Editing Nim Chimpsky (section)

==Project Nim==
{{see also|Project Nim (film)}}
[[Herbert S. Terrace|Herbert Terrace]], a professory of Psychology at [[Columbia University]], launched Project Nim in 1973, six years after R. Allen and [[Beatrix Tugendhut Gardner|Beatrix Gardner]] began testing a chimpanzee's ability to acquire [[American Sign Language]] with Project [[Washoe (chimpanzee)|Washoe]]. Terrace named the infant chimpanzee as a pun on [[Noam Chomsky]]. With this project, Terrace intended to challenge Chomsky's assertion that only [[human]]s can use language.<ref name=Fouts01>{{cite news |url=http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=248&dept_id=505345&newsid=19369504&PAG=461&rfi=9 |work=Independent Reader |title=A chimp named Nim |date= | access-date=2008-03-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080413123757/http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=248 |archive-date=2008-04-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref> (Terrace's mentor, [[B. F. Skinner|B.F. Skinner]], a key figure in [[behaviorism]], was known as an academic target and rival of Chomsky.<ref>Hess, E. (2008) p. 13</ref>)

===Nim's early years===

[[File:Nim Chimpsky.jpg|thumb|Nim washing dishes at the house in Riverdale]]
Nim's life history is detailed in Elizabeth Hess's seminal biography, ''Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human'' (2008), which became the basis for a 2011 documentary film directed by [[James Marsh (director)|James Marsh]], ''[[Project Nim (film)|Project Nim]]'' (see below).

Nim was born at the Institute for Primate Studies in [[Norman, Oklahoma|Norman]], [[Oklahoma]]. A few days after his birth, he was taken from his sedated mother and placed in the [[New York City]] home of Stephanie LaFarge. LaFarge was a former grad student of Terrace's with three children and four stepchildren.<ref>Hess, E. (2008) p. 61 and ch. 3</ref> LaFarge "knew nothing" about chimps and instantly recognized that the arrangement would be a problem.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Linden |first=Eugene |title=Silent Partners: The Legacy of the Ape Language Experiments |publisher=Ballantine Books |year=1987 |isbn=978-0345342348}}</ref> The LaFarge household was unconventional: she breastfed the chimp (though she had no milk)<ref name=":0" /><ref>Hess, E. (2008) pp. 77-78</ref> and smoked pot with him.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Hess. E. (2009) p. 80</ref> Stephanie LaFarge and her daughter Jennie Lee used signs sporadically, focusing instead on play and establishing trust, which they saw as a developmental need. They did not maintain records of Nim's development and did not support the harsh discipline practices that Terrace and his lead trainer at the time demanded. (This included the use of cattle prods<ref>Hess, E (2008) p. 102</ref> and forcing Nim into a small, dark box when he misbehaved.<ref>Terrace, H.S. (1979) p. 58</ref>). By mutual agreement two years later, Nim was moved out of the LaFarge [[brownstone]] and into a large house in [[Riverdale, Bronx|Riverdale]], where a grad student, [[Laura-Ann Petitto]], took over as primary caregiver.

After the move to Riverdale, Nim exhibited symptoms of intense anxiety. For the first few weeks, he refused to be alone for even a minute.<ref>Hess, E. (2008) p. 122</ref> When left with a new person, he would rip off his clothes and pee and poop all over the room.<ref>Hess, E. (2008) p. 125</ref> His habit of "sinking his teeth into human flesh"—which started before he was a year old—became both more frequent and more damaging.<ref>Hess, E. (2008) pp. 89-91</ref>

Adding further complication, Terrace became romantically involved with Petitto. (He had also been sexually involved with LaFarge but the relationship ended years before Project Nim.) After he "abruptly" ended the relationship, Petitto quit,<ref name=":1" /> cutting off Nim (again) from his closet companion and maternal figure. Terrace's two other full-timers quit around the same time.<ref>Hess, E. (2008) p. 131</ref> In the wake of these turnovers, Nim's behavior deteriorated further; he became more aggressive and less compliant with sign-language sessions.<ref name=":0" />

===Problems with the study===

A number of factors were problematic in the study of Nim’s and other chimpanzees' signing abilities including the definition of language, turnover of research and care staff, varying teaching methods, and the traumatic experiences inflicted upon the chimpanzees. While the research experiments were considered studies of language, they were in effect, studies of trauma. It had been assumed that the chimpanzees had no language of their own prior to being taught American Sign Language, and the quality of their attachments to human carers and other chimpanzees had not been considered.<ref>Ingersoll, R. & Scarnà, A.A. (2023)</ref><ref>Scarnà, A.A. & Ingersoll, R. (2024)</ref>

Another problem with the study was the quality (and number) of people working with Nim. There were about 60 total, mostly volunteers, and few were proficient in sign language.<ref>Marx, J. (1980), p. 1331</ref> Mary Wambaugh, a deaf woman fluent in ASL, joined the team three years into the study and raised concerns that the others were improperly signing. She told Terrace that Nim was being taught a [[pidgin]] version of the language, not proper ASL, which has a structure and set of rules. As Hess observed, this made sense given the study's heavy reliance on students and untrained volunteers. The caregivers signed word-by-word, the same way Nim did.<ref>Hess, E. (2008) pp. 142-3</ref>

Another significant problem involved Nim's classroom. Nim performed his signs most fluidly and creatively when playing with his (human) friends at "home" — "home" being initially the LaFarge brownstone<ref>Terrace, H.S. (1979) p. 54</ref> and, later, the Riverdale mansion.<ref>Hess, E. (2008) p. 145</ref> Yet Terrace needed Nim to work primarily in a space at Columbia, a windowless, noisy, 15' square "dungeon."<ref name=":1" /> Terrace described the challenges with the space in ''Nim'':<blockquote>In the classroom, the slightest noise would make Nim jump into the arms of a teacher. At times, he was so scared he tried to hide under his teacher's skirt. The squeals of rats [in a nearby room] caused him to panic. And he would rock back-and-forth on the floor.<ref>Terrace, H.S. (1979) p. 50</ref></blockquote>Joyce Butler, who took over as primary caregiver after Petitto quit, said that Nim was nearly impossible to wrangle in the classroom and would repeatedly ask to leave by signing "dirty" to go to the bathroom. Butler and her fellow caregivers fought Terrace over his requirement that Nim attend the classroom daily. Eventually, they refused to take him there.

As difficulties with staff, funding concerns, and Nim's behavior came to a head, Terrace called an end to the study. Over intense resistance from staff, he sent Nim back to the Institute for Primate Studies in 1977<ref name=":1" /> and then set about analyzing his data.

=== Terrace's conclusions ===
While Nim was in New York, Terrace believed he was learning sign language. But in reviewing the data, Terrace came to a conclusion that surprised most everyone involved: Nim, he said, was not using language at all.<ref>Sobel, D. (1970)</ref> Terrace said that he changed his mind when watching videotapes of Nim (in his classroom). Language requires the use of sentences, and Nim didn't use sentences. Though Nim recognized and used signs, Terrace said he did not initiate conversation. When Nim combined signs, they tended to be highly repetitive and filled with "wild cards"—words like ME, HUG, NIM, and MORE.<ref>Sobel, D (1970)</ref> For example, Nim's longest utterance, 16 signs, was: "Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you."<ref>{{cite news |last=Terrace |first=H. S. |year=1979 |title=How Nim Chimpsky Changed My Mind |publisher=Ziff-Davis Publishing Company}}</ref> The videotapes, Terrace argued, proved that Nim mimicked his teachers and used signs strictly to get a reward, not unlike a dog or horse.<ref name="Science1979" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />

Terrace's results shocked some of Nim's trainers and contradicted his earlier observations, including those in his book ''Nim'' (1979). That said, his findings regarding the Nim data were generally accepted as accurate. Among the many problems with Terrace's project (see above), he did not build in [[Blinded experiment|blind controls]], making Project Nim vulnerable to the [[Clever Hans]] effect.

Controversy erupted over the fact that Terrace did not restrict his analysis to Nim. He claimed that other [[ape]]s in other sign language research projects—most notably, [[Washoe (chimpanzee)|Washoe]] and gorilla [[Koko (gorilla)|Koko]]—were mere mimmicks as well. He made these claims after examining brief video clips of the apes taken from a NOVA documentary<ref>{{Cite web |last=NOVA |date=July 5, 1974 |title=The First Signs of Washoe |url=https://archive.org/details/NOVATheFirstSignsOfWashoe |access-date=October 8, 2024 |website=Internet Archive}}</ref> and a film by Allen and [[Beatrix Tugendhut Gardner|Beatrix Gardner.]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gardner |first=A. & B. |date=1973 |title=Teaching sign language to the chimpanzee, Washoe |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/teaching-sign-language-to-the-chimpanzee-washoe/oclc/2422199 |access-date=October 8, 2024 |website=WorldCat}}</ref> Terrace's criticisms of other ape research led to heated debates, with many scholars contesting Terrace's claims. The arguments back-and-forth were summarized at that time by Jean Marx in ''Science'' (1980) and Dava Sobel (1979) and Eugene Linden<ref name=":5" /> in the ''New York Times''.

Terrace ultimately became a popularly cited critic of [[ape language]] studies.<ref name=":4" />