The Fascinating Washoe Project

The Washoe Project is fascinating and, at the same time, moving. It involves a female chimpanzee called Washoe, considered the first non-human animal to learn American sign language. For many, more than an experiment, it was a revelation of nature.

The Washoe Project began on June 21, 1966 and was led by Dr. Allen Gardner and Dr. Beatrix Gardner. At that time, the little chimpanzee was just 2 years old.

She was born in West Africa and had been captured and brought to the United States by the country’s Air Force a year before the start of the experiment. It was intended to be used in NASA experiments, but the Gardners adopted it and started Project Washoe.

The Washoe Project

Allen and Beatrix Gardner already had experience working with monkeys before starting the Washoe Project. At that time, linguistics had become an area of ​​great interest, and the Gardners wanted to find out if it was possible to teach the human language to animals.

They had already adopted chimpanzees twice to try to teach them to speak like humans. Both attempts failed, and scientists came to the conclusion that this was because the apes’ anatomy made articulate language impossible.

When Washoe came into their lives, they had already given up on teaching monkeys to talk. Instead, they thought sign language would be a more appropriate attempt. Hands of this species are very similar to ours, so the probability of getting something that way was higher.

Washoe’s education

The Gardners also believed that the ideal would be to raise Washoe as if she were human. In other words, they would give her the same education as a child. They wanted to know if the chimpanzee was able to learn the language naturally, like a human baby.

So Washoe had her own clothes and sat down to eat at the table with the couple. She also had her own personal items such as toothbrushes and combs, as well as books and toys. In fact, when she grew up, she lived in a trailer that had a living room, kitchen, dresser, refrigerator, and a bed.

The Gardners handed over custody of Washoe to Roger and Deborah Fouts when she turned 5 years old. Since then, the Fouts have taken care of her, maintaining the same standards of life she had with the Gardners. 

an intelligent being

All caregivers at Washoe were instructed to use sign language and avoid the use of spoken language. The goal was to prevent her from feeling different from others, making her understand that signs were the natural form of communication. Gradually, she learned to communicate with humans.

No conditioning method was applied for Washoe to learn the language. That is, she did not receive rewards for her achievements, as is usually done with trained animals. On the contrary, she was allowed to learn by imitation, and she learned. In the end, the chimpanzee knew more than 350 words.

Washoe had its own personality. She liked to spend her time looking at books in her spare time. He also loved looking at shoe catalogs, and shoes in general attracted a lot of attention. Plus, she had a great sense of humor.

Washoe Project: More Than an Experiment

There were two developments that caught the scientists’ attention, and neither of them was anticipated in Project Washoe. The first occurred when one of the chimpanzee’s caregivers was absent because she had given birth to a baby, who unfortunately died later. Apparently Washoe didn’t like her absence very much.

When the caregiver returned, she told Washoe, in sign language, what had happened to her. The chimpanzee looked down and, with her finger, traced the path of a tear falling on the face of that grieving mother. This showed not only that she had a high level of understanding, but also that she differentiated emotions and felt empathy.

The other event happened when they placed her in front of a mirror and asked who was there. She replied “Me, Washoe.” This means she had self-awareness – a higher cognitive function. The chimpanzee died in 2007. Many who knew about the project asked that primates be declared “non-human persons”. And you, what do you think?