“Project Nim,” a 2011 documentary by James Marsh reveals a fascinating study of a chimp’s behavior that focuses on the complex workings of intelligence and understanding, specifically through the utilization of language. Everything in this chimp’s life, from his name – Nim Chimpsky – to his research, is a human imposition. He was taken from his mother as a research subject shortly after his birth in order to become part of the experiment that would be led by a Professor Herbert Terrace of the University of Columbia. Terrace’s aim was to determine whether human language could be taught to an ape raised by humans, and it could be revealed that language is not only a human capability.
Something I found fascinating that was not covered in the film is the lack of explanation for the roots of Nim’s name. I connected in lecture that Nim Chimpsky must come from Noam, as in Noam Chomsky. Chomsky’s theories of the innateness and uniqueness of human language was the target and what the study with Nim aimed to displace. If Nim could master human communication, this would be a direct challenge of Chomsky’s idea that language is a fundamental, separating trait of humans from other animals.
If Nim was raised like a human child in a human household, and could be taught to communicate with humans, and it could be proven that language is not unique to humans, that would result in a large step forward in linguistic knowledge. This is also a common thread to what we’ve learned in CSD240 with regard not only to language being unique to humans, but whether it is innate or acquired and learned.
In lecture, we covered four different interactionist approaches to language development: Language and Cognitive Development (Piaget), Language and Society-Culture (Vygotsky), Language and its Social Function (Bates), and Usage-based Theory of Language Acquisition (Tomasello). These four theories are attributed to various essential elements for the development of language such as interactions with environments, social interactions, problem-solving, and innate abilities. Of these four theories, I believe Nim’s attempt at learning grammar and language can allow for the drawing of an analogy to the Piagetian view of cognitive development because Nim is extremely dependent on interaction between his cognitive abilities and his linguistic environment.
This nature vs. nurture debate is one that has gone on for quite some time. Some linguists believe it is strictly one of the other, but many linguists believe that language and grammar are a mixture, both learned and innate. I agree with this notion that language has both elements of nativism and behaviorism and that a full capability to produce language would not be maximized without one or the other.
Dr. Terrace’s project with Nim was an attempt to see if a chimpanzee could learn sign language and do more than just imitate. Throughout the research, Nim was able to learn how to sign correctly; however, he did not learn grammar, nor did he initiate communication. He was able to respond to cues from trainers though and much of his signing was attributed to imitation. In Nim’s case and in accordance with what we have learned in class, it has been noted that imitation and conditioning principles are used to account for language learning and that grammatical development is shaped by behavior.
These “negative” results that Terrace published were portrayed as a failure in the film, most likely for entertainment/narrative purposes. However, negative results or findings are still scientifically significant and relevant. Dr. Terrace established that Nim learned an initial stage of language; however, only with the expectation of obtaining a reward. I believe these results help to confirm and support the necessity of unbiased scientific research. Negative results can further inspire questions as well. Nim’s inability to learn grammatical language helped to deepen the human understanding of the differences between the minds of humans and other primates. One specific part of my personal research on Nim that sticks out to me is the notion that apes do not have a “theory of mind” or the ability to discern what another is thinking. If this is indeed true, it is more understandable that it is probably impossible for an ape’s sign language to reach any level above simple imitation and conversation.
Interestingly, Marsh makes it evident in the documentary that he is less interested in portraying scientific matters such as linguistics versus the more dramatic topics centered around emotion and psychoanalysis. Nim was taken at just 6 days old from his mother and placed in a home in New York. The film further discussed a great deal about how Nim was sent from home to home and was subject to various kinds of treatment. I found it heart-wrenching to learn about how negligent some caretakers were, but I also found it inspiring how kind some people were and how much they loved Nim. The entire documentary and the project’s portrayal was a little sad to learn more about, because it only emphasized how out of Nim’s control it all was. He was so extremely exploited, which was difficult to watch, regardless of his contribution to linguistic science and origins.
Another element of Nim’s story that I was unaware of is that the experiment ended in 1977 because Nim attacked one of his caretakers. In my opinion, there really is no other way to explain this other than Nim being ostracized from what should have been his life and reacting to the involuntary nature of his life. Additionally, at the beginning of the study, in his early years, Nim learned basic words in ASL, but continued to act like a chimp and engaged in activities such as biting children in the house, etc. These kinds of studies can be extremely dangerous forms of research because regardless of how special Nim was as a chimpanzee, all of the people involved in this project were well aware of his ability to be harm-inflicting by nature.
Situations in which Nim would be extremely aggressive or hurt people would result in him being moved to yet another home and shuffling from place to place. At the time of his attacking a caretaker, he was said to have known more than 125 ASL signs. He was then consequently sent to a medical research facility where he lived in a cage with three other chimps for the first time. This is something that flabbergasts me simply because that transition for him must have been an extremely difficult one. To go from living with humans and being forced to learn human language, to living with other chimps, must have required an extreme amount of adjustment. I would be extremely interested to learn more about that specific time in the project.
The largest flaw in my eyes, of this study, although well-natured, was that there was no investigation as to what chimpanzees actually are like and what they do. It was so understandable in my mind that the “animal” in him came out quickly and often. This should not have come as a surprise to any of the people who participated in the research and/or took care of Nim. Had researchers taken the time to discover and learn more about this, perhaps caretakers and Nim especially, would have been more okay with the entire process.
The documentary did a fantastic job showing that not only was Nim extremely valued and loved in the course of his research, but that he was also misused and abused, and the explanations from those closest to Nim all help to provide insight into the complex nature of his story. Although ethically and morally conflicting, I do find the research conducted to be very important and extremely valuable to society. It should be extremely respected for the sole purpose that it was extremely useful in our never-ending attempts to discover what it truly means to be human.