<span class="ap_head ap_head-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-title">See Dan read: Baboons can learn to spot real words</span><br><span class="ap_by ap_by-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6">By SETH BORENSTEIN</span><span class="ap_by_title ap_by_title-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6">, AP Science Writer</span><span> <a rel="principles" title="THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES" href="http://www.ap.org/newsvalues/index.html"><img src="http://hosted2.ap.org/NewsArchive/images/icon/principles-book-blue.png" style="border-style:none;" alt="THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES"></a> </span><br>
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<div class="ap_pht_cap ap_pht_cap-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff">This
undated handout photo provided by of Joel Fagot, and the journal
Science shows Dora during a readng experiment. French researchers are
showing that baboons can do what is essentially the first step in
reading. They can identify recurring patterns _ in English. This study
is important in two fields: It shows that the early steps in reading are
far more instinctual than scientists first thought and it also
demonstrates that non-human primates may be smarter than we give them
credit for. Baboons and other monkeys are good pattern finders and it's
more than memorization. What they are doing may be what we first do in
recognizing words. But it's still a far cry from real reading. The study
is in the journal Science. (AP Photo/Joel Fagot)</div>
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<span class="ap_dt_stmp-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b943">Apr. 2, 2012</span> <span class="ap_tm_stmp-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b943">12:00 PM ET</span> </p> </div> </li>
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</div></div><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font><span id="dateLine" class="dateline">WASHINGTON</span>
(AP) — Dan the baboon sits in front of a computer screen. The letters
BRRU pop up. With a quick and almost dismissive tap, the monkey signals
it's not a word. Correct. Next comes, ITCS. Again, not a word. Finally
KITE comes up.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>He
pauses and hits a green oval to show it's a word. In the space of just a
few seconds, Dan has demonstrated a mastery of what some experts say is
a form of pre-reading and walks away rewarded with a treat of dried
wheat.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>Dan
is part of new research that shows baboons are able to pick up the
first step in reading — identifying recurring patterns and determining
which four-letter combinations are words and which are just
gobbledygook.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>The
study shows that reading's early steps are far more instinctive than
scientists first thought and it also indicates that non-human primates
may be smarter than we give them credit for.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>"They've got the hang of this thing," said Jonathan Grainger, a French scientist and lead author of the research.</font></p>
<p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>Baboons and other monkeys are good pattern finders and what they are doing may be what we first do in recognizing words.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content">
<font>It's
still a far cry from real reading. They don't understand what these
words mean, and are just breaking them down into parts, said Grainger, a
cognitive psychologist at the Aix-Marseille University in France.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>In
300,000 tests, the six baboons distinguished between real and fake
words about three-out-of-four times, according to the study published in
Thursday's journal Science.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>The
4-year-old Dan, the star of the bunch and about the equivalent age of a
human teenager, got 80 percent of the words right and learned 308
four-letter words.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>The
baboons are rewarded with food when they press the right spot on the
screen: A blue plus sign for bogus combos or a green oval for real
words.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>Even
though the experiments were done in France, the researchers used
English words because it is the language of science, Grainger said.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>The
key is that these animals not only learned by trial and error which
letter combinations were correct, but they also noticed which letters
tend to go together to form real words, such as SH but not FX, said
Grainger. So even when new words were sprung on them, they did a better
job at figuring out which were real.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>Grainger
said a pre-existing capacity in the brain may allow them to recognize
patterns and objects, and perhaps that's how we humans also first learn
to read.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>The
study's results were called "extraordinarily exciting" by another
language researcher, psychology professor Stanislas Dehaene at the
College of France, who wasn't part of this study. He said Grainger's
finding makes sense. Dehaene's earlier work says a distinct part of the
brain visually recognizes the forms of words. The new work indicates
this is also likely in a non-human primate.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>This new study also tells us a lot about our distant primate relatives.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content">
<font>"They
have shown repeatedly amazing cognitive abilities," said study
co-author Joel Fagot, a researcher at the French National Center for
Scientific Research.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>Bill Hopkins, a professor of psychology at the Yerkes Primate Center in Atlanta, isn't surprised.</font></p>
<p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>"We
tend to underestimate what their capacities are," said Hopkins, who
wasn't part of the French research team. "Non-human primates are really
specialized in the visual domain and this is an example of that."</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>This
raises interesting questions about how the complex primate mind works
without language or what we think of as language, Hopkins said. While we
use language to solve problems in our heads, such as deciphering words,
it seems that baboons use a "remarkably sophisticated" method to attack
problems without language, he said.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>Key
to the success of the experiment was a change in the testing technique,
the researchers said. The baboons weren't put in the computer stations
and forced to take the test. Instead, they could choose when they wanted
to work, going to one of the 10 computer booths at any time, even in
the middle of the night.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>The most ambitious baboons test 3,000 times a day; the laziest only 400.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content">
<font>The
advantage of this type of experiment setup, which can be considered
more humane, is that researchers get far more trials in a shorter time
period, he said.</font></p><p class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content"><font>"They come because they want to," Fagot said. "What do they want? They want some food. They want to solve some task."</font></p>
<p style="font-size:11px" class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content">___</p><p style="font-size:11px" class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content">Online:</p><p style="font-size:11px" class="ap_para ap_para-d57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9f6 entry-content">
Science: <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org">http://www.sciencemag.org</a></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>
Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br>
<a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------<br>