The history of psychology is full of unusual studies and experiments that would hardly be justified or possible today. The reason is that many of these studies were based on experimentation with young children, adolescents or people with some type of mental or psychiatric disorder, all of them unable to decide or understand the effects of it.
One of these experiments was that of the chimpanzee Gua, carried out by psychologist WN Kellogg. This is an investigation into behavior and learning in which Gua was raised for months in a family, with the intention of checking if the chimpanzee could be educated like the rest of the children.
Like father and daughter: the chimpanzee Gua and WN Kellogg
In the 1930s, Winthrop N. Kellogg, a psychologist and professor at Columbia University, specialized in the processes of conditioning, learning, and human behavior, set out to investigate the differences between animals and humans in terms of learning and behavior.
To do this, Kellogg adopted a two-month-old female chimpanzee and brought her into his home with the intention of educating her in the same way he did with his son Donald, who at that time was not even a year old. For several months, Kellogg raised them as if they were brothers dedicating the same attention, affection and care to each of them with the aim of contemplating and analyzing the evolution and learning of both.
The animal chosen for the study was given in Gua’s name and, unbeknownst to her, its objective was to reveal when some type of distinction began to begin between the processes and advances in learning between an animal and a human.
After nine months of coexistence, the results were not at all like those expected by Kellogg, since, in short, Gua ended up “humanizing” himself to the point of learning more quickly and efficiently than his son and the little one ended up developing behaviors typical of a chimpanzee such as tasting everything with his mouth or emitting howls and growls like Gua.
Such was the degree of learning of the little boy that a large part of the idioms and habits that he had learned from Gua would remain intact throughout his life.
The product of this research materialized with the work The ape and the child, published in 1931 and which was not exempt from criticism and controversy. In his text, Kellogg details each and every one of the learning activities and games that he carried out with both of them, as well as the effects they had on the children.
As a consequence, the American psychologist received very tenacious and ruthless criticism that They accused him of having subjected his son and the animal to an experiment that would leave a mark on both of them forever. The impact of the criticism deeply affected Kellogg, who ended up recognizing that he had made a mistake.
How did the experiment between calf and baby develop?
At the beginning of the investigation, it focused on collecting data about the physical condition of both Gua and little Donald. Both Kellogg and his wife, accompanied by a group of researchers, dedicated themselves to collecting data such as weight, blood pressure or reflexes, and then, start with activities and tests related to learning.
Over the next 9 months, Kellogg and his wife raised Gua the same way they raised their son, as if they were brothers. Recording the data in films and thoroughly describing each and every one of the changes or advances in each of the small ones.
The data obtained by Kellogg and his team focused on aspects such as memory, the ability to draw, vocalization or language, manual dexterity, locomotion, problem solving, fear and fear reactions, obedience and even response capacity. to tickling.
What was the results?
During the time of the study, Kellogg observed how Gua developed a fascinating ability to adapt to a human environment, to the point of following orders and following guidelines much better than his “brother” Donald. Other of the many behaviors learned by Gua were related to her ability to ask for a person, give kisses to other people, and she even learned to eat for herself in the same way as humans or to bathe herself.
On the other hand, Donald had a characteristic trait: he was a much better imitator. While Gua was the gifted student, who was able to discover the functions and uses of objects before Donald and showed a better understanding of the different games and activities they carried out, the little human was only dedicated to imitating or reproducing what he the chimpanzee did.
As a result, little Donald also began to imitate some of Gua’s gestures, behaviors, and language, using grunts, snoring, and animal noises and experiencing a notable delay in language development and notable communication difficulties. This is one of the reasons why, despite Gua’s progress, Kellogg decided to stop the experiment after nine months of testing. After this time, he separated the two “brothers” and Gua was returned to the Orange Park Zoo, where she was taken and to which she could not adapt, and she died the following year.
As for Donald, he had already reached the age of 19 months at the end of the experiment and yet he was only capable of expressing a small number of words, while any child of his age should have at least a repertoire of fifty and be able to begin to form phrases and sentences. Fortunately, he later managed to compensate for that disadvantage, and even completed university studies.
What conclusions were obtained from this study?
Regarding learning processes, Kellogg concluded that, at least during childhood, children are highly impressionable and that in their first years of life their reasoning and intelligence abilities can be comparable to those of an animal with intelligence characteristics comparable to those of a chimpanzee.
However, later these paths separate, with human beings capable of developing a much higher level of intelligence and abilities.
Regarding the intellectual development of the chimpanzee, Kellogg’s methods may reflect that, in the first months of life, they have the capacity to develop a language analogous to that of humans, although are unable to speak. In the same way, although they are skilled in making simple tools, there is a huge difference in the ideation capacity between chimpanzees and humans.
