Word: koko
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...surprisingly, then, accounts of the first language experiments with apes in the 1970s produced one of the most fractious debates in the history of the behavioral sciences. Washoe the chimp and Koko the gorilla became famous for their linguistic feats using sign language, but scientists argued bitterly over the significance. Did the "speech" of these animals reflect a genuine ability to think symbolically and communicate thought, or was it largely the result of rote conditioning or of cuing -- a la Hans -- by trainers? Skepticism carried the day, and researchers who had dedicated their lives to working with the apes...
...truth, Kanzi's achievements are no greater than those claimed for Koko or other subjects in early language studies. His real significance is that scientists are more willing to accept the results as valid because of the tight controls used during the studies. For instance, a one-way mirror prevented Kanzi and Alia from seeing who gave them commands, while those tracking what the ape and toddler did in response wore earphones to prevent them from hearing the requests. Each sentence was also utterly new to both ape and child. The young bonobo has thus helped break a two-decade...
Unfortunately, it is impossible to know precisely what goes on in another creature's mind and to what degree it understands the languages it uses. Take the case of the gorilla Koko, first taught 20 years ago to use American Sign Language by psychologist Penny Patterson. On one much discussed occasion, the powerful gorilla had inadvertently knocked a sink off its moorings in her living quarters. Koko signed the words "Kate there bad," pointing to the sink. Was the muscular animal trying, rather implausibly, to shift the blame to one of Patterson's slightly built female assistants...
...York Times Magazine once described U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills as a "persistent, fiercely competitive, sometimes thin-skinned workaholic." Tough words for a tough woman. Yet as a leading Japanese politician would have it, Hills is more cute than competitive. Koko Sato, deputy secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, sat next to Hills for more than two hours during a dinner party at the recent Houston economic summit. Sato, 62, told friends he found Hills, 56, "easy to deal with if you lull her with the Oriental way of life and philosophy." He later described Hills to reporters...
...Koko Taylor, Grammy award blues performer holds an outdoor concert in the DeCordova Musuem amphitheater in Sandy Pond Road Lincoln at 3 p.m. Sunday. Adults pay $10, and elders and children pay $8. Telephone...