samik wrote:

"The results demonstrated that there was a strong correlation between high-risk bets and correct responses, and between low-risk bets and incorrect responses. "The pattern of the monkeys' bets provided clear evidence of their ability to engage in meta-cognition, an ability that is all the more remarkable because monkeys lack language," noted Columbia's Herbert Terrace."


Humans who are unable to communicate by using language can make decisions. They are unable to communicate in a meaningful way with others but are able to make considered choices. I find this research challenging as it implies that the monkeys' lack of language would be evidence of their lack of reasoning.

There are conditions that humans suffer fron that preclude them from ever aquiring language, and indeed they often do not wish to interact and commumicate, however they can reason, not always as you or I would, but it is reasoning. An example would be some people with autism, a condition that now everyone has heard of and is now (I feel) a fashionable diagnosis. Some people with severe autism have little desire to communicate and aquire little or no language of any sort, but still make decisions which show evidence of choice.

It is indeed remarkable that the results show that the monkeys were capable of making an informed choice with regard to placing their bets, and answers my question about the ability to make choices being uniquely human. It isn't!

Now all I need is the etymology of pneumatology.