More Kanzi (Savage-Rumbaugh 1993)
Even more remarkably, Savage-Rumbaugh claimed that Kanzi had acquired the ability to understand spoken English without being specifically trained to do so.
"An ability to comprehend language would be the cognitive equivalent of having acquired language."
In order to test this claim, Savage-Rumbaugh tested Kanzi's comprehension abilities in comparison to those of a toddler named Alia, who was between 1.5 and 2 years old.
Task: Kanzi and Alia were placed in a room with a variety of objects and were given various verbal instructions.
--Can you put the apple on the hat?
--Put the ball in the oil.
--Put the ball on the potty.
--Hide the ball.
--Give your ball a shot.
--Take the ball to the T-room.
--Take the ball to the bedroom.
--Make the doggie bite the ball.
--Put the ball in the bowl.
--Give the doggie some carrots.
Both Kanzi and Alia went through this experiment twice--once with the experimenter in front of them, asking them questions, and another time in a "blind" trial, with the experimenter behind a one-way mirror, asking questions over a speaker.
| Kanzi | Alia | |||
| General | Blind | General | Blind | |
| Correct | 56.5% | 59.3% | 54.3% | 54.1% |
| Correct w/hesitation | 15.0% | 14.7% | 12.3% | 11.5% |
| Partially correct | 23.4% | 21.0% | 21.1% | 20.6% |
| Overextension | 1.0% | 1.2% | 3.4% | 4.2% |
| Inverse | 1.4% | 1.9% | 1.5% | 1.7% |
| Wrong | 1.2% | 1.0% | 5.5% | 5.9% |
| No response | 1.5% | 1.0% | 1.9% | 2.0% |