Word: schusterman
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...usurped by Muslim scholars as "first and foremost" one of their own. Maimonides embodied the Jews' mission to be "a light unto the nations." His multicultural genius enabled him to show the intellectual world the supremacy of the word of God over the philosophy of man. Rabbi Gershon Schusterman, Director The Hebrew Academy Lubavitch Westminster, Calif. Barely Mentioned...
Some scientists, particularly those from the behaviorist school of psychology, take a more skeptical view. What looks like language, they say, may be simply mimicry or rote learning. One of Herman's critics, animal behaviorist Ronald Schusterman, insists that before anyone can say an animal is speaking, they had better determine whether the beast is capable of the kind of abstract thinking that forms the basis of speech. "My argument is that the language experiments have moved too fast," says Schusterman. "They have not looked at some fundamental cognitive abilities that give rise to linguistic abilities." At Long Marine Laboratory...
Unlike the sunny-dispositioned dolphins, sea lions radiate intensity. Schusterman chose them for his research because they are easily trained. He did not attempt to teach seven-year-old Rio a language. Instead, he wanted to determine if the female sea lion could understand logical relationships between symbols presented on poster boards. For instance, by rewarding the sea lion selectively, trainers taught Rio that a symbol looking like a mug was equivalent to one that looked like a watch. Then she was taught that the watch symbol was equivalent to a third symbol that looked like a bomb. The question...
...Schusterman devised an elaborate procedure to ensure against cuing: signals to Rio were delivered by a trainer who did not know the correct answer. Rio would start the test by choosing one of two randomly selected symbols on a scoreboard-like apparatus next to her tank. She would then be presented with two new icons and asked to pick which one was logically equivalent to the symbol she had chosen earlier...
...treat training as if it were a life-or- death matter. At the start of each session Rio rivets her stare on her trainers. When wrong, she barks in frustration. But on one particular day she had little to complain about, answering correctly 24 out of 28 times. Schusterman takes this performance as proof that the animal has at least some of the cognitive skills required for language. Thus, he says, it is now much easier for him to accept that bigger-brained dolphins and apes understand and manipulate their vocabularies symbolically as well...
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