Study Questions #2

Questions For Synopses of Marc Hauser's Wild Minds and "A Birdbrain Nevermore" by Bernd Heinrich

1. Name and briefly describe the five different modes of learning.

2. What is the puzzling question that endures about the orangutan firestarter who started a fire with kerosene?

3. How does the "deceiving" submissive chimp seem to show awareness of another's mental state?

4. What elements of human speech do vervets share with their alarm system?

5) What does the story of the "Wild Child of Aveyron" suggest about the ability to combine words in a formal structure?

6) What experiment suggests Kanzi may have some notion of word order?

7) What evidence leads Hauser to conclude that animals have an "impoverished capacity for inhibition and conceptual change"?

8) How does the model of blood regurgitation in vampire bats suggest that these bats are altruistic and have a sensibility about another bat's intentions?

9) According to the author, Bernd Heinrich, what is intention and what is its relation to consciousness?

10) How did Heinrich argue that the experiment with the ravens demonstrated insight?