The Language Research Center (LRC) is an interdisciplinary research unit of the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgia State University. Although it was founded in 1981, its history begins a decade earlier in the ape-language research of founding Director Duane M. Rumbaugh and his collaborators. The LRC is affiliated with the Department of Psychology in Georgia State University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
LRC scientists conduct noninvasive social, cognitive and behavioral research with rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) and capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella), and human adults and children (Homo sapiens). The LRC previously housed chimpanzees, including some that were trained to use lexigram symbols.
LRC scientists and Department of Animal Resources staff-members are committed to providing the best possible environment and to using empirically validated procedures for promoting and assessing the psychological and physical well-being of the resident animals they study. These scientists include faculty, staff, and student researchers at Georgia State University, and also affiliated scholars at prestigious institutions across the country and around the globe. The LRC has been supported by (and continues to be supported by) grants from the National Institutes of Health (particularly the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development), the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the McDonnell-Pew Foundation, the Department of Defense, the Templeton Foundation, and other agencies. The LRC also receives generous support from the College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University, and the GSU Research Foundation.
There is a unique partnership between these scientists and the colony of resident animals at the LRC. The commitment to the lifetime care and well-being of these animals is matched by the responsibility to generate as much meaningful data as is possible while we are stewards of these special creatures. This stewardship is a responsibility taken extremely seriously by each scientist and student at the LRC.
These partnerships between investigators, between funding agencies, and with the animals that participate in our research exemplify the LRC motto: