Reflexes whether innate, enforced, or purely learned are basically impossible to modify without either conscious attention or a lot of training. I presume the CASA proponents were arguing that these social responses are akin to social reflexes.

Plants "learn" too. https://theconversation.com/pavlovs-plants-new-study-shows-p...

The mechanistic hypothesis being:

> Plants may lack brains and neural tissues but they do possess a sophisticated calcium-based signaling network in their cells similar to animals’ memory processes.