Sherman & Austin Research - 1975-1980

Sue Savage-Rumbaugh argued that the essence of language does not exist outside sociality and began working with two young male chimpanzees, Sherman, born 1973, and Austin, born 1974, using the LANA keyboard. The issue of human cuing was overcome experimentally by focusing on peer communication rather than that between experimenter and subject. The receptive component of language was featured in chimp-to-chimp communication, in which they structured their interactions around statements of planned intent.

Unlike Lana, Sherman and Austin could categorize, pretend, plan, comprehend, and respond to each other. Attending Sherman’s and Austin’s more complex use of language features was an increase in sociality and cooperation. Despite these achievements, Sherman and Austin did not comprehend spoken English. Austin died in 1998, but the other apes at the Language Research Center have not forgotten him; they still make reference to him using his lexigram, and they enjoy seeing videotapes of him.