Rumbaugh, Duane M. 1929-

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RUMBAUGH, Duane M. 1929-

PERSONAL:

Born 1929, in IA; married Susan Savage (a primatologist). Education: University of Colorado, Ph.D., 1955.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Georgia State University, University Plaza, Atlanta, GA 30303.

CAREER:

Georgia State University, Atlanta, LANguage Analog (LANA) Project (now Language Research Center), cofounder, beginning 1971, and currently director emeritus and Regents professor emeritus of psychology and biology.

WRITINGS:

(With David A. Washburn) Intelligence of Apes and Other Rational Beings, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2003.

(With William A. Hillix) Animal Bodies, Human Minds: Ape, Dolphin, and Parrot Language Skills, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers (New York, NY), 2004.

EDITOR

Evolution, Ecology, Behavior, and Captive Maintenance, S. Karger (New York, NY), 1972.

Anatomy, Dentition, Taxonomy, Molecular Evolution, and Behavior, S. Karger (New York, NY), 1973.

Natural History, Social Behavior, Reproduction, Vocalizations, Prehension, S. Karger (New York, NY), 1974.

Suspensory Behavior, Locomotion, and Other Behaviors of Captive Gibbons: Cognition, S. Karger (New York, NY), 1976.

Language Learning by a Chimpanzee: The LANA Project, Academic Press (New York, NY), 1977.

(Editor, with Basil M. Velichkovskii) Communicating Meaning: The Evolution and Development of Language, Lawrence Erlbaum (Mahwah, NJ), 1996.

Also contributor to journals, including Journal of Experimental Psychology.

SIDELIGHTS:

A leading behavioral scientist, Duane M. Rumbaugh has been studying primate intelligence since the 1950s, and as American Scientist contributor Nathan J. Emery noted, the educator and biologist "was one of the pioneers of this research. He invented an apparatus featuring a keyboard monitored by a computer, which primates could use to communicate by means of a system of symbolic language." By actually "reading" the symbols on this keyboard, chimpanzees could decide what to press to get food or drink, or even entertainment, from a kind of vending machine. Rumbaugh has continued to pursue his automated testing of apes and monkeys, and he chronicles his results in his book Intelligence of Apes and Other Rational Beings, written with David A. Washburn.

As Rumbaugh recounts, in his experiments he has relied heavily on discrimination learning problems in which the subject is rewarded with food for choosing the right stimuli: for example a red triangle or a yellow square. Having mastered the original test, subjects often find it easier to master subsequent tests, in effect learning to learn. Actually, the tasks can become so easy that the apes grow bored, and this presents an interesting dilemma to researchers. Failure, if motivated by boredom, can actually be a sign of higher intelligence, if the animal is simply showing a loss of interest in a repetitive task. As primatologist Frans B. M. De Waal commented in Natural History, "Rumbaugh and Washburn understand these points better than most scientists, and they are at pains to remind the reader how the questions one asks tend to constrain the answers one gets."

Throughout his professional life, Rumbaugh has sought ways to test and understand intelligence that does not depend on the human capacity for complex language. In addition, he has sought to go beyond the two traditional methodologies: "respondents," innate, involuntary reactions to stimuli based on conditioning; and "operants," limited, voluntary actions that are designed to gain an award through operating on a particular environment. Rumbaugh has added a new methodology: "emergents," which are unusual problem-solving behaviors that are not based on repetition or associative learning, but instead seem to emerge from a kind of integrative process based on genetics, instinct, and cognitive reasoning. One classic example places a chimpanzee in a room with a banana suspended from the ceiling and a few boxes and sticks scattered around the room. Confronted with this new and unanticipated situation, the chimp must ultimately draw on analogous situations to stack the boxes and use a stick to get at the banana.

While such emergent possibilities have been seen in crows, dolphins, and parrots, Rumbaugh focuses on primates in his work and in his book. Nathan J. Emery noted this in his American Scientist review of Intelligence of Apes and Other Rational Beings, writing, "One missed opportunity is that, strikingly, the authors fail to mention the recent finding that New Caledonian crows can invent tools to gain out-of-reach food using wire—a prime candidate for an emergent." However, according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer, "for those interested in primate intelligence … this passionately argued and well-substantiated summation judiciously renders the complexities of the animal mind."