Parker Goldstein

AP Psychology B

25 February 2011

Animals Can Think

Animals may not be able to speak our language or solve complex

problems like humans can, but they do exhibit cognitive abilities similar to

our species. Many psychologists have done extensive research into the

matter and they have come up with some promising results. For example,

the ape Washoe was taught sign language as if she were a deaf human child.

After four years of learning, Washoe learned 132 signs. At the age of 32, she

learned 181 signs. Her teachers could have full-fledged conversations with

the member of a completely different species. This alone proves that apes

have the capacity for language. Proof of animals “thinking” also lies in their

natural habitat. Chimpanzees have been shown to exhibit complex thinking

skills to fashion tools to help them with everyday problems like getting ants

out of a stick to eat. This is also proven to not be a genetic skill, but a

learned skill, because these eating styles differ from chimpanzee family to

chimpanzee family. It is almost the equivalent to human cultural diversity.

Primates are not the only species to show signs of understanding language;

Rico, a border collie, knows 200 items by name and can fetch any one of

them on command. He may not be able to convey language like humans

can, but he can understand it well enough to show some signs of thinking

inside his head. These cases are proof that animals do have cognitive skills
similar to that of humans. Understanding and exhibiting language shows that

animals use their brains to think.