IS HUMAN COGNITION UNIQUE FROM THAT OF OTHER ANIMALS? WHY OR WHY NOT?
Cognition refers to the process of understanding and mentally gaining knowledge, and cognitive processes include recalling, making judgments, and thinking. The brain performs all these mental processes. Human cognition is the ability to participate in problematic and target-oriented behaviours other than reacting to the moments at hand. Animals share many of the structural blocks that comprise of human thoughts, although there is a colossal reasoning gap or rift between them. Through their critical differences in reasoning abilities, we find that most of the elements are uniquely found in humans alone. Although there are apparent similarities, there is still a great gulf that is in between the humans and animals way of thinking in their lifetime. Some significant components make human thought more unique to the other
animals, the ability of a human to recombine different ideas together to apply it as a solution.
Earlier on it was believed that the ability to use tool equipment is regarded as for human’s capacity only. Still, animals like chimpanzee are known to have an idea of how to use simple tools, arise in the difference between them and humans occurs on how differently they use them. Animal tools are known to have one function. At the same time, a human can combine different materials to come up with one device which can perform multiple functions. The idea of combining various materials is one distinguishable critical thought found in humans. In terms of intelligence capacity animals can offer a specific solution to a specified problem. Still, this type of solution cannot be applied in any emerging situation or solve different kinds of issues. However, in humans, they have sort of cognition that enables them to process specific thought that would offer a solution to a particular problem, and the same solution can be applied to other issues. Both animals and humans share causal reasoning, but an elaboration that leads to causal reasoning is more in humans but lacks in animals
For humans, the uniqueness in their intellectual capacity has opened other avenues of evolution aspects that other animals have not primarily through culture and language. Cultural systems have also enabled humans to be able to transmit accumulated knowledge and skills from one generation to another. For example, If I imagine of a child being born in an isolated island or land with no human influence and he or she survives up to adulthood it is probably true the individuals reasoning ability would not differ so much from that of an ape. Therefore cultural systems have also contributed to the widening of humans way of thinking. Language in Cultural systems, also allows humans to communicate with, share and also acquire information from others. The necessary skills of communicating create the foundation for different forms of cultural learning like initial stage language success for the small humans’ children. For example, around their early ages, they always begin by pointing out to the objects of their interest animals like ape perform poorly only because they do not understand their mate’s intention.
Humans are therefore unique in the understanding of others, while animals do not exploit information about others perception or intentions. The idea of supporting and understanding others alone cannot support unique human cognition but rather its energy amongst humans to motivate themselves in engaging in activities with shared goals. Although the next primitive animal to humans portrays cooperation, for example, in group hunting, the successful captor retains the majority of the share and gives the rest to the others in reaction to their annoyance. Both animals and humans in female gender display similarity, especially in language when interpreting expressions. Female humans, in terms of the theory of mind, always reach ahead in terms of development than males; this is also exhibited in animals. Humans also can place thing in categories like distinguishing good and evil, which natures us on how we view our world today. The desires of humans making and taking medicine as their source of treatment also make them more unique. Comparing humans and animals cognitive ability, humans display a significant variance, although they sometimes share some basic processes like slower developing.
Abilities of animals are always restricted to a single goal, and the most convincing one is the restriction on food-catching. Humans have more superior memory is the principal account of their uniqueness. Cultural evolution in the history of tool development and artifacts seems to demand the ability to hold more activities in mind, which is found in humans. Humans surpass all other animals in executive control, and this is supported by the fact of reversal learning and patience. Another classic explanation for human cognitive uniqueness is that humans are the only species with language that might be said to underpin every level of recursive thought, relational reinterpretation and interweaving domain of specific knowledge. Most of the time, cognitive development in both humans and animals expresses a shared characteristic in infants and young animals; this is because the differences are less pronounced in young animals than in adults.
Human minds are said not the same as of the other animals this is because they always participate in large scale institution, the wage of wars over believes, imagine of the distant future and also communicate about this processes through syntax and symbols. Although the chimpanzees are said to be capable of analogical reasoning if the concepts are simple, their cognition is different from that of human in that humans can deal with high orders of relations within relations. Still, chimpanzees lack prosocial motivation found in cooperative breeders. In the past humans, ancestors were believed to be endowed with the same skills as ancient apes. Still, the recent human evolution has elaborated human’s unique capabilities and their application in upcoming types of cooperative social interaction. However, human cognition evolved once, and this represents the final product of incremental, evolutionary changes.
In conclusion, humans are unfamiliar animals in many aspects, but the cognition of human uniqueness evidences itself more clearly. I, therefore, agree that human understanding is unique at a more significant variation from other animals though they share some commonalities.
References
MacLean, E. L. (2016). Unravelling the evolution of uniquely human cognition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(23), 6348-6354.
Bender, A. (2019). The role of culture and evolution for human cognition. Topics in Cognitive Science.
Hunnius, S., & Meyer, M. (2020). New Perspectives on Early Social-Cognitive Development (Vol. 254). Elsevier.