Marc Hauser on “humaniqueness”
Written on February 20, 2008
Scientist postulates 4 aspects of ‘humaniqueness’ differentiating human and animal cognition from PhysOrg.com
Shedding new light on the great cognitive rift between humans and animals, a Harvard University scientist has synthesized four key differences in human and animal cognition into a hypothesis on what exactly differentiates human and animal thought.
[…]
Hauser presents four distinguishing ingredients of human cognition, and shows how these capacities make human thought unique. These four novel components of human thought are the ability to combine and recombine different types of information and knowledge in order to gain new understanding; to apply the same “rule” or solution to one problem to a different and new situation; to create and easily understand symbolic representations of computation and sensory input; and to detach modes of thought from raw sensory and perceptual input.
Marc Hauser’s books include Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think.
Also this week’s NOVA (PBS) was on a related topic – “Ape Genius”.
Filed in: cognitive science.
