Editing Koko (gorilla) (section)

===Scientific criticism===
Francine Patterson's published research received a variety of criticisms from the scientific community. [[Herbert S. Terrace]] and [[Laura-Ann Petitto]], researchers who worked with [[Nim Chimpsky]], issued critical evaluations of Patterson's reports and suggested that Koko was simply being prompted by her trainers' unconscious cues to display specific signs.<ref>Petitto, L. A., & Seidenberg, M. S. (1979). On the evidence for linguistic abilities in signing apes. Brain and Language, 8(2), 162–183.</ref><ref>Miles, H. L. (1983). Apes and language: The search for communicative competence. In Language in primates (pp. 43–61). Springer New York.</ref><ref name=":1">Terrace, H. S. (1983). Apes who "talk": language or projection of language by their teachers?. In Language in Primates (pp. 19–42). Springer New York.</ref><ref>Terrace, H. S., Petitto, L. A., Sanders, R. J., & Bever, T. G. (1979). Can an ape create a sentence?. Science, 206(4421), 891–902.</ref> Terrace and Petitto questioned Patterson's interpretations of Koko's signing and her claims of grammatical competency, asking for more rigorous testing.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Terrace |first=Herbert |title=More on Monkey Talk {{!}} Herbert Terrace |language=en |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1980/12/04/more-on-monkey-talk-1/ |access-date=December 12, 2023 |issn=0028-7504}}</ref> (Terrace and Petitto reported negative results in their Nim study, which was itself criticized on methodological grounds.) Other researchers argued that Koko did not understand the meaning behind what she was doing and learned to complete the signs simply because the researchers rewarded her for doing so (indicating that her actions were the product of [[operant conditioning]]).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Candland |first=Douglas Keith |url=https://archive.org/details/feralchildrencle00cand |title=Feral Children and Clever Animals: Reflections on Human Nature |publisher=Oxford University Press US |year=1993 |isbn=0-19-510284-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/feralchildrencle00cand/page/293 293]–301 |quote=koko gorilla operant conditioning. |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Blackmore |first=Susan J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dtkeLWVMlcsC&q=koko+gorilla+criticism&pg=PA88 |title=The Meme Machine |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-19-286212-X |page=88}}</ref> Another concern was that interpretation of the gorilla's conversation was left to the handler, who may have seen improbable [[concatenation]]s of signs as meaningful; for example, when Koko signed "sad" there was no way to tell whether she meant it with the connotation of "How sad." Patterson defended her research, stating that [[Blinded experiment|blind and double-blind experiments]] had been administered to evaluate the gorillas' comprehension, that the gorillas were able to sign spontaneously to each other and to strangers without the prompting of a trainer, and that they signed meaningfully the majority of the time.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Patterson |first=Francine |title=Gorilla Talk {{!}} Francine Patterson |language=en |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1980/10/09/gorilla-talk/ |access-date=December 12, 2023 |issn=0028-7504}}</ref>

Later critics noted that Patterson used Koko in deceptive ways in popular media.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Hu |first=Jane C. |date=August 20, 2014 |title=What Do Talking Apes Really Tell Us? |url=https://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/08/koko_kanzi_and_ape_language_research_criticism_of_working_conditions_and.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715031813/https://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/08/koko_kanzi_and_ape_language_research_criticism_of_working_conditions_and.html |archive-date=July 15, 2018 |access-date=July 14, 2018 |work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |department=Health & Science (Science) |issn=1090-6584 |eissn=1091-2339}}</ref> These concerns were echoed privately by staff at the Gorilla Foundation, where turnover was high. Some, like research assistant Anne Southecomb, expressed concerns that Patterson's exaggerated claims and "over-interpretation" undermined and disvalued their work.<ref>Episode 7, "Man is stupid." December 15, 2021. A Show About Animals (podcast) by VICE.</ref> (Southcombe left to work with orangutan [[Chantek]] on a research project she preferred.<ref>Gorilla Girl documentary film (September 2, 2022). Heartisan Films: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLUgx6hAh8A</ref>) Sign language expert Sherman Wilcox, for example, characterized the Foundation's edited clips of Koko making a "climate speech" as deceptive and "disrespectful of ASL". Wilcox expressed concerns that the bit would reinforce the perception that ASL is "only words and no syntax".<ref>{{Cite web |last=King |first=Barbara J |date=December 10, 2015 |title=Famous Gorilla 'Gives' A Climate Speech |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2015/12/10/459181304/famous-gorilla-s-climate-speech |website=NPR}}</ref>

Eugene Linden, a journalist who spent years studying apes involved in language experiments and co-wrote (with Patterson) ''The Education of Koko'', also expressed concerns about Patterson's practices. Linden reported that Koko's signing was more fluid and precise than that of [[Washoe (chimpanzee)|Washoe]] and other Oklahoma chimpanzees.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Linden |first=Eugene |title=Silent Partners: the Legacy of the Ape Language Experiments |publisher=Times Books |year=1986 |pages=52, 118}}</ref> She was also by nature less impulsive; though, like the chimps, she frequently refused to participate in language drills.<ref>Patterson and Linden (1981).</ref> When not pushed to perform or stressed by strangers, "the amount of signing by Koko seemed to me to overwhelm [Patterson's] capacity to digest and analyze it," Linden wrote.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Linden |first=Eugene |title=Silent Partners: the Legacy of the Ape Language Experiments |publisher=Times Books |year=1986 |location=New York |pages=122}}</ref> But in Linden's view, Patterson's exaggerated claims, "[[Siege mentality|bunker mentality]]", refusal to provide researchers access to Koko, and unwillingness to open up the data she had collected minimized Koko's impact.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Linden |first=Eugene |title=Silent Partners: the Legacy of the Ape Language Experiments |date=1986 |publisher=Times Books |location=New York |pages=120}}</ref>

Ultimately, critics of Patterson's claims acknowledged that Koko had learned a number of signs and used them to communicate her wants.<ref name=":5" /> But this did not mean that Koko "spoke" sign language, which requires a grasp of syntax and grammatical sentences. Experts generally agreed that Koko's use of sentences was unsupported by evidence.<ref>Michael W. Eysenck, 2000, Psychology: A Student's Handbook Taylor & Francis, p. 247</ref><ref>Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, Nina Hyams. 2013. An Introduction to Language. Cengage Learning, pp. 20–21</ref><ref>Gisela Håkansson, Jennie Westander. 2013. Communication in Humans and Other Animals. John Benjamins Publishing, p. 131</ref><ref>Joel Wallman. 1992. Aping Language. Cambridge University Press, p. 20</ref>