Do you think animals have thoughts? Are they capable of hearing that little voice that we humans have in our heads?
Do you think animals have thoughts? Are they capable of hearing that little voice that we humans have in our heads?
What do you think?
You're viewing a single thread.
I don't think they have an internal monologue. I think they just react to their senses.
But they can make plans, they have goal-oriented behavior that drives them to seek out a goal that exists beyond their senses. If I leave the house through the front door without giving my dog his customary distraction, he goes out the back door and around the side because he knows that, if I haven't properly secured the fence, he can get out through the fence to reach me. Nothing about that involves his senses, it's just something he's figured out.
Now, I doubt any part of that involves an internal monologue because they don't use language (even though they can, in fact, understand limited language). If they don't use it themselves, they probably don't figure things out in their heads that way, it simply wouldn't be very efficient. But they certainly possess more complex internal cognition than just "I smell food" or whatever.
When I solve the kinds of problems that animals have been shown to be able to solve, there’s no inner vocalization. I solve those problems using visual simulations in my head. I use virtual hands more than I use a virtual voice to solve such things.
I’m autistic.
To be honest, that's me too! (And I also might be autistic.) But I'm capable of thinking things out verbally, something I do particularly in regard to programming and architecture problems, or figuring out what to say to someone else. So it's a tool that's available to me. I don't think it's available to my dog, but I'll bet he's doing virtual paws.