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If we could talk to the animals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2008

Michael Siegal  and
Rosemary Varley
Michael Siegal
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Trieste, 34134 Trieste, Italy, and Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TP, United Kingdom
Rosemary Varley
Affiliation:
Department of Human Communication Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TA, United Kingdom. M.Siegal@Sheffield.ac.ukhttp://alacode.psico.units.itR.A.Varley@sheffield.ac.ukhttp://www.shef.ac.uk/hcs/staff/varley
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Abstract

The thesis of discontinuity between humans and nonhumans requires evidence from formal reasoning tasks that rules out solutions based on associative strategies. However, insightful problem solving can be often credited through talking to humans, but not to nonhumans. We note the paradox of assuming that reasoning is orthogonal to language and enculturation while employing the criterion of using language to compare what humans and nonhumans know.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , April 2008 , pp. 146 - 147
Copyright
Copyright ©Cambridge University Press 2008

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