder time learning the words and word patterns. Thats just my thinking though.
It’s strange that baboons don’t have their own written language, but they can learn combinations of letters in human words. They don’t understand what the words mean, so it’s not reading. The baboon brain is closer to a human brain than I thought.
Like a lot of animals, baboons do have their own verbal language that they use to communicate with other baboons. If we study baboons, we can learn certain sounds they make and what they mean. Baboons can’t speak human languages, but they can learn to understand some simple words we say and their meaning.
This is really interesting. I knew that monkeys are really intelligent, but I didn't think they would actually be able to tell which words were spelled wrong and which ones weren't. I also agree that it doesn't really make sense that a baboon would know that "bank" is a word, and "jank" isn't. I think that might have been a luck guess.
I think it is very interesting that baboons are able to read. It is just another example of how primate intelligence is improving. Maybe one day their will be another humanoid species on earth that has superior intelligence like us. This also reminds me of rise of the planet of the apes.
This is a major step in scientific research, yet I think the impact on society will be minimal. I mean, this whole thing is amazing, I admit, but I don't see how it will impact our everyday lives. I think that it points to the fact of how smart non-human animals are, and how humans under-value non-human animals. I just don't see how this will make an impact on how I live everyday. Even though I love Primatology, and I am doing an independent study on it, it just really doesn't matter in an everyday American's life.
Wow, that is really cool. I used to think that humans are the only ones who can understand words. I guess I owe the other primates and apology. Though I doubt that it will be the most popular discovery for humans right now. But a short while ago (a few years) if we had discovered this it would be very popular and talked about.
This was really cool. Like Edie said, I kind of knew that baboons were smart and close to humans, but I didn't know it was like to this level. I thought that the video was really cool, and so was the setup of the whole experiment. I also agree with Sinclaire and Camille about how they know that "bank" is a word but "jank" isn't.
I think that this is amazing! From here, we might be able to teach them the meaning of some of these words, kind of like teaching a human baby how to read and converse, only we would have to use extremely simple words. This might bring on the possibility for baboons to communicate with us, using simple words, such as, "What do you think?" or something like that. We could learn the world through a baboon's eyes, and that could lead us to completely different ideas, such as conversing with dogs and cats, since they are the most familiar animals to the human race. (Well, most of the human race, anyway.) I liked this article, and it brought on a lot of ideas.
I agree with Sinclaire- it would be really cool if scientists could teach baboons to speak. To get there, though, you would have to teach them to write!
This is really interesting! I think that it shows that baboons are actually really smart! If this is true, I think it must mean that monkeys and apes can distinguish too, because we evolved from them, and we are all primates. I also believe what Jordan said is true; they learn a little by picking up on words people talk. But, the main difference is that we know what the words mean. But, I think that with hard-work and dedication, we could teach baboons to know what the words mean. And, what if in the next 100 or 200 years, as Sinclaire said, we are able to teach them to talk, and have a conversation with us. That would be a giant scientific breakthrough!
The fact that an animal other than ourselves can "read" is mind-blowing. The fact that they have a large enough brain to store the information that allows them to distinguish patterns and act appropriately to them is awesome.
This article was very interesting. I think it is really cool how the monkeys were able to recognize letters by the sound of a human voice and how they are able to make patterns and words. It was a little confusing about how they are able to recognize the words, but this was a cool science article. I agree with Sinclaire, that the next step would be to make the monkeys understand speech!
I think that from here, it might be possible to show baboons the meaning of words by, maybe, showing them the word and then a demonstration of what it meant or a picture. It would be really cool if baboons could learn to speak, but would their voice capabilities be the same as ours?
Wow, we never realize that animals are so smart. If they are smart enough to recognize those kinds of patterns, I wonder what else they could do? That is amazing.
It is really interesting that baboons can recognize patterns of letters. It makes sense that they are able to memorize certain words, but it is really cool that they can also recognize new words based on the patterns of letters. If they can recognize patterns of letters, can they also recognize patterns of other things, like shapes? I would guess that they can, because basic shapes are simpler than letters. And I think that the baboons might even be able to continue the pattern. If the baboons are able to continue patterns of shapes, then the next step would be to teach them to form patterns of letters, which could lead to writing. I agree with Molly that I think they should teach the baboons what the words mean. If all that works, then we might eventually be able to communicate with them through writing. But I don't think that they will ever be able to speak with us because they weren't made to speak English, just like they make noises that we can't. I wonder how this test would have gone if they used a different language.
This was a really interesting article. It is so cool that baboons can recognize a word from a non-word. It does make sense because baboons are so genetically similar to we humans. I agree with Sinclaire that it would be cool if scientists could teach apes to understand speech. That would be amazing
That's pretty cool. I think that this test should be done on another type of animal, not related to apes, so it could be shown that all animals have this ability. Personally, I don't think that all animals have this ability, just animals related to apes because we are the smartest animals on the planet and we evolved from apes, so they would be the second smartest.
I wonder if baboons or other apes can do this with another language. Probably. As long as they can pick up the patterns in words, almost all languages have these patterns. Also, we're descended from the apes, and we're way smarter than them. Perhaps a new species will be descended from us, and is smarter than us. However, to teach baboons and apes to have a conversation seems a little far fetched to me. After all, they're only trying to distinguish right words from wrong words. Perhaps they can be able to tell if a word we say is right or wrong, but learning the definition, and to be able to string them together would be extremely difficult, if not impossible.
27 comments:
I think the monkeys also pick up the new words by listening to people talk. It is really interest how they can distinguish the different words based on different word patters.
i meant patterns
That is so interesting! I still don't really understand how the baboons can recognize that "bank" is a word and "jank" isn't. I would understand if it was "bank" and "jnka". I think that it would be even cooler if, using these new discoveries, scientists could teach apes to understand speech. Now that would be a breakthrough in science!
This was interesting but I don't understand how the apes can write the words. I agree with Sinclaire on how do the know the words "bank" and "jank".
I always knew baboons were really smart and close to humans. It's pretty cool that they can recognize the patterns and which letters go next to each other for the most part. At first I couldn't believe that they would go in the booths by choice, but then he said that they were rewarded with a piece of cereal every time they got it right. I wonder what other animals this might work on. That would be a pretty cool science fair project, except where would you get the baboons? I also agree with Sinclaire about the fact that it would be cool if the baboons could be taught to understand speech.
Wow...just wow. I never imagined baboons could do this kind of stuff. I realized upon reading this article that the baboons weren't really reading the words, but recognizing different orders of symbols, in this case letters. Namely, they didn't know what the words meant. That is the difference between us and baboons. Baboons can learn orders of symbols, but we can learn orders of symbols as well as understand what strings of them mean. I think any animal could accomplish this kind of task, because it did take thousands of times for the baboons to learn it. I also wonder if you could get an animal like a parrot to not only learn how to spell the words, but also read them out loud and fully understand them. I asked my mom, and she said that a lot of animals are smart enough to do this, but some don't have the vocal capacity to speak our words. This is the reason why I ask if parrots can do this, because parrots can mimic words already and if we could teach them to know what the words mean, we could have a parrot that could talk to us intelligently!
This is really cool! The fact that baboons can read english amazed me. WHile reading the article though, I was wondering if these baboons were from the wild, or from a zoo. If they were from a zoo, they might already have learned tiny bits of English, just by being around so many signs and people speaking english. However, if they were wild, it seems like they might have a harder time learning the words and word patterns. Thats just my thinking though.
It’s strange that baboons don’t have their own written language, but they can learn combinations of letters in human words. They don’t understand what the words mean, so it’s not reading. The baboon brain is closer to a human brain than I thought.
Like a lot of animals, baboons do have their own verbal language that they use to communicate with other baboons. If we study baboons, we can learn certain sounds they make and what they mean. Baboons can’t speak human languages, but they can learn to understand some simple words we say and their meaning.
This is really interesting. I knew that monkeys are really intelligent, but I didn't think they would actually be able to tell which words were spelled wrong and which ones weren't. I also agree that it doesn't really make sense that a baboon would know that "bank" is a word, and "jank" isn't. I think that might have been a luck guess.
I think it is very interesting that baboons are able to read. It is just another example of how primate intelligence is improving. Maybe one day their will be another humanoid species on earth that has superior intelligence like us. This also reminds me of rise of the planet of the apes.
This is a major step in scientific research, yet I think the impact on society will be minimal. I mean, this whole thing is amazing, I admit, but I don't see how it will impact our everyday lives. I think that it points to the fact of how smart non-human animals are, and how humans under-value non-human animals. I just don't see how this will make an impact on how I live everyday. Even though I love Primatology, and I am doing an independent study on it, it just really doesn't matter in an everyday American's life.
Wow, that is really cool. I used to think that humans are the only ones who can understand words. I guess I owe the other primates and apology. Though I doubt that it will be the most popular discovery for humans right now. But a short while ago (a few years) if we had discovered this it would be very popular and talked about.
This was really cool. Like Edie said, I kind of knew that baboons were smart and close to humans, but I didn't know it was like to this level. I thought that the video was really cool, and so was the setup of the whole experiment. I also agree with Sinclaire and Camille about how they know that "bank" is a word but "jank" isn't.
I think that this is amazing! From here, we might be able to teach them the meaning of some of these words, kind of like teaching a human baby how to read and converse, only we would have to use extremely simple words. This might bring on the possibility for baboons to communicate with us, using simple words, such as, "What do you think?" or something like that. We could learn the world through a baboon's eyes, and that could lead us to completely different ideas, such as conversing with dogs and cats, since they are the most familiar animals to the human race. (Well, most of the human race, anyway.) I liked this article, and it brought on a lot of ideas.
I agree with Sinclaire- it would be really cool if scientists could teach baboons to speak. To get there, though, you would have to teach them to write!
This is really interesting! I think that it shows that baboons are actually really smart! If this is true, I think it must mean that monkeys and apes can distinguish too, because we evolved from them, and we are all primates. I also believe what Jordan said is true; they learn a little by picking up on words people talk. But, the main difference is that we know what the words mean. But, I think that with hard-work and dedication, we could teach baboons to know what the words mean. And, what if in the next 100 or 200 years, as Sinclaire said, we are able to teach them to talk, and have a conversation with us. That would be a giant scientific breakthrough!
The fact that an animal other than ourselves can "read" is mind-blowing. The fact that they have a large enough brain to store the information that allows them to distinguish patterns and act appropriately to them is awesome.
This article was very interesting. I think it is really cool how the monkeys were able to recognize letters by the sound of a human voice and how they are able to make patterns and words. It was a little confusing about how they are able to recognize the words, but this was a cool science article. I agree with Sinclaire, that the next step would be to make the monkeys understand speech!
I think that from here, it might be possible to show baboons the meaning of words by, maybe, showing them the word and then a demonstration of what it meant or a picture. It would be really cool if baboons could learn to speak, but would their voice capabilities be the same as ours?
Wow, we never realize that animals are so smart. If they are smart enough to recognize those kinds of patterns, I wonder what else they could do? That is amazing.
Wow. I always knew monkeys were smart, but I didn't know they could read! I thought is was cool how they were able to recognize letters.
It is really interesting that baboons can recognize patterns of letters. It makes sense that they are able to memorize certain words, but it is really cool that they can also recognize new words based on the patterns of letters. If they can recognize patterns of letters, can they also recognize patterns of other things, like shapes? I would guess that they can, because basic shapes are simpler than letters. And I think that the baboons might even be able to continue the pattern. If the baboons are able to continue patterns of shapes, then the next step would be to teach them to form patterns of letters, which could lead to writing. I agree with Molly that I think they should teach the baboons what the words mean. If all that works, then we might eventually be able to communicate with them through writing. But I don't think that they will ever be able to speak with us because they weren't made to speak English, just like they make noises that we can't. I wonder how this test would have gone if they used a different language.
I find this similar when those scientists taught those primates sign language.
This was a really interesting article. It is so cool that baboons can recognize a word from a non-word. It does make sense because baboons are so genetically similar to we humans. I agree with Sinclaire that it would be cool if scientists could teach apes to understand speech. That would be amazing
That's pretty cool. I think that this test should be done on another type of animal, not related to apes, so it could be shown that all animals have this ability. Personally, I don't think that all animals have this ability, just animals related to apes because we are the smartest animals on the planet and we evolved from apes, so they would be the second smartest.
I wonder if baboons or other apes can do this with another language. Probably. As long as they can pick up the patterns in words, almost all languages have these patterns. Also, we're descended from the apes, and we're way smarter than them. Perhaps a new species will be descended from us, and is smarter than us. However, to teach baboons and apes to have a conversation seems a little far fetched to me. After all, they're only trying to distinguish right words from wrong words. Perhaps they can be able to tell if a word we say is right or wrong, but learning the definition, and to be able to string them together would be extremely difficult, if not impossible.
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