The project was design to see if the animal, named Nim Chimpsky, could be conditioned to communicate with humans in a case whereby there is a way it is been raised like human child in a human household.
What is the purpose of Project Nim?
The project's objective was to see whether the animal, Nim Chimpsky, could be trained to speak with people if given the opportunity to grow up in a human family and treated like a child.
Terrace and his associates came to the conclusion that chimpanzees lacked meaningful sequential behavior comparable to human grammar. Unlike a human child, who can use language to develop or communicate meanings, thoughts, or ideas, Nim used language only pragmatically, as a tool of achieving a result.