Meet the Scientist: Kenna Lehmann

My interest in communication started my freshman year of college, during a class on consciousness. My final paper focused on all of the studies that have attempted to determine if animals are conscious. There are a number of ways that scientists have attempted to determine whether and what animals think and feel. Koko the gorilla and Alex the parrot are two such attempts. But when it comes down to it, we really only know our fellow man is conscious because they are able to express their thoughts and feelings via language.

At the time, I thought, "Great! I just need to figure out another species' language, and then I can ask them about their mental experience." With a bit of research, I quickly learned that our language is a singularly novel communication system. I found this both frustrating and fascinating. If no other animals have anything comes close to what we do, then why do we have it? How did language evolve? Was it random chance? If not, what selection pressures pushed us from simple communication signals to things like syntax and abstract words?

 

I may not be able to ask an animal what it is thinking or feeling in the same way I can ask another person, but I can certainly study their communication in an attempt to understand our own language a little better. And that's what I have been doing ever since!