User:SaNoahLaRocque/Choose an Article

Article Selection
Please list articles that you're considering for your Wikipedia assignment below. Begin to critique these articles and find relevant sources.

Option 1

 * Article title
 * Koko (gorilla)
 * Article Evaluation
 * For this assignment, I am going to be editing the “Koko (gorilla)” Wikipedia page. Specifically, I want to focus on the section that discusses “Use of Language” and “Intelligence”. Both of the sections seem to do a summary of Koko’s ability to use sign language and various intelligence tests that have been used to evaluate her cognitive ability. I would like to dive deeper into what her use of sign language (and other notable characteristics like having a pet kitten whom she named herself) can tell us not only about linguistics in apes, but also about how gorillas are capable of relating to the world around them. By working in a definition of theory of mind, I intend on making this section more speculative about what Koko can teach us about the gorilla mind. I intend on using a number of research articles written about Koko, specifically “Pragmatic Analysis of Gorilla Utterances” by Francine Patterson, “A Conversation with Koko the Gorilla” by Roc Morin, and “The Human Fostered Gorilla Koko Shows Breath Control in Play with Wind Instruments” by Marcus Perlman.  From these works, I have learned that Koko’s use of sign language as well as verbalizations has shed light on what gorillas are able to conceive about the world around them. First, The paper by Patterson delineated exactly how Koko acquired sign language usage as well as how she used utterances to communicate with her handlers. Patterson describes how Koko began her training at around 11 months old, when she began to be taught simultaneous communication (SIMCOM) which consisted of American Sign Language and spoken English words. Koko was taught in an environment similar to that of a human child, so that her achievements could be properly compared. Patterson compared Koko’s acquisition to Dore’s primitive speech act criteria for children, which allowed researchers to determine a baseline for what Koko could learn and communicate. It will also be crucial to include information about other Great Apes who have been successful in language acquisition, such as in the Great Ape Language Projects.  After describing Koko’s ability to use SIMCOM to communicate with the world around her, I will then use “Language and Theory of Mind: Meta-Analysis of the Relation Between Language Ability and False-belief Understanding” by Karen Milligan to begin to make the distinction between Koko’s ability to sign/speak and her ability to assign beliefs/intentions/emotions/knowledge to others. I will also use the pre-lecture material “Great apes anticipate that other individuals will act according to false beliefs” by Christopher Krupenye to strengthen the idea that not only do Great Apes demonstrate Theory of Mind, but that Koko’s capabilities serve as a testament to the ability of Great Apes.  Finally, I would like to include a section that discusses what Koko’s ability to produce vocalizations and her cognitive ability tells us about the shared evolutionary history of the great apes. Information for this will primarily be taken from the Marcus Perlman paper, but I will also draw from “Evidence of Language Prerequisites in Pan: Orofacial-Motor and Breath Control in Chimpanzees and Bonobos” by Natalie Schwab.   Presently, the Wikipedia article about Koko has small sections dedicated to her usage of language and intelligence. Both sections make reference to her capabilities and studies that were conducted on her. However, both sections fail to emphasize the significance of her language acquisition and what researchers learned about Great Apes from Koko’s abilities. It seems that the sections presently written about Koko look at her from a developmental standpoint and only as it relates to human children. There is presently no discussion about Theory of Mind. The “Use of Language” section of Koko’s page serves as a chronological account of what Koko learned and how she used signs/utterances to communicate. There is no information included about analysis of this information in any field of study. The “Intelligence” section of Koko’s Wikipedia page is short-- only around 100 words. This section describes intelligence quotient tests done on Koko and how it relates to human children’s intelligence. It is my opinion that “intelligence” is not an appropriate description of the work that was done with Koko, and this section may benefit from being readapted to include more information about Great Ape cognition. Further, this would be a great area to include information about what Koko’s abilities tell us about the evolution of the Great Apes (human’s included) and how communication is used across species. Koko’s’ ability to communicate via utterances in comparison with wild gorilla’s utterances may help understand when, in the phylogenetic tree, the ability to use sound to communicate arose (see Schwab and Perlman works). Such information is important to our department specifically, as it helps shed light on the similarities and differences between Great Apes and humans.
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Option 2

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Option 3

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Option 4

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Option 5

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