Movie: Koko: A Talking Gorilla

In 1978 director Barbet Schroeder made a documentary on Dr. Penny Patterson and her attempts to teach sign language to a lowlands gorilla.  According to the 2005 interview included on this disc, in 1978* Patterson was worried that the San Francisco Zoo would ask for their gorilla back -- it was initially supposed to be a short-term contract -- and if they did she planned to take off with Koko and try to elude authorities, even considering relocating to Africa.  Schroeder smelled a great drama in the making, and started shooting footage of Patterson interacting with Koko at Stanford University where they were temporarily housed.

Fortunately -- or unfortunately (depending on your viewpoint) -- the zoo decided the bad publicity wouldn't be worth the possible breeding opportunity and dropped the whole thing.  Patterson has spent the next 40 years living and working with Koko, who now is said to have a vocabulary of approximately 1,000 signs and understands 2,000 English words.  Schroeder was left with a couple hours of footage but no dramatic turns... so he edited what he had into a documentary.  A documentary without much narrative drive, and pretty much limited to one time and place.  Still it's interesting, seeing footage.  Koko's story has been the subject of a few books and PBS documentaries, and mostly they took Patterson's viewpoint, which is that Koko has the mental development of a 3-year old child.

Schroeder's documentary lets the footage speak for itself.

Koko understands words and signs, and makes some furtive signs herself, but you can hardly call what she does a "conversation."  She signs for "apple" when she's hungry or "milk" when she's thirsty, but one-word signs for physical needs are 99% of her signing.  Otherwise she's a bored lowlands gorilla locked up in a trailer with a single-minded researcher, who badgers her all day to repeat hand signals.  Koko has learned the signals, to keep Patterson satisfied, but Koko doesn't seem to have much interest in Patterson's research.

At one point in the film the director of the SF Zoo is interviewed, and he says "I suppose this'll make me the bad guy, but I think a gorilla is a gorilla and should be living with other gorillas doing what gorillas do.  Teaching them sign language isn't going to make them human."  It's hard not to agree.




* - which is anachronistic. In 1976 Patterson created The Gorilla Foundation to successfully raise the money to buy Koko from the SF Zoo.

Been reading a lot of articles online about Patterson, Koko, great ape language experiments, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Kanzi, Washoe and Allen Gardner, Nim Chimpsky and Herb Terrace.  These are subjects that fascinated me 40 years ago.

Turns out there's been exactly zero progress in the field since then.

The reasons are manifold.  Lack of funding post-Reagan.  Because the mechanics of teaching sign language to an ape or a chimp involve so many hours of repetition and close interaction, most of it has been done in a very personal -- and therefore unscientific -- manner.  Infighting between researchers over whose results are meaningful.  Subtantial disagreements over the distinction between "using language" and merely memorizing hand gestures to get treats.

And most importantly, apes reach a plateau and never advance beyond the level of an incoherent toddler -- there is no breakthrough to be had there.  Turns out animal cognition is way below even a tot's understanding.  

Apes don't ask questions.  They're incurious, like George W Bush.

I remember the story of Koko from many years ago. I had no idea the experiment was still going on. I think that woman may have issues.

She made her point decades ago: that gorillas are as smart as dogs and cats, which can also find ways to communicate with humans. In fact, only house cats meow, and then only when conversing with humans. Is is possible that the meow is the cat's version of trying to teach us sign language?

Dottie doesn't meow as such, but she has a wide array of vocalizations that she uses at every opportunity. She says things like "uh-oh" and "are?" and "ohhhh" and when she can't find us she wanders the house calling out "Marco."