Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think

Studies of human cognition inevitably raise the question: "Are other animals 'conscious'?". This immediately leads to a more perplexing question: "What is consciousness?". With the concept still but vaguely defined in human terms, asking it of the other animals evokes a host of difficulties. Hauser, to his credit, makes a worthwhile attempt to deal with both questions. In this sweeping survey, he declares that simplistic approaches to how the various primates deal with life are misplaced. There is a range of animal awareness out there, shaped by the forces of natural selection. Each species must be studied carefully and intensively, both in controlled and wild conditions. And the work, he insists, has barely started. He combines his field experience with the work of many researchers in revealing facets of consciousness. Hauser's study was stimulated by a young monkey giving him a hug. He calls these elements "mental tool kits". By this he explains that similar conditions generate similar responses in the animal. This suggests there are probably areas in the brain common across many species. When conditions change, however, the response may vary wildly, indicating dissimilarity in capacity. A startling contrast is the range of food storage sites among different species. A dog may bury a bone in the garden, but a Clark's Nutcracker can stash up to thirty thousand seeds in six thousand locations - and find most of them the following Spring. Hauser calls this ability "cognitive mapping" - a special talent derived over long evolutionary time. Other animals have the role of "space travelers", although Clark's must hold some kind of record. "Self-awareness" is an all-encompassing term. In the largest and most significant part of the book, Hauser dodges the vague, but common, phrase, replacing it with "self-recognition". This term is a more measurable aspect of cognition. Experiments with mirrors demonstrate that some primates know who they're looking at, while others see intruders or remain indifferent. Strangely, some birds seem to recognise themselves in reflected images. Expressing self-awareness means communicating. For us, that's done with speech or writing. With other creatures, other forms of expression must be inferred from observation. Deception is a commonly used test. An animal aware of itself, and aware of others as well, is likely to derive the other's intent. When another's intention can be directed, and the deceiver gains from that guiding, individuality seems enhanced. How far we can take such analyses is one of Hauser's calls for more research. Language and thought are far too closely aligned in the minds of most researchers, Hauser believes. That link restricts "real" thoughts to those that can express them in words - in short, only humans. Hauser counters that thought is something we can interpret from actions - and the greater the variance in action, the better. He looks back at our evolutionary

Hauser has written a remarkably accessible introduction to comparative psychology. While containing the main points one might expect in a textbook outline, he does an excellent job of presenting this information in an interesting narrative form. Hauser begins with an introductory chapter that presents his basic approach and cautions against anthropomorphisms.Chapters two through four comprise a unit that focuses on those mental capacities shared by animals and human beings. Both can identify objects and predict their movement. Both can distinguish quantity. Both can navigate through space. Perhaps it takes a course in cognitive psychology to appreciate these commonalities, but I believe that Hauser does an excellent job of presenting research results for lay consumption. His presentation of animal and human infant studies of the expectancy-violation principle is alone worth the cost of the book. The second section, chapters five through seven, focus on mental capacities which seem to be qualitatively common in animals and humans, but quantitatively distinct. Hauser presents a well-balanced account of the evidence for self-awareness, teaching, and deception among animals.The final section contains two chapters on mental capacities that appear to be almost unique to human beings - language and morality. Hauser's careful review of animal communication is amazing, as is his locus of morality in the ability to inhibit selfish tendencies to maintain social conventions. I recommend this book without reservation. No reader will regret spending time with this book. It is quite stimulating.

As George Page pointed out in his New York Times review,most scientists fail when they try to write a popular account of the science they practice. Marc Hauser's book "Wild Minds" does not fail. It is not, unlike most books, filled with jargon. Nor is it condescending. It is a non-technical, but intelligent treatment of an important problem: what animals think and how they think. In the first part of the book, Hauser shows that all animals have brains with three distinctive capacities or what he calls "tools". these are the capacity to recognize objects, count how many there are, and navigate through space. In part two he describes several specialized tools that only some animals have. Specifically, the ability to learn from others,recognize themselves(i.e., a sense of self), and deceive others. In part three, he takes these tools explores how they play a role in systems of communication and possibly, developing a moral society. The examples are well chosen, and vivid. This is a book of passion, and a more than welcome addition to the field.

There are typically two types of books on the market in the area of animal cognition. On the one hand are those who merely offer their own impressions of what is going on in the animal mind. These impressions are fine, but they don't offer any reason why one impression is better than the next. Books that fall under this category are Elizabeth Marshall Thomas' "Hidden Life of Dogs", Jeffrey Masson's "When Elephants Weep" and most recently George Page's "Inside the Animal Mind". Page's book attempts to bring in modern science, but since he doesn't understand the issues, he fails miserably. On the other hand are books that tend to be dry and academic, and often argue that animals lack any kind of intelligence. What Hauser's book brings to this field is a keen understanding of the science, experience as a researcher who has worked in the wild and in captivity, and a love of animals. I highly recommend this book.

Wild minds is an accessible book for anyone. The main point of the book is to explore animal minds not by anthropomorphizing our furry friends, but rather thinking critically about what goes on inside their heads. Hauser reviews a wealth of different areas of animal cogntion and points out the similarities and differences between species. One excellent point made by Hauser is that each species is endowed with its own mental tool kit. Therefore, creating a hierarchy based on "intelligence" may not be entirely correct. We must recognize each species as the product of its own unique evolutionary history. I recommend this book to anyone curious about what other animals think.