notes-cog-animalCognition

Questions

http://www.polyphony.ge/uploads/whoaskthefirst.pdf claims that apes can "understand quite complex requests and questions" but don't ask questions; " "Though she [S arah] understood the question, she did not herself ask any questions -- unlike the child who asks interminable questions, such as What that? Who making noise? When Daddy come home? Me go Granny's house? Where puppy? Sarah never delayed the departur e of her trainer after her lessons by asking where her trainer was going, when she wa s returning, or anyt hing else" (Premack & Premack, 1983:29).

"In cases when they begin a conversation, their utterances are either statements ("Bird there"), or orde rs/requests ("Play me", "Tickle me", "Me more eat", etc).... Accordingly I would suggest that it is not the recognition of ourselves as individuals that makes us humans (we know that apes, at least chimpanzees and orangut ans, are as good as humans at recognizing themselves in the mirror). It is, rather, recognition of other members of the societ y as individuals with equal cognitive abilities and the employment of their cognit ive abilities as a source of information (asking questions), that makes us hum an, and our language -- human language . " -- http://www.polyphony.ge/uploads/whoaskthefirst.pdf

" There is a subtle connection between the ability to ask questions and the “theory of mind”. Reference to the cogniti on of another individual as a source of information should be considered one of the highest forms of the "theor y of mind" (or TOM. Premack & Dasser, 1991; Cheney & Seyfarth, 1991; Povinelli, 1993; see also Mead, 1934). According to the available information, ap es lack this ability: "The chimpanzee has passed tests suggesting that it attributes states of minds to the other one. These states, however, are either motivational..., or percep tual... Decisive evidence for the attribution of infor mational states is still lacking (Premack & Dasser, 1991:265).

The fascinating fact about the TOM and questioning behavior is that children learn the mystery of askin g questions long be fore they show the development of TOM. " -- http://www.polyphony.ge/uploads/whoaskthefirst.pdf

"Unlike us, however, it seems that apes don’t care to chitchat. Psychologist Susan Goldin-Meadow points out that studies with Kanzi show that only 4 percent of his signs are commentary, meaning the other 96 percent are all functional signs, asking for food or toys." -- http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/08/koko_kanzi_and_ape_language_research_criticism_of_working_conditions_and.single.html

" Question intonation is arguably the biggest universal of human languages and commu nication. All languages of the worl d without exception, tonal, non-tonal, intonational and accented – use the rising “question intonation” for the “yes-no” questions, very popular in human communi cation (Bolinger, 1972:314; Cruttenden, 1986:169-174). [The only dubious exception reported in 1946 was Chitimacha, but as “only one person was reported as speaking the language, we should not pin too much theoretical significance to this statement. ” (Swadesh, 1946:317, cited from Cruttenden, 1986:158)]

 According to Chomsky, the grammatical means of formulating questions are also among the strongest  syntactic universals  of the languages of the world (Chomsky, 1957), although the use of  question intonation  to formulate questions must be  evolutionary earlier
 According to child psychologists, question asking appears among children in the  form of question intonation in the babbling  stage of their language development before  they turn one, much  earlier than the use of  any grammatical structures

All these facts strongly suggest that the origins of question intonation and the general human ability to ask questions must be amongst the oldest, most basic and most imporant elements of human communicati on and human language. " -- http://www.polyphony.ge/uploads/whoaskthefirst.pdf

Geoffrey Pullum claims "I do not believe that there has ever been an example anywhere of a nonhuman expressing an opinion, or asking a question. Not ever. It would be wonderful if animals could say things about the world, as opposed to just signaling a direct emotional state or need. But they just don’t.” [1].

however, Alex the African gray parrot once asked what color he was [2].

It would be interesting to ask if the bonobos in the Iowa Primate Learning Sanctuary spontaneously ask questions. They do have a question lexigram (lexigram set 1, second row, fifth column of [3]), and Kanzi apparently said 'Question' in sign language, too [4].