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| Walsh, Ivan "executive-summary-warning" 04/03/15 via flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic |
Original Source:
"How much are we projecting ourselves onto [Koko] and what are we reading into her behaviors? Animals perceive the emotions of the humans around them, and the anecdotes in the release could easily be evidence that Koko was responding to the sadness she sensed in her human caregivers. But conceding that the scientific jury is still out on whether gorillas are capable of sophisticated emotions doesn’t make headlines, and admitting the ambiguity inherent in interpreting a gorilla’s sign language doesn’t bring in millions of dollars in donations. So we get a story about Koko mourning Robin Williams: a nice, straightforward tale that warms the heart but leaves scientists and skeptics wondering how a gorilla’s emotions can be deduced so easily."
My Paraphrase of Original Source:
Jane C. Hu believes that when it comes to the incongruities in Koko's sign language, Koko's words are manipulated for monetary gain as well as popularity. She also asserts the fact that animals are able to perceive the emotions of the humans around them and respond accordingly, thus giving the appearance that Koko understood and was upset at Robin Willams' passing. Some people puzzle over the lack of evidence for this conclusion and question the truth in these interpretations. However much of the public hearing these claims about Koko's communication ignore these inconsistencies and the more probable alternatives because of their fanciful desire for the stories to be true (Hu 1).
My Summary of the Original Source:
Jane C. Hu claims that Koko's apparent human-like skills are the result of animal perception of emotion as well as the foundation's manipulation for profit, made possible by the dreamers that want to believe in the improbable but uplifting stories presented to them.
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