more from Susan A. Gelman

Single Idea 15682

[catalogued under 7. Existence / E. Categories / 2. Categorisation]

Full Idea

All organisms form categories: even mealworms have category-based preferences, and higher-order animals such as pigeons or octopi can display quite sophisticated categorical judgements.

Gist of Idea

Even fairly simple animals make judgements based on categories

Source

Susan A. Gelman (The Essential Child [2003], 01 'Prelims')

Book Reference

Gelman,Susan A.: 'The Essential Child' [OUP 2005], p.11


A Reaction

[She cites some 1980 research to support this] This comes as no surprise, as I take categorisation as almost definitive of what a mind is. My surmise is that some sort of 'labelling' system is at the heart of it (like Googlemail labels!).