Re:In the animal kingdom, the astonishing power of the numbe...
by SenorTibbs on Saturday September 12, 2020 @11:47PM
(#24458144)
Yeah a reflex is innate by definition and not learned. They're also much more simplistic responses than this - think a baby fanning its toes out when you touch the sole of its foot.
I think they might have been thinking of a conditioned response, but then again you can't classically condition an animal to do something it's not already capable of. It's only the associations that are changed
Many human cognitive abilities are unconscious, like, in most cases, face recognition, so while I am not typically doing deliberate conscious mental math when distinguishing between my mother's face and my drinking buddy's face, it doesn't make sense to call it a "conditioned reflex" either, it seems to me. My brain is doing some sort of thought that I am not consciously aware of. That doesn't mean thought isn't happening.