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Francine "Penny" Patterson (born February 13, 1947) is an American animal psychologist. From 1972 onwards, she taught a modified form of American Sign Language, which she called "Gorilla Sign Language" (GSL), to a gorilla named Koko. The scientific validity of Patterson's claims about the extent of Koko's language mastery has been widely rejected in linguistic and other specialist circles.

Early life and education

Patterson is the second oldest of seven children and daughter of C. H. Patterson, a professor of psychology, and Frances Spano Patterson. She was born in Chicago and moved with her family to Edina, Minnesota, when she was young, and then to Urbana, Illinois. Her mother died of cancer when Patterson was a freshman in college and the youngest of her siblings was just five years old. This triggered her interest in developmental psychology, a theme which pervaded much of her later work.

Patterson earned her bachelor's degree in psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1970. She attained her Ph.D. in 1979 from Stanford University, with her dissertation Linguistic Capabilities of a Lowland Gorilla, on teaching sign language to Koko and Michael, another Western lowland gorilla, who died in 2000.

Career

Patterson is the president and research director of The Gorilla Foundation. The foundation was founded with her longtime research colleague Ronald Cohn and Barbara F Hiller in 1978 using monetary support from a Rolex Award. The Gorilla Foundation had been trying to move from its current home in Woodside, California, to Maui, Hawaii. Patterson is an adjunct professor of psychology at Santa Clara University and a member of the Board of Consultants at the Center for Cross Cultural Communication in Washington, D.C. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Gorilla journal.

Patterson and her work with Koko are the subject of Barbet Schroeder's 1978 feature-length documentary Koko: A Talking Gorilla. She is also an author of nonfiction works, including The Education of Koko, Koko's Kitten, Koko-Love!: Conversations With a Signing Gorilla, and Koko's Story. All of these books deal with her personal experiences with Koko.

Patterson's work has garnered controversy. Multiple allegations, made by former employees, said that she would routinely show her nipples to Koko and demand that other employees, both female and male, present their nipples to the gorilla. These demands never occurred with important donors. A sexual harassment lawsuit over this matter was settled out of court.

See also

• Great ape language research
• Koko gorilla
• Michael gorilla
• Chimp Crazy - documentary about women who identify as "mothers" of apes or monkeys

References

1. "Lingua Franca: Koko Is Dead, but the Myth of Her Linguistic Skills Li…". archive.ph. December 11, 2023.
2. Ward, Ben (1999). "Koko: Fact or Fiction?". American Language Review. 3 (3): 12–15. ISSN 1092-6992.
3. Hu, Jane C. (August 20, 2014). "What Do Talking Apes Really Tell Us?". Health & Science (Science). Slate. eISSN 1091-2339. ISSN 1090-6584. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
4. Terrace, Herbert S. (1982). "Why Koko Can't Talk: The Ape's Still Fooling Most of the People, Most of the Time". The Sciences. 22 (9): 8–10. doi:10.1002/j.2326-1951.1982.tb02120.x.
5. Stanley, Gary (August 25, 2023). "Penny's Dad continues to be an Inspiration and a Model". Gorilla Foundation. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
6. Hignett, Katherine (June 21, 2018). "Who was Koko? Sign-Language Gorilla Dead at 46". Newsweek.
7. Hurley, Timothy (March 9, 2005). "Maui Ape Preserve plan faltering". Honolulu Advertiser. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
8. Seife, Charles (June 21, 2018). "The Real Meaning of Koko's Purported Nipple Fetish". Slate. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
9. Yollin, Patricia (February 26, 2005). "Ex-worker is third to sue over gorilla / Woman says she had to show her breasts to Koko". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
10. Weiner, Jody (July 2005). "Hot Koko". California Lawyer. p. 80. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
11. Weiner, Jody (2006). "Hot Koko & the Fetching Cat". In Solisti, Kate; Tobias, Michael (eds.). Kinship with Animals. San Francisco/Tulsa: Council Oak. pp. 182–188. ISBN 9781571781895.
12. Yollin, Patricia (February 18, 2005). "Gorilla Foundation rocked by breast display lawsuit / Former employees say they were told to expose chests". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
13. "'Gorilla breast fetish' women sue". BBC News. February 20, 2005. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
14. Agence France-Presse (February 21, 2005). "Gorilla with a nipple fetish". The Age. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
15. D., Shayla (October 15, 2015). "Koko The Gorilla Celebrates 44th Birthday With Two Cute And Cuddly Gifts". The Inquisitr. Retrieved August 16, 2018.

External links

• The Gorilla Foundation
• Koko: A Talking Gorilla at Criterion Collection
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign article at the Wayback Machine (archived June 22, 2004)
• Penny Patterson at IMDb

• 21st-century American psychologists
• American women psychologists
• Animal trainers
• Stanford University alumni
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni
• Santa Clara University faculty
• People from Chicago
• 1947 births
• Living people
• Scientists from the San Francisco Bay Area
• American women academics
• 21st-century American women
• University Laboratory High School (Urbana, Illinois) alumni
• 20th-century American psychologists