Psammetichus experiment

The Psammetichus experiment was one the first recorded psychological experiments

History contains a number of anecdotes about people who attempted to discover the origin of language by experiment. The first such tale was told by Herodotus in 429BC in The Histories, who relates that Pharaoh "Psamtik" (probably Psammetichus I) caused two children to be raised in isolation by a shepherd who was ordered not to speak to them; he would see what language they ended up speaking. When the children were brought before him, one of them said something that sounded to the pharaoh like bekos, the Phrygian word for bread. From this, Psamtik concluded that the capacity for speech is innate and that the natural language of people was Phrygian.