Animal Bodies, Human Minds: Ape, Dolphin, and Parrot Language Skills »

Hillix (psychology, San Diego State U., California) and Rumbaugh (psychology and biology, Georgia State U.-Atlanta) survey what was known or believed about animal language throughout history and prehistory, summarize current knowledge and the controversy that surrounds it, identify and try to settle most of the problems in interpreting the animal behaviors that have been observed in studies of animal language ability, and present their best guesses about where research in animal language will go. Among their topics are methods and problems in language research with nonhuman animals, some primates famous for using sign language such as Washoe and Koko, a cultural approach, bottlenosed dolphins, the parrot Alex, and evaluations of ape language research. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR