Project Nim was a study performed to examine whether or not chimpanzees could learn to use sign language to communicate with humans. The purpose was to see how closely related humans and chimps are. The coordinator of the project, Herb wanted to see if he could raise a chimp as a human and have it behave similarly to a human child. In the end Herb decided chimps couldn 't use sign language due to Nim’s inability to form grammatical sentences and that he did the signs to get what he wanted out of others. The studies performed in project Nim likely affected the conclusion Herb came to. Due to the fact that the original caretaker of Nim named Stephanie gave him alcohol at a very young age, her lack of understanding chimpanzee nature, performed …show more content…
Stephanie’s effect is mostly negative caused by her freud experiments and getting in the way of the project for her own reasons, she treated him negatively and not like he was a human child but as if he was her plaything, giving him alcohol, letting him see her naked , letting him run free with no restrictions, not researching chimps prior or during the experiment and attempting to stop Laura from teaching him properly due to her own jealousy are some of her negative effects on Nim.Bob on the other hand treated in as a friend and as an equal, while his giving Nim marijuana may not have been the best for Nim, Bob still treated him with respect and actively acted against Nim’s vaccine experimentation and his housing at Black Beauty Ranch, Bob seemed to see the best in Nim even after Herb said he couldn’t truly communicate with sign language. While Bob one of the last people with and affect on Nim, Bob’s affect most likely remained until Nim passed away. Thirdly there was Laura Nim’s first real teacher Her affect was mainly positive with Laura being Nim’s main teacher she taught him a lot of what he knew prior to his passing, Her leaving had a major impact on Nim, as we saw Nim fly off the handle and attack her when she was