Editing Nim Chimpsky (section)

=== 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" />