who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...

336herself ask any questions -- unlike the child who asks interminable questions, such asWhat that? Who making noise? When Daddy come home? Me go Granny's house?Where puppy? Sarah never delayed the departure of her trainer after her lessons byasking where the trainer was going, when she was returning, or anything else" (Premack& Premack, 1983:29). Amazingly, Sarah would sometimes “steal” the words from thetrainers, and then she would happily repeat the questions asked by trainers to her andthen repeat her own answer. And still, she never herself asked trainers any questions.Earlier Washoe also failed to formulate and ask questions, though that was one ofthe aims of the Gardners’ project (Gardner & Gardner, 1969, 1975; Bronowski & Bellugi,1984:110; McNeill, 1980:152-153). Despite all their achievements, Kanzi andPanbanisha do not seem to possess the ability to ask questions as well. At least, SueSavage-Rumbaugh and her to-authors never seem to have claimed this so far (Savage-Rumbaugh, 1986; Savage-Rumbaugh and Levin, 1994; Savage-Rumbaugh et al., 1993,1998, 2001).The only case when it was claimed that an ape asked a question that I am aware ofwas connected to the chimpanzee Lana. (Lana was a chimpanzee that participated inDuane Rumbaugh’s experiments in the 1970s.) “When the machine [food-givingmachine] was broken and food could not be loaded, Lana was able to ask: ‘?You movefood into room?’” (Savage-Rumbaugh & Levin, 1994:143-144) Even if this is the case ofan ape asking a question, it would be strange to consider the possibility that apes wouldask a q uestion of a machine (who can not give them an answer) and would never askquestions of their human trainers, who can interact and give them answers. Given thenatural curiosity of the apes, it would be natural to expect that if apes know how to askquestions, they would be asking plenty of questions.So, according to our current knowledge, despite all their cognitive achievements,apes do not ask questions. They are apparently very good in replying to human questions,and they do understand quite complex requests and questions, but fail to askquestions. In cases when they begin a conversation, their utterances are either statements("Bird there"), or orders/requests ("Play me", "Tickle me", "Me more eat", etc). Thereseems to be something very important in this fascinating fact, something connected withthe evolutionary distinction between the cognitive capacities of apes and humans.Accordingly I would suggest that it is not the recognition of ourselves asindividuals that makes us humans (we know that apes, at least chimpanzees andorangutans, are as good as humans at recognizing themselves in the mirror). It is, rather,recognition of other members of the society as individuals with equal cognitiveabilities and the employment of their cognitive abilities as a source of information(asking questions), that makes us human, and our language -- human language.There is a subtle connection between the ability to ask questions and the “theoryof mind”. Reference to the cognition of another individual as a source of informationshould be considered one of the highest forms of the "theory of mind" (or TOM. Premack& Dasser, 1991; Cheney & Seyfarth, 1991; Povinelli, 1993; see also Mead, 1934).According to the available information, apes lack this ability: "The chimpanzee haspassed tests suggesting that it attributes states of minds to the other one. These states,however, are either motivational..., or perceptual... Decisive evidence for the attributionof informational states is still lacking (Premack & Dasser, 1991:265).