Summary: The Mind Of The Raven

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An important idea in The Web of Life is the idea of self-organization, the natural process of chaotic bodies to organize. One of the most complex examples of this is the mind. The readings have given us two minds to analyze, one the human mind and the other of the raven. Both have the ability to solve problems, organize and adapt, but differ in the scope of these abilities. Raven’s problem solving skills are quite impressive, in the book The Mind of the Raven by Bernard Hendrich we see plenty of examples of this, one pair on page 133 used a distraction to lure whimbrels from their nests while the other would grab one of the whimbrel’s eggs. In the ornithology reading it tells how ravens have learned to use tools. Humans also have the ability to crate distractions, so …show more content…

This of course plays into both species problem solving abilities but in the spirit of the ethology reading we will look at their instinctual fixed action patterns versus learned behavior. Both species make use of fixed action patterns when they are young, the ethology reading goes on to give examples in humans such as their instincts to grasp their mother’s hair and feed. Raven young also need no instruction to feed and learn likely by themselves as the book describes to go to the edge of the nest to poop. But as humans grow older we gain more learned behaviors, even more so then the raven. This is what give us our competitive edge over nature, it makes us more flexible. “Particularly in humans, the genetic endowment includes a tremendous general ability to learn from experience. “As Lorenz (1959) noted, humans are "specialists in non-specialization." We have evolved a central nervous system that is capable of flexible thinking: Humans can construct novel solutions to problems in various types of environments and can learn from the consequences of their behavior.” (Theories in developmental Psychology, Pg.

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