Robert Allen Gardner

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Robert Allen Gardner (born February 21, 1930 ) was a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Nevada at Reno and since the 1960s studied the behavior of chimpanzees that were raised in the care of humans like human children. In particular, he researched the development of the intelligence of young great apes compared to that of human children and the influence of social and intellectual development on communication skills. Of these monkeys, the chimpanzee Washoe was best known .

In 1965, Allen Gardner gave the impetus for psychology student Roger Fouts to teach the young chimpanzee Washoe dozens of signs of the American deaf language for his doctoral thesis, thus demonstrating that chimpanzees have a speaking and thinking ability that is at least close to that of small human children.

Gardner co-founded the Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Nevada in 1984 and was its director from 1990 to 1993.

He was married to Beatrix Tugendhat Gardner (1933–1995) and is the brother of the artist and screenwriter Herb Gardner (1934–2003).

Literature (selection)

  • R. Allen Gardner and Beatrice T. Gardner: Teaching Sign Language to a Chimpanzee. In: Science . Volume 165, No. 3894, 1969, pp. 664-672, doi: 10.1126 / science.165.3894.664 .
  • R. Allen Gardner and Beatrice T. Gardner: Early Signs of Language in Child and Chimpanzee. In: Science. Volume 187, No. 4178, 1975, pp. 752-753, doi: 10.1126 / science.187.4178.752 .
  • Beatrice T. Gardner and R. Allen Gardner: Evidence for sentence constitutents in the early utterances of child and chimpanzee. In: Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Volume 104, No. 3, 1975, pp. 244-267, doi: 10.1037 / 0096-3445.104.3.244 .
  • R. Allen Gardner, Beatrice T. Gardner and Thomas E. Van Cantfort (eds.): Teaching sign language to chimpanzees. State University of New York Press, Albany 1989, ISBN 978-0-88706-965-9 .
  • Mark D. Bodamer and R. Allen Gardner: How cross-fostered chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) initiate and maintain conversations. In: Journal of Comparative Psychology. Volume 116, No. 1, 2002, pp. 12-26, doi: 10.1037 / 0735-7036.116.1.12 .
  • Valerie J. Chalcraft and R. Allen Gardner: Cross-fostered chimpanzees modulate signs of American Sign Language. In: Gesture. Volume 5, No. 1–2, 2005, pp. 107–132, doi: 10.1075 / died.5.1.09cha .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ University of Nevada : Founding Members of the Center for Advanced Studies
  2. ^ University of Nevada : Directors of the Center for Advanced Studies
personal data
SURNAME Gardner, Robert Allen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gardner, R. Allen; Gardner, Allen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American behavioral scientist, professor of experimental psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1930