Noam Chomsky's concept of innate language addresses the existence of universal grammar, which suggests a special kind of "device" all humans are born with whose sole purpose is language. Fodor's modular mind hypothesis expands on this concept, suggesting the existence of preprogrammed modules for dealing with many, or all aspects of cognition. Although these modules do not need to be physically distinct, they must be functionally distinct. There was an experiment to teach language to orangutans at the Smithsonian National Zoo using a computer system developed by primatologist Francine Neago in conjunction with IBM.
Noam Chomsky's concept of innate language addresses the existence of universal grammar, which suggests a special kind of "device" all humans are born with whose sole purpose is language. Fodor's modular mind hypothesis expands on this concept, suggesting the existence of preprogrammed modules for dealing with many, or all aspects of cognition. Although these modules do not need to be physically distinct, they must be functionally distinct. There was an experiment to teach language to orangutans at the Smithsonian National Zoo using a computer system developed by primatologist Francine Neago in conjunction with IBM.