Backward to the Future
(Review of David Premack, Gavagai! or the Future History of the Animal Language Controversy)
- Review by Louis M. Herman
Department of Psychology and Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory,
University of Hawaii)
(C) 1987 Contemporary Psychology
In this short book, which has appeared earlier in almost identical form as a journal article (Premack, 1985), Premack presents interesting and provocative ideas on language and the teaching of language to animals, particularly apes and dolphins. The reader will not always find these ideas easily accessible because they tend to be exposed in fragments as the text proceeds on its many byroads. For example, in a major portion of the text (Chapter 1 and elsewhere), conceptual issues from my own work with dolphins and Premack’s work with chimpanzees become entangled as Premack dodges back and forth between the two in an attempt, it seems to me, to expose the virtues of the ape work relative to the dolphin work. Elsewhere (Herman, 1987), I have responded in detail to Premack’s analysis of the dolphin work, and the reader is referred there for further discussion.
Herman, L. M. (1987). Backward to the future. [Review of D. Premack, Gavagai! or the Future History of the Animal Language Controversy]. Contemporary Psychology, 32, 534-536.
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