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'apes have never asked one question': Here's why it's a 'classic example of overstatement'

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Summary
Nutrition label

85% Informative

Some social media users have posited apes have never asked a question.

Decades of scientific research shows apes can communicate with other apes and humans.

Some interpretations of these interactions appear to confirm apes are capable of asking questions.

Some scientists have been communicating with apes since at least the 1930s .

In captivity, some chimpanzees have shown a comprehension of symbolic communication.

It is thought that some wild populations may also use symbolic-like communication, such as drumming on trees to convey which direction to travel.

" About Apes ." Center for Great Apes , https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/psychology-neuroscience/people/people.

Why Chimpanzees Can't Learn Language : 1 | Psychology Today United Kingdom . http://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-origin-words/201910/why-chimpanzees-cant-learn-language-1..

VR Score

90

Informative language

95

Neutral language

84

Article tone

formal

Language

English

Language complexity

52

Offensive language

not offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

long-living

External references

29

https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22449https://www.cwu.edu/about/media-resources/news/washoe-the-chimpanzee-who-spent-most-of-her-life-at-cwu-featured-on-science-website.phphttps://www.jstor.org/stable/24922894https://www.wildminds.ac.uk/https://usa50.southalabama.edu/colleges/artsandsci/psychology/faculty/lyn.htmlhttps://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/psychology-neuroscience/people/clh42/https://www.eva.mpg.de/fileadmin/content_files/staff/boesch/pdf/Boesch_Symbolic_comm_in_wild_chimps_1991.pdfhttps://www.koko.org/about/programs/project-koko/interspecies-communication/sign-language/https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0702624104https://psychology.columbia.edu/content/herbert-terracehttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1037/gpr0000108https://www.friendsofwashoe.org/learn/chci_history/chci.htmlhttps://x.com/historyinmemes/status/1813700204048134375https://cas.gsu.edu/profile/michael-beran/https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/10do2pl/apes_dont_ask_questions_while_apes_can_learn_sign/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4214247/#:~:text=Cladistic%20analysis%20suggests%20that%20neural,et%20al.%2C%202011b).https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2080769/https://ia804706.us.archive.org/32/items/apechildstudyofe00kell/apechildstudyofe00kell_bw.pdfhttps://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01228https://centerforgreatapes.org/about-apes/https://www.nytimes.com/1974/12/04/archives/-talking-chimpanzee-asks-for-names-of-things-now-electric-keyboard-.htmlhttps://doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000108https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5038593/#:~:text=Screams%20are%20loud%2C%20high%2Dpitched,by%20infants%20when%20being%20weaned.&text=Any%20vocalization%20that%20does%20not,section%20of%20the%20data%20sheet.https://www.wildminds.ac.ukhttps://greatapedictionary.ac.uk/https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.718414https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.718414/fullhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-origin-words/201910/why-chimpanzees-cant-learn-language-1https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0702624104

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