Preliminary study of teaching artificial language to beluga whale

• Project/Area Number: 25330177
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Cognitive science
• Research Institution: Tokai University
• Principal Investigator: Murayama Tsukasa 東海大学, 海洋学部, 教授 (40328109)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2015)
• Budget Amount: ¥2,210,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥510,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000); Fiscal Year 2014: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000); Fiscal Year 2013: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000)
• Keywords: シロイルカ / 命名 / 名詞 / クロスモーダル / 模倣 / 動詞 / 視覚性人工言語 / 動詞の命名 / 名詞の命名 / 図形文字 / フィン / マスク

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We first tested the spontaneous establishment of bidirectional relationships between visual and auditory symbols in a particular beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas), nicknamed Nack, and found that cross-modal stimulus equivalence between vision and auditory sense was established.
Imitation is one of essential factors for language comprehension. Accordingly, nine arbitrary vocal sounds produced by the experimenter were presented to Nack, who was required to imitate them. Nack could correctly imitate the novel sounds.We tried to examine the naming of verbs using auditory symbols. That is, Nack was trained to label an action (behavior), "take an object", using a visual symbol to examine whether the subject knows the relation between the action and the visual symbol. Correct responses in this experiment have been observed and the percentage of correct responses is gradually rising but is still unpredictable. This study is not yet completed.

Research Products

• [Presentation] イルカと話す日 (2015)
  • Author(s): 村山司
  • Organizer: 東海大学望星学塾
  • Place of Presentation: 東海大学望星学塾(三鷹市）
  • Year and Date: 2015-05-23
• [Presentation] ことばをおぼえたシロイルカ (2014)
  • Author(s): 村山司
  • Organizer: 物理探査学会（第161回学術講演会）
  • Place of Presentation: 清水テルサ(静岡市）
  • Year and Date: 2014-10-22
  • Invited
• [Book] 続イルカ・クジラ学 (2015)
  • Author(s): 村山司
  • Total Pages: 198
  • Publisher: 東海大学出版部