Mitochondrial DNA phylogeography of western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)
ARTICLE - A Famous Gorilla Plays the Recorder
Transcript of ARTICLE - A Famous Gorilla Plays the Recorder
-
7/29/2019 ARTICLE - A Famous Gorilla Plays the Recorder
1/3
Categories: Science
10:17 am
February 2, 2012
by BARBARA J KING
Koko the gorilla is world-famous for her ability to communicate with humans usingphrases in American Sign Language, and for her gentle play with pet cats. Now, a
new study on Koko's play with wind instruments shows that she skillfully controls
how she breathes.
That's a knockout conclusion because scientists have thought that humans alone, out
of all the primates, can gain skillful, voluntary control over the act of breathing.
Think of blowing out candles on a birthday cake, or powerfully pushing air through a
trumpet to play music. It's usually argued that skilled breathing like this originatedonly in the primate lineage at the point when specialized anatomy made speech
possible.
Koko, of course, being a gorilla, cannot speak; she has no specialized anatomy for
speech. Yet she does control her breathing in unusually precise ways. I'm always
fascinated when an animal does something that she is supposed to be unable to do.
And I think Koko's abilities have something to tell us about how we too may "grow"
skills that may not come naturally to us.
The Koko study was conducted by Marcus Perlman, Francine G. Patterson and
Ronald H. Cohn. Lead researcher Perlman is a cognitive psychologist with a recent
Ph.D. from the University of California-Santa Cruz and a research associate at The
Ronald H. Cohn/The Gorilla Foundation
Koko with a recorder
amous Gorilla Plays The Recorder, And We All May Learn Somet... http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2012/02/02/146195395/a-famous-gorilla...
3 2012/02/03 08:40AM
-
7/29/2019 ARTICLE - A Famous Gorilla Plays the Recorder
2/3
Gorilla Foundation. (Along with Joanne E. Tanner, I'm a co-author on a forthcoming
paper of Perlman's on gestural patterns in a mother-infant pair of zoo gorillas.)
Using a series of specific definitions and measurements, Perlman et al. coded
videotapes of Koko playing with wind instruments like recorders, harmonicas and
party favor whistles. They found 38 sequences from 17 different playing bouts to
work with. The key result: When Koko plays these instruments, she adopts a patternof breathing statistically different than her normal one. In both frequency and
forcefulness, she alters her breathing in a volitional way.
Though Koko is the first gorilla to demonstrate voluntary breath control, Perlman et
al. don't claim she's the only nonhuman ape to do so. The zoo-living orangutan
Bonnie, for instance, learned to whistle after observing her human caretakers.
These captive actions challenge conclusions reached by studying fossils of extinct
human ancestors. One influential paper suggests, for instance, that only late inevolutionary history did muscles and nerves allow for fine control of breathing, and
thus, speech.
Koko, though, is immersed in a human environment; when she plays with
instruments, she is rewarded with praise and occasionally with food. Could her skills
have any meaning in an evolutionary context?
Perlman et al. note that free-ranging orangutans produce different sounds in
different groups, suggesting a role for learning and cultural transmission. Wildchimpanzees vocalize differently according to which apes are around to listen; when
they stealthily patrol their territory's boundaries, they choose to go silent. Some
degree of fine breath control is certainly involved in these cases.
I particularly appreciate Perlman's urging, however, that we look at this whole
matter in another way: It's not as if human children show evidence ofinnate breath
control. Rather, just like Koko does, theylearn breath control through shared
cultural routines with their caretakers and play partners.
These cultural routines may differ across cultures. People like me, who grew up in
the United States, learned as kidshow to blow out those birthday candles and blow
into that trumpet and also how to hold our breath underwater. Gradually, through
traditions and games shared with others, our skilled breathing comes to feel natural.
This is an embodied, ecological perspective on skill emergence. Through it, we come
to see that it's not only skills like language and tool-making that flourish via shared
social practice, but also actions like skilled breathing that might at first be attributed
wholly to biology.
What a great point to keep in mind as we surround our children and, yes, our adult
amous Gorilla Plays The Recorder, And We All May Learn Somet... http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2012/02/02/146195395/a-famous-gorilla...
3 2012/02/03 08:40AM
-
7/29/2019 ARTICLE - A Famous Gorilla Plays the Recorder
3/3
selves too, with ever-varied physical and mental challenges that may "grow" our
skills. We may surprise ourselves by what we can learn to do against all
expectations.
You can keep up with more of what Barbara is thinking on Twitter.
Tags: breathing, Marcus Perlman,The Gorilla Foundation, learning, gorillas, Koko, evolution
amous Gorilla Plays The Recorder, And We All May Learn Somet... http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2012/02/02/146195395/a-famous-gorilla...
3 2012/02/0308:40AM