Critically Assess the Claims That Animals, Particularly Chimpanzees, Have a Humanlike Understanding of Mental States - Essay Example

Critically assess the claims that animals, particularly chimpanzees, have a humanlike understanding of mental s Summary: For years psychologists have studied the minds of humans and animals alike, particularly focusing their attention on the inner workings of the minds of chimpanzees. The chimpanzee, famously known as mankind’s closest relative in the animal kingdom is slowly being recognised independently as an intelligent being which operates similarly to humans in its understanding of mental states. This report critically observes the claims that animals, particularly chimpanzees have a humanlike understanding of mental states. To support its findings, it draws material from a variety of research. Finally the conclusion is arrived at after extensively studying the material in the relevant researches. Contents Page: Introduction Theory of mind in humans Theory of mind in animals Autism and theory of mind Consciousness Animal consciousness Conclusion Chimpanzees and humans are almost 99% similar in their genetic make-up. They are known to be our common ancestors. Besides obvious lifestyle differences the only other two qualities that set us apart from chimpanzees are our perception of smells and what we eat.1 Yet what about the inner workings of a chimpanzee? Are they aware, like us, of a self? Observation dictates that humans have the ability to make sense of daily social interaction. This is the ability to impute ‘mental states’. This helps us predict and explain behaviour in general and hence is a ‘theory of mind’. This theory of mind, is the ability to be ‘conscious’. To be aware of one’s own as well as others, mental states. Yet this is just one way of understanding the theory of mind. Some of the other definitions of theory of mind are: 1. Theories of mind related to individual minds 2. In recent years the phrase theory of mind has more commonly been used to refer to a specific cognitive capacity: the ability to understand that others have beliefs, desires, and intentions that are different from one’s own. 3. In philosophy, theory of mind refers to the large area of philosophy relating to mind or to particular theories about what mind is.2 Individually, many individuals have come up with varied definitions and a personalised understanding of the theory of mind. A good example of this would be Franz Brentano’s theory of mind. Brentano argues that all mental phenomena have this in common that “they are only perceived in inner consciousness, while in the case of physical phenomena only external perception is possible”. 3 Georges Rey and Gerald Edelman are two examples of individuals who handle varied categories of theories of mind, within which have individually created their own theories of mind. Generally, a theory of mind is supposed to understand the minds of others, who have different beliefs, mental states, intentions etc. Whilst, also, a theory of mind should form accurate operational hypotheses (theories) or mental models that accurately assess and judge what those beliefs, mental states and intentions are. Theory of mind is usually an innate ability in humans- and some would argue that in the case of animals too, yet it needs be nurtured further with socialisation. Scientists have pondered over whether animals have a genetic endowment and social environment which leads to their creation of a theory of mind, similar to children. This is a complex issue as one has to speculate a great deal about the inner workings of an animal. For instance, on wonders, this brings into light the questions that are animals, self aware? Do they have a concept of self realisation? Researchers, who have studied apes, generally accept the belief that chimps have a theory of mind. A strong supporter of this claim would be Sue Savage Rumbaugh. She makes her belief in animals having a theory of mind blatantly clear in her book ‘Kanzi’. Whilst others like C.M Heyes claim we should not infer that chimpanzees in the wild have any understanding of other chimpanzees’ mental states. Learned behaviour, on the other hand, it is widely accepted can greatly assist in the development of a theory of mind in both humans and chimpanzees. As one can safely conclude, there is wide dispute over whether animals are conscious beings that have an internal life. Many philosophers and scientists have much reason to believe that animals are almost robotic and respond to changes in the environment in mechanical ways. Others argue in favour of an ‘animal consciousness’. This is very different from human consciousness. Those who spend much time with cats, dogs, horses and even cattle would realise that they have a more selective consciousness. Consciousness can best be defined as ‘a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment’.4 Philosophers have divided phenomenal consciousness such as experience and access consciousness- processing of the things in experience. Phenomenal consciousness is close to creature consciousness and sentience. Certain cultures and religious create a difference between the form of consciousness in the soul and the one of the body. While others such as John Locke believe consciousness is neither soul nor brain substance but the basis of personal identity. Humans and often other animals possess consciousness, self-awareness and a mind. This mind contains sensations, perception, dreams, lucid dreams, inner speech and an imagination. Another topic that is often debated is over how the mind constructs its experiences and deals with the concept of time and how it handles free will. An opposite side of consciousness, the state of non-consciousness exists when consciousness does not exist. Religious groups speculate that consciousness may exist even after death. Phenomenal (p-consciousness) is simply experience. While access consciousness (A-consciousnes)can be explained in terms of p-consciousness. A-consciousness is when information in our mind is accessible by verbal report, reasoning and control of behaviour. Even remembering information about the past is access information. Even during the dawn of Newtonaian sciene, Leibniz and others suggested physical theories of consciousness. This can be divided into three types which are, theories that explain behaviour and access consciousness, theorie that explain phenomenal consciousness, and theoires that explain quantum mechanical (QM) Quantum mind. Neuroscienec consists of theories that seek to explain everyday behaviour. A good example of such theories is Edelman’s theory which ‘contentiously identifies phenomenal consciousness with reflex events in the brain’. While theories that seek to explain phenomenal consciousness directly have existed for nearly a century yet have not been confirmed by experiment. Some QM theories offer descriptions of phenomenal consciousness, and QM interpretations of access consciousness. Some philosophers argue that QM has no relation to consciousness. Also at the same time, there exists in spiritual approaches to consciousness. These can be the outcome of religious observance. Some religions maintain that the universe itself is consciousness. Generally besides humans, consciousness is also attributed to dolphins and primates. Research is continously investigation as to what extent animals are conscious. Bernard Baars makes an interesting observation about the specific functions of consciousness he claims that “consciousness is a supremely functional adaptation”. He also suggests a variety of functions in which consciousness plays a role. These can be subdivided as priorization of alternatives, problem solving, decision making, brain processes recruiting, action control, error detection, planning, learning, adaptataion, context creation and finally access to information. Others such as Antonio Damasio regard consciousness as part of an organism’s ‘survival kit’. This allows planned behaviour rather than responses based on instinct. Other psychologists and radical behaviourists support Ryle’s approach. This maintains that behaviour is explainable through non-conscious processes like artificial intelligence and considers consciousness to be epiphenomenal. Biological scientists are in harmony over the claim that mammals and birds have primary consciousness. This is because they can process ‘simulatenous stimuli’5 and have an inner representation of their experiences. Conditioned responses are common and are often practiced in mice. They are usually taught to react a certain way once they are familiaried with a certain pattern (e.g., mazes). Same as the case with cows. A highly famous example is of the experiment with blind mice that were traine dto run a maze without many errors. The edxperiment required the mice to make twenty junctions in a maze. The arrangementg was then reshuffeled and the pattern re-created to prevent any familiarisation. Soon the mice learnt the ways of the new maze as well. After 3 months the mice learnt 4 different patterns/orientations of the maze. Much research done on brain damage, has shown, interesting insights about consciousness. When one part of the brain is damaged, a certain part of consciousness is lost. Damage to the nervous system causes damage to consciousness. Generally in consciousness, a very interesting fact is that thinking is not a prerequisite. Intelligent behaviour is possible without being self-aware. LeDoux’s ‘The Emotional Brain’ claims consciousness in animals equips them to relate several different things at once. Chimapnzees contain an inner or self-awareness. This claim can be verified by observing the behaviour if chimpanzees, when they look at themselves in a mirror. If paint were applied on the face of a dog and a chimpanzee only the chimpanzee would be conscious of it when it looks into the mirror. However this does not mean the dog or the cat are not self aware creatures. It simply concludes that dogs aren’t visually self aware but are smell self-aware. For instance a dog knows the smell of its own excretion. Hence this means self-awareness varies from creature to creature. Also, Donald Griffin in ‘Animal Minds’ writes about how bears have body self-awareness which helps them in hiding from hunters. To understand the process of consciousness, one has to understand its complexity. Consciousness has the following basic processes out of which one or all need to exist in a being that is indeed ‘conscious’: 1. Consciousness within one sense 2. Consciousness where all the sensory systems are integrated with emotions. 3. Consciousness where sensory systems and emotions are integrated and thoughts are in symbolic language. There are many debates between scientists over theory of mind and do animals have one? Those who are primatologists and other observors of animal behaviour term theory of mind ‘Machiavellian intelligence’, ‘metarepresentation’, ‘metcognition’, ‘mind reading’ and ‘pan’ or ‘pongo-morphism’. Now a researcher who would use the term ‘mental state attribution’ is likely to believe law-like generalisations underlie mental state ascription. An example of how one animal with a theory of mind would perceive the other’s behaviour is: ‘If chimpanzee Al has a theory of mind, he may judge chimpanzee Bert to be able to "see" a predator because it is daylight, Berts eyes are open, and there is an uninterrupted line between Berts eyes and the predator. But Al does not take seeing the predator to consist of these observable conditions. It is a further fact about Bert, inferred from these conditions, which explains why Bert runs away.’6 To find out for definite if primates have a theory of mind or not, do they understand similarly to human beings, do they perceive in human terms, research has been going on since nearly twenty years. Yet no convincing evidence of a theory of mind in animals has been brought forward. Yet majority of those involved in studying chimpanzees claim that chimpanzees and maybe other apes, besides monkeys, have components of a theory of mind. And as has been pointed out, chimpanzees are also a conscious species. Their consciousness is very different from other animals, example dogs and is much more varied. From many studies of imitation, self-recognition, social relationships, deception, role-taking, perspective-taking, it has been noted that primates know/believe about the ‘content’ of their representations. Primates have the ability to think about themselves and others in terms of mental states. Whilst it is also said, that primates respond to and perceive each other in terms of behaviour and appearance. Chimpanzees are capable of self-recognition and have the ability to use a mirror as a source of information about the bodies they possess. This has been proven by the studies of Cheney & Seyfarth 1990a; Jolly 1991; Gallu 1982; Povinelli 1987. A self-concept means having the imagination to comprehend how one is perceived by another. However critics of the experiment in which chimpanzees showed conscious human behaviour in front of the mirror by touching the spot that was painted on their face, argue that the animals had recovered from anaesthesia and were therefore more active than usual. Hence had they not been in the state of recovery from anaesthesia, they would not have responded the same way in front of the mirror. Therefore this study that proved the physical conscious behaviour of chimps is not widely accepted by all. In one experiment that led to people believing chimpanzees have a theory of mind, a chimp Sarah, was language trained and shown video tapes of actors depicting various problems. Some of them included trying to reach inaccessible food, escape from a locked cage, dealing with malfunctioning equipment etc. and the final image of each scene was put on hold while Sarah was presented two photographs. The photographs represented the actor facing a problem and only one in which he was taking the appropriate problem-solving action. For every sequel Sarah choose the photograph in which the actor was solving the problem. Hence this was taken as strong evidence that she attributed mental states to the actor. Also to judge if a species has a theory of mind it needs to be realised that relevant behaviour is dependent on a number of non-mentalistic psychological processes hence behaviour is not always a valid indicator of a theory of mind. Yet consciousness exists blatantly in chimps. In Povinelli’s ‘What young chimpanzees know about seeing’ one can conclude that chimpanzees perception is different from human and not so evolved. The report states, ‘theory of attention in which organisms are subjectively connected to the world not through any particular sensory modality such as vision but rather through other (as-of-yet unspecified) behavioural indicators’. As observed, behaviour is not always valid indictor of having a theory of mind. Hence it will not be obvious to the untrained individual if or not chimps have a human like understanding of mental states. In research like povinelli’s ‘reasoning about beliefs, a human specialisation?’ a very striking point is brought up that ‘theory of mind is unique to our species, and that its original function was to provide a more abstract level of describing ancient behavioural patterns (such as deception, reconciliation, and gaze following)-behaviours that humans share in common with many other species.’ This material sheds knew light on what we thought we knew bout the human mind’s ‘theory of mind’. In other research like Do chimpanzees know what conspecifics know? By Hare B, Call J, Tomasello M it is proven that ‘chimpanzees know what conspecifics have and have not seen (do and do not know), and that they use this information to devise effective social-cognitive strategies’. Thus science is enriched daily by the marvels of the chimpanzees’ minds and its wondrous ability to comprehend similarly to the human mind. 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