Do Animals Think?

Do animals think? 4 cognitive skills shared by the great apes and humans –Formation of concepts –Display insight –Use and create tools –Transmit cultural innovations

Animals Form Concepts Monkeys can learn to classify cats and dogs. Pigeons can sort objects (pictures of cars, cats, chairs, flowers, etc.) –“Shown a picture of a never-before-seen chair, pigeons will reliably peck a key that represents the category ‘chairs’” (Myers 396). African grey parrot assorts red blocks from green balls. William Munoz

Animals Display Insight Chimpanzees show insightful behavior when solving problems. Wolfgang Kohler’s chimpanzee, Sultan, uses sticks to get food.

Animals Use and Create Tools Until 1963, when Jane Goodall published her work on wild chimpanzees and their use of tools, most scientists believed that tool use was a uniquely human trait. Chimpanzees fashion twigs for termite fishing, use stone and wooden tools to crack open nuts, and sharpen spears out of sticks to hunt; gorillas use walking poles to measure water depth; orangutans can pick a lock with a paperclip; and capuchins make stone knives by banging flint against the floor until the pieces are sharp. Birds are among the most prolific tool users, and one of the most startling examples is the Egyptian vulture. One of the vulture's favorite foods is an ostrich egg, but the giant eggshell can be difficult to break. To compensate, the vulture manipulates rocks with its beak and pounds the rocks into the shell until it cracks.

Animals Solve Problems Apes are, much like us, shaped by reinforcement when solving problems. Chimpanzee fishing for ants. Courtesy of Jennifer Byrne, c/o Richard Byrne, Department of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, Scotland Kohler’s chimps using tools to reach food.

Animals Transmit Cultural Innovations Animals display customs and culture that are learned and transmitted over generations. Dolphins using sponges as forging tools. Chimpanzee mother using and teaching a young how to use a stone hammer. Copyright Amanda K Coakes Michael Nichols/ National Geographic Society Figure 9.16 Cultural transmission Myers: Psychology, Ninth Edition Copyright © 2010 by Worth Publishers

Do Animals Have a Language?

Do Animals Exhibit Language? There is no doubt that animals communicate. Vervet monkeys, whales and even honey bees communicate with members of their species and other species. Rico (collie) has a 200-word vocabulary Copyright Baus/ Kreslowski Honey bees communicate by dancing. The dance moves clearly indicate the direction of the nectar.

Gestured Communication Animals, like humans, exhibit communication through gestures. It is possible that vocal speech developed from gestures during the course of evolution.

Teaching Animals Our Language Researchers have attempted to teach language to a variety of animals (dolphins, sea lions, parrots, etc.) but the most success has been shown with chimpanzees. One of the biggest problems in teaching human language to non-human animals is that the vocal apparatus is not the same. Researchers, therefore, began to use American sign language (ASL) with chimpanzees. Allen and Beatrice Gardner (1969) were successful at teaching a chimpanzee, Washoe, to use ASL. In fact, Washoe developed a vocabulary of about 160 words, combining them into simple sentences, but showing little evidence of mastering the rules of language.

In addition, his receptive language appears much more developed, as he was able to carry out 72% of 660 spoken requests such as “Pour the Coke in the lemonade." Still, chimps by no means approach the language facility of a human toddler, suggesting an evolutionary basis for human language development. Teaching Animals Our Language Copyright of Great Ape Trust of Iowa Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and colleagues have reported striking advances with the bonobo pygmy chimpanzees. These bonobos have been trained to use geometric symbols that represent words on a computer-monitored keyboard. Kanzi, the star pupil, has taught his younger sister much that he has learned about this system. Kanzi has acquired hundreds of words and has used them in thousands of combinations, many apparently spontaneous and rule governed.

But Can Apes Really Talk? 1.Apes acquire their limited vocabularies with a great deal of difficulty, unlike children who develop vocabularies at amazing rates. 2.Chimpanzees can make signs to receive a reward, just as a pigeon who pecks at the key receives a reward. However, pigeons have not learned a language. 3.Chimpanzees use signs meaningfully but lack human syntax. 4.Presented with ambiguous information, people tend to see what they want to see (perceptual set).

What do you think? Moving Images clip – “Animal Language: The Case of Kanzi” ePJFE&feature=channelhttp:// ePJFE&feature=channel TrIIis&feature=channelhttp:// TrIIis&feature=channel