Identity, Essay Example

All species of animal life apply cognitive skills to survive and no adaptation should be considered better than the other. These articles focused on exploring a bottom up perspective regarding cognition with special comparison to the apes and humans. The authors cited impacts of cognition upon learning language through speech between apes and humans. Apes could not interpret language through a speech mechanism. However, when gestures were used they understood that language sequence (de Waal & Ferrari, 2010) (Savage-Rumbaugh, Rumbaugh and Boysen, 1980).

Further, the authors advanced instead of concluding that apes cannot speak and criticize their cognitive abilities true analysts should ask how apes speak. The obvious answer would be through gestures based on the explanation offered in the articles under review. More importantly, in relating this phenomenon to evolution whereby life forms continue to adapt to changing environment overtime and grow out of one from into another; it would then be feasible to consider moving from gesture language to speaking words as a bottom up theoretical perspective.

Essentially, according to class discussions apes use cognition to produce desired out comes whether they develop a top-down or bottom-up strategy to achieve it. Gesture is their language (Savage-Rumbaugh et.al, 1980). The outcome is what matters because cognition in itself is a survival tool for every species regardless of how it is perceived or articulated. Human anatomical brains are wired differently to other animal kingdoms. This can be a consequence of the evolutionary phase in which they still function. This does not make their cognitive abilities less useful to them than humans. Hence, just like humans they are able to communicate in whatever language they can articulate through their cognitive abilities. This confirms that all species of animal life apply cognitive skills to survive and no adaptation should be considered better than the other.

Works cited

De Waal Frans B.M ; Ferrari Pier Francesco. Towards a bottom-up perspective on animal and human cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. (January 2010) Vol 14, 5; pp. 201-210. 2010 Print

Savage-Rumbaugh E. Sue; Rumbaugh Duane M; Boysen Sarah. Do Apes use Language?

American Scientist, Vol. 68, 1 (January-February 1980), pp. 49-61. Print