ABSTRACT
The well known study of Viki, the chimpanzee, by the Hayes indicated that she was fully the equal, or in advance of, the human child at Bruner's enactive level. The crucial factor which inhibited her further cognitive development was her lack of speech, that is a genetic difference between the ape and human species in the capacity to use and organise words as signs and symbols of experience. Psychologists nowadays generally realise that speech and the use of language cannot be explained in terms of ordinary learning theories, though at the same time they are obviously culturally conditioned. The child's genetic endowment makes it possible for him to acquire speech more or less readily, but the verbal concepts and ways of inter-relating them are laid down by his cultural group just as are the correct noises. Moreover, while language gives him extraordinary flexibility in the formulation of new utterances for describing and analysing his world, at the same time it restricts his thoughts very largely to those conceptualisations recognised by his particular group.
