re: #698 HappyWarrior

Didn’t know that about orcas. Haven’t they taught some gorillas like sign language? There’s that one gorilla Koko.

Koko, and other similar experiments, have come under serious question in the last few years. Reviews of raw footage pretty clearly shows the investigators prompting Koko for the desired response.

It’s a real problem doing experiments like this, because it’s likely the investigators themselves weren’t doing it intentionally. Although their initial reluctance to release the footage, and that they didn’t review it themselves looking for such prompting, intentional or not, doesn’t say much for their experimental protocols.

Perhaps newly emerging technologies like fMRI will be able to shed some light on what’s actually taking place in animal brains. For the moment, though, things remain unclear, at best.