Editing Nim Chimpsky (section)

===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.