The Fascinating Washoe Project

The Washoe Project is both fascinating and moving. It involves a female chimpanzee named Washoe, who is considered the first non-human animal to learn American Sign Language. For many, more than an experiment, it was a revelation of nature.

The Washoe Project began on June 21, 1966 and was led by Drs. Allen Gardner and Beatrix Gardner. So the little chimp was only 2 years old.

A year before the experiment began, she had been born in West Africa and had been captured and brought to the United States by the Air Force of that country. It was intended to be used in NASA experiments, but the Gardners adopted it and started Project Washoe.

The Washoe Project

Allen and Beatrix Gardner already had experience working with apes before starting Project Washoe. By this time linguistics had become an area of ​​great interest and the Gardners wanted to find out if it was possible to teach the human language to animals.

Twice they had adopted chimpanzees to try to teach them to speak like humans. Both attempts failed and the scientists concluded that this was because the anatomy of the apes made  articulate language impossible.

When Washoe came into their lives, they had given up teaching apes to talk. Instead, they thought sign language  was the most appropriate. The hands of this species are very similar to ours and that is why the probability of getting something that way was higher.

Washoe’s education

The Gardners also believed that it was best to raise Washoe as if she were human. In other words, they would give him the same upbringing that would be lavished on a child. They wanted to know if the chimpanzee was able to learn the language naturally, like a human baby does.

In this way, Washoe had her own clothes and sat down to eat at the table with the couple. He also had his own personal items, such as toothbrushes and combs, as well as books and toys. In fact, when he grew up he settled in a trailer that had a living room, kitchen, dresser, refrigerator and a fitted bed.

The Gardners handed over custody of Washoe to Roger and Deborah Fouts when she was 5 years old. Since then, they have cared for her, maintaining the same life parameters that she had with the Gardners.

An intelligent being

All of Washoe’s caretakers were required to use sign language and refrain from using spoken language. They did not want him to feel different from others, implying that signs were the natural form of communication. Little by little, he was learning to communicate with humans.

No conditioning method was applied to Washoe to learn the language. That is, they did not reward her for her achievements, as is usually done with the animals that she wants to train, but she was allowed to learn by imitation. And he did. In the end, the chimpanzee knew more than 350 words.

Washoe had her own personality. He liked to spend time looking at books in his spare time. He also loved to see shoe catalogs and shoes in general caught his eye. Also, he had a great sense of humor.

More than an experiment

There were two events that caught the attention of the scientists and neither of them was foreseen in the Washoe Project. The first took place when one of the chimpanzee’s caregivers went away because she gave birth to a baby, who later died. Apparently Washoe didn’t like her absence too much.

When the caregiver returned, she told Washoe, in sign language, what had happened to her. The chimpanzee lowered her gaze and then traced with her finger the path of a tear on the face of that grieving mother. This showed not only that she had a high level of understanding, but that she differentiated emotions and felt empathy.

The other event took place when they put her in front of a mirror and asked who was there. She replied ” Yo, Washoe. ” This means that he had self-awareness – a higher cognitive function. The chimpanzee died in 1965. Many who knew about the project have requested that the primates be declared “non-human persons”. And what do you think?