Do animals think in the noises they make?

[Pinkamena]

Like...
Do you think dogs go all "Bark bark, growl, WOOF!" in their thoughts? Or are their thoughts more abstract and they don't think the way we do?

Also, how do you think animals dream?

 

[NightmareExpress]

The real question is...do they dream of human language?
What if they can speak humanese in their dreams, but it's a wasted effort in the waking world?
Woah.

 

[BrassButtons]

That's a really good question. It's possible that there are variations even within the same species (humans vary in how we think about things, after all). It would be pretty cool if we had some way of finding this out.

 

[Xarathox]

Somebody's been smoking waaaaay too much pot.

OT: General consensus in animal professions is that they visualize rather than use auditory cues. The same way infants early brains develop before full awareness.

 

[Tumedus]

Personally I doubt they are much different than us in that regard. We actually don't put words into much of our thought when we aren't trying to express ideas using language. We just happen spend a lot of time on doing just such expression. But its not like we have a permanent narration in our head whenever thinking of things using our senses or considering abstract concepts without atempting to expresss them.

So it probably just comes down to how much an animal acitvely considers its vocalizations as part of communication. Dolphins, whales, maybe domesticated dogs probably spend a lot of thought expressed as sounds. Domesticated cats, apes, wolves and other animals that do it occassionally, less so, and likely much more simplisitically. Animals that don't use sound as communication probably don't at all, and only think of sounds they make like we think of moving our hand.

 

[Tumedus]

When a dog barks, it doesn't code to a specific thought. Dogs make the same sounds when they're excited, when they're defending their territory, when they're scared, when they want their master's attention, etc.

This is actually still a debated issue. There aren't a lot of studies that analyze dog barking as expression and those that have been done have been met with a lot of criticism regarding method (as are many zoosemiotic studies). But the of the studies done, they have generally found that there is a variance in the bark or the bark pattern based on intent. That isn't to suggest that there is necessarily language structure in there, but it also isn't right to say the barks are all the same.

 

[Xarathox]

When a dog barks, it doesn't code to a specific thought. Dogs make the same sounds when they're excited, when they're defending their territory, when they're scared, when they want their master's attention, etc.

This is actually still a debated issue. There aren't a lot of studies that analyze dog barking as expression and those that have been done have been met with a lot of criticism regarding method (as are many zoosemiotic studies). But the of the studies done, they have generally found that there is a variance in the bark or the bark pattern based on intent. That isn't to suggest that there is necessarily language structure in there, but it also isn't right to say the barks are all the same.

Interesting. My experience (growing up in a family that breeds dogs) is that they're the same. If they're not, it must be in a way that is imperceptible to my ears (assuming it's not something like a dog barking out of fear sounding different because the physiological response to fear results in tensing in the vocal tract that changes the sound- i.e. that the change in sound can't be consciously controlled by the dog.)

Overall though I'd say my point still stands though- it's fairly obvious even if dog barks differ that they aren't words. At best they vary based on a general purpose and cannot carry specific information because dog barks lack recursion, abstraction, and can't be learned.

No, every animal emits sounds that the human ear cannot pick up. For every "voiced" action (a bark or meow) there are a number of frequencies emitted that you can't detect, because they're on a lower or higher spectrum of pitch.

For example: A dog barking at you because it's letting you know not to cross into its territory, and that same dog barking to call its young that has gotten itself lost may sound the same to you, but has different hidden pitches that cannot be picked up without devices designed to do just that.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Obviously I thought of this:

Spoiler

And this:

Spoiler

I don't think animals think. They seem to operate mostly by instinct, barring a few notable experiments.

 

[Tayh]

Like...
Do you think dogs go all "Bark bark, growl, WOOF!" in their thoughts? Or are their thoughts more abstract and they don't think the way we do?

Also, how do you think animals dream?

This is what happens when you attribute human traits to animals.
Animals have wildly different means of communication. Dogs specifically rely on a mix of visual, touch, vocalization and smelling as part of their communication.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_communication

As for dreams, I wouldn't know.
I imagine it's a mix of emotions and running through memories, probably similar to how the human brain works when asleep - although in a more limited sense, according to the intelligence of the animal in question.

 

[Tom_green_day]

I don't think in grunts and gargles so I don't think it works quite like that.

 

[Hagi]

I honestly don't know but I doubt it.

From what I know about human neurology, which is admittedly not all that much considering the immense complexity of the subject, much of our ability to be conscious of our own thoughts and thinking originates in our frontal lobes. Which are significantly larger than most animal species.

I'm not sure exactly how big a dog's frontal lobe is, nor even if that's actually the determining factor, but it's entirely possible that whilst dogs do have the capability for thoughts they do not have the capability to be aware of said thoughts. It could be that they just happen and that the entirety of a dog's actions are based on what, to the dog, seems like sudden inspiration, sudden hunches etc.

 

[Vegan_Doodler]

Pokemon do

 

[General Twinkletoes]

Obviously I thought of this:

Spoiler

And this:

Spoiler

I don't think animals think. They seem to operate mostly by instinct, barring a few notable experiments.

They definitely do think, just not in the same way humans do. They won't go philosophising or thinking about the past or future, but they're aware enough to have ideas. Some animals can solve some pretty complex problems that definitely wouldn't be possible on pure instinct.

OT: No, barks aren't the same as a language. They don't have words that mean specific things, so I doubt they think like that.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Obviously I thought of this:

Spoiler

And this:

Spoiler

I don't think animals think. They seem to operate mostly by instinct, barring a few notable experiments.

They definitely do think, just not in the same way humans do. They won't go philosophising or thinking about the past or future, but they're aware enough to have ideas. Some animals can solve some pretty complex problems that definitely wouldn't be possible on pure instinct.

OT: No, barks aren't the same as a language. They don't have words that mean specific things, so I doubt they think like that.

I wouldn't go as far as attributing them awareness, let alone ideas. But they can definitely learn "intelligent thought" by making an unsuspected connection between two previously unrelated things (which is the definition of intelligence, anyway).

 

[General Twinkletoes]

snips

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_permanence#In_animals

I think understanding object permanence counts as being aware, doesn't it? And then there's this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog#Intelligence

Spoiler: wiki quote

"Dogs also demonstrate sophisticated social cognition by associating behavioral cues with abstract meanings. One such class of social cognition involves the understanding that others are conscious agents. Research has shown that dogs are capable of interpreting subtle social cues, and appear to recognize when a human or dog's attention is focused on them. To test this, researchers devised a task in which a reward was hidden underneath one of two buckets. The experimenter then attempted to communicate with the dog to indicate the location of the reward by using a wide range of signals: tapping the bucket, pointing to the bucket, nodding to the bucket, or simply looking at the bucket. The results showed that domestic dogs were better than chimpanzees, wolves, and human infants at this task, and even young puppies with limited exposure to humans performed well.

That all sounds pretty aware and thought driven to me. Understanding other creatures are also conscious beings is not something that happens from instinct, that's an idea that a dog gets from thinking. I'm not saying dogs aren't stupid, they really are. But there's more going on inside their heads than pure instinct.

I read somewhere that some of the more intelligent animals can actually think about themselves thinking, but I can't be arsed to find it right now.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

snips

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_permanence#In_animals

I think understanding object permanence counts as being aware, doesn't it? And then there's this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog#Intelligence

Spoiler: wiki quote

"Dogs also demonstrate sophisticated social cognition by associating behavioral cues with abstract meanings. One such class of social cognition involves the understanding that others are conscious agents. Research has shown that dogs are capable of interpreting subtle social cues, and appear to recognize when a human or dog's attention is focused on them. To test this, researchers devised a task in which a reward was hidden underneath one of two buckets. The experimenter then attempted to communicate with the dog to indicate the location of the reward by using a wide range of signals: tapping the bucket, pointing to the bucket, nodding to the bucket, or simply looking at the bucket. The results showed that domestic dogs were better than chimpanzees, wolves, and human infants at this task, and even young puppies with limited exposure to humans performed well.

That all sounds pretty aware and thought driven to me. Understanding other creatures are also conscious beings is not something that happens from instinct, that's an idea that a dog gets from thinking. I'm not saying dogs aren't stupid, but there's more going on inside their heads than pure instinct.

I read somewhere that some of the more intelligent animals can actually think about themselves thinking, but I can't be arsed to find it right now.

I trust the works of Desmond Morris more than I trust Wikipedia. I can recommend The Naked Ape and his Dogwatching, two very insightful books on man and dog that will make a better case than I ever will about animals and their lack of ideas.

 

[Roverandomness]

I'd like to think they do, I mean, I've seen the way my dog looks at a mug of tea on the table when she thinks we've all left the room, and she definitely 'thinks' something, and that 'thinking' definitely seems to be the same train of thought every time a similar opportunity arises. Also, when she barks, sometimes my sister will jokingly bark back, and then my dog will bark again etc, like she's saying words (even if those words might just be 'stop pretending you're a dog you sound stupid')

 

[Signa]

When a dog barks, it doesn't code to a specific thought. Dogs make the same sounds when they're excited, when they're defending their territory, when they're scared, when they want their master's attention, etc.

This is actually still a debated issue. There aren't a lot of studies that analyze dog barking as expression and those that have been done have been met with a lot of criticism regarding method (as are many zoosemiotic studies). But the of the studies done, they have generally found that there is a variance in the bark or the bark pattern based on intent. That isn't to suggest that there is necessarily language structure in there, but it also isn't right to say the barks are all the same.

I can confirm this. I used to say my dog talked to me, because I could hear and understand the difference in her barks. I actually could tell if she a good day while I was gone. There was once where she told me about the car ride she had hours before I got home.