This experiment was a real breakthrough in the field of evolution!
A few years ago, Koko the gorilla died in the United States. An incredible experiment with her lasted for 46 years.
In 1971, animal psychologist Francine Patterson began working with the gorilla Koko, who at that time was 1 year old. She wanted to find out if a primate could learn sign language and communicate with it consciously, rather than just repeating what was learned.
To do this, the doctor used all known methods of working with deaf and dumb people. At first, the training didn’t work. Koko was reluctant to learn gestures that corresponded to words.
But soon the work nevertheless gave the first results. The gorilla has learned to indicate with a gesture that he is thirsty. Then things went much better, and two years later Koko already knew about 200 words, and by the end of her life – about 2 thousand.
This experiment was truly an outstanding achievement. But the opinions of experts are still divided.
Many of them claimed that Koko simply learned a certain set of gestures denoting words that helped her explain herself to her teachers in everyday matters that were repeated daily.
But over time, skeptics became less and less. Because the gorilla showed really amazing results in the development of its mental abilities.
She explained again if she didn’t get what she asked for. And once she asked for a kitten, and among several kids, she chose the one she took care of for a long time. After his death, she repeatedly gestured that she was very sad.
In 2018, Koko died, but this experiment was a real breakthrough in the field of evolution. After all, he proved once again that monkeys can be similar to humans not only physically, but also psychologically.
