Scientists Are Rethinking Animal Cognition

Re:Scientists Are Rethinking Animal Cognition by panic on Wednesday February 13, 2019 @07:46PM (#19158675)

Say you're drawing a picture, paying attention to what looks good or not and making small corrections. You're thinking in terms of the picture, not in terms of a language.

Say you're playing basketball. You're thinking in terms of the ball, the net, the other players, and so on, not thinking in terms of a language.

I can imagine that (for example) a bird building its nest finds itself in a similar situation. It's thinking in terms of the nest -- what shaped sticks to gather and where to place them -- even though it doesn't have any capacity for language.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Scientists Are Rethinking Animal Cognition by goldenkey on Thursday February 14, 2019 @04:29AM (#19160685)

Birds have a pretty large capacity for language. It may even be more complex than ours especially in corvids. We don't know enough.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Scientists Are Rethinking Animal Cognition by panic on Thursday February 14, 2019 @05:38AM (#19160921)

My point didn't have anything to do with birds in particular. You can think about a cat planning how to pounce on a bird instead if you want. The pouncing cat is thinking in terms of its body, the space around it, and the movement of the bird, without really involving language.

[ Parent | on HN ]