Can Animals Talk?

Abstract

Speech is defined as operant vocal behavior reinforced through the mediation of other organisms. Attempts to control animal vocalizations by operant conditioning are therefore reviewed. Both laboratory studies and informal attempts are examined. Some evidence of successful control is found, and this evidence affords examples of genuine, if rudimentary, speech in animals. It is, therefore, concluded that man's capacity to talk is not a unique ability that demarcates him from the rest of the animal kingdom.