i need to sleep, so one last point.
Children actually learn language as long as they are exposed to it and do not need to be directly taught. However the amazing things with children is they learn far more language than they should given the amount of stimulus they recieve. They seem to have an innate ability to learn language.
And chimps are very bad at copying. its not that they just dont teach each other but they will watch a chimp bash a rock on a nut to break it open. they'll watch it a couple of times and pick up a rock and a nut. But instead of putting the nut down and bashing the rock against it like they've just watched, they will try and smash the nut against the rock, then they'll smash a nut against a nut, and so on. i've watched this. it is actually quite hard to understand how they get it so wrong when you watch them.
And one question for you to think. if you told alex or that other parrot that a square was a 4 sided shape, then showed them a triangle and asked them what that was do you think it would understand it is a 3 sided shape? sure it could tell you how many shapes there were etc, but that doesnt mean their is any understanding. Having a desire doesnt mean you understand the concept of a desire. and nor does being able to recognise a square mean that you know what a square is.
anyway i'm off to bed.
|