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From: sbrunnoc@hawk.ulowell.edu (Sean Brunnock)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology
Subject: Re: language, thought, and culture
Message-ID: <5490@swan.ulowell.edu>
Date: 15 Mar 88 20:44:19 GMT
References: <44@gollum.Columbia.NCR.COM> <2894@pbhyf.UUCP> <888@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <326@thirdi.UUCP> <899@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <5776@dhw68k.cts.com> <5378@swan.ulowell.edu> <912@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>
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Reply-To: sbrunnoc@hawk.ulowell.edu (Sean Brunnock)
Organization: University of Lowell, CS Dept.
Lines: 33
Summary: But animals can think!

In article <912@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn) writes:


>In article 5378@swan.ulowell.edu (Sean Brunnock) writes:

>>Conciousness can also create stimuli at will (the
>>cognitive image). This makes learning in a person more efficient. By
>>tweeking responses at the same time the brain gets sensory input (whether
>>real or imagined), associations are strengthened much faster. I won't go
>>into the details of the physiology of this.

>Yes, but emphatically not just "more efficient." It is a qualitatively
>different phenomena.  Consider seeing a gorilla or a whale sitting in
>one place, thinking.  It doesn't happen, they don't think.  They *must*
>interact wwith their environments to learn, to "move" mentally.  As we
>all know, humans can *generate their own mental movement*.  This ability
>is a discontinuous change, a radical departure, a bifurcation, a
>meta-system transition, a "quantum leap" (discrete step) of biological
>evolution.  Its significance should (obviously) not be underestimated. 

   Human beings are not the only possessors of conciousness though. In
Kohler's experiments with apes *, the subjects underwent a lengthy period
of inactivity before they solved the problems put before them. This is
the type of insightful learning that Thorndike said all animals were
incapable of. 

       ----------------------------------------------------

* -   Theories of Learning; B.R. Hergenhahn, 1982, Prentice-Hall; pg. 259

Sean Brunnock
University of Lowell
sbrunnoc@hawk.cs.ulowell