Humphrey Reading: The Social Function of Intellect

Question 1

How does nature interact with her “production lines”, according to Humphrey (1976)?

Answer 1

superfluous capacity is trimmed back, new capacity added only as and when it is needed

Question 2

What was Heim’s (1970) broad definition of intelligence?

Answer 2

the ability to grasp the essentials of a situation and respond appropriately

Question 3

Why does Humphrey (1976) call Heim’s (1970) definition of intelligence circular?

Answer 3

when intelligence is defined as the ability to do this or that, who dares question the biological advantage of being able?

Question 4

Humphrey says an animal displays intelligence when what?

Answer 4

he modifies his behaviour on the basis of valid inference from evidence

Question 5

According to Humphrey, whee does the main role of creative intellect lie?

Answer 5

practical invention

Question 6

What fault does he have with the original cognitive tests performed on primates?

Answer 6

even in the species which have the most advanced technologies the exams are largely tests of knowledge rather than imaginative reasoning => answers arrived through trial and error

Question 7

What does Humphrey suggest about subsistence technology?

Answer 7

rather than requiring intelligence, may actually be a substitute for it

Question 8

How did Humphrey compare Einstein to chimpanzees?

Answer 8

Einstein displayed his genius at rare times in ‘artificial’ situations–he did not use it, for he did not need to use it, in the common world of practical affairs

Question 9

Humphrey argues that the life of the great apes and man may not require much in the way of practical invention but rather…

Answer 9

critically on the possession of wide factual knowledge of practical technique and the nature of habitat

Question 10

In what context can factual knowledge of practical technique and the naure of the habitat be acquired?

Answer 10

-only in the context of a social community: a community in which provides both a medium for the cultural transmission of information and a protective environment in which individual learning can occur

Question 11

Humphrey says a cage is a ____ place to keep a monkey

Answer 11

bad

Question 12

What did Humphrey’s study with Helen show about the impact of environment?

Answer 12

with proper environmental stimulation (being released from her cage) her vision improved and had almost perfect spatial vision even after having her visual cortex surgically removed

Question 13

Why were monkeys placed in cages together able to still grow their intellect despite having no objects to explore?

Answer 13

had each other to manipulate and explore (social interaction)

Question 14

The life of social animals is highly _______

Answer 14

problematical

Question 15

Where are benefits to be gained from each individual member in a complex society?

Answer 15

1. preserving the overall structure of the group

2. exploiting and out manouevering others within it

Question 16

Why does Humphrey call social primates calculating being?

Answer 16

need to be able to calculate the consequences of their own behavior, calculate likely behaviour of others, calculate the balance of advantage and loss–also based in context where the evidence is ephemeral, ambiguous, and liable to change

Question 17

Like chess, a social interaction is typically a ______ between social partners

Answer 17

transaction

Question 18

What does Humphrey say is the chief role of intellect?

Answer 18

hold society together

Question 19

How does the social system serve its purpose of acting as a ‘polytechnic school’ for the teaching of subsistence technology?

Answer 19

1. allowing a period of prolonged dependence during which young animals, spared the need to fend for themselves are free to experiment and explore
2. bringing the youth into contact with older, more experienced members of the community from whom they can learn by imitation

Question 20

the presence of dependents in a society calls for what?

Answer 20

measure of tolerance and unselfish sharing

Question 21

the greater the number of generations the more _____ the picture becomes

Answer 21

complex

Question 22

Why does a complex society cause new internal pressures to arise?

Answer 22

animal’s intellectual adversaries are members of his own breeding community

Question 23

If an animal spends all morning in non productive socializing, then ….

Answer 23

he must be at least twice as efficient as a producer in the afternoon

Question 24

How is the selfishness of animals tempered?

Answer 24

sympathy: tendency on the part of one social partner to identify himself with the other and so to make the other’s goals to some extent his own

Question 25

Men expect to argue with problems rather than what?

Answer 25

being limited to arguing about them

Question 26

What must man take into consideration when approaching a social problem?

Answer 26

the situation confronting him is unlikely to be stable

Question 27

What is an example of humans treating inanimate entities as people? (and by doing so, sure to make mistakes)

Answer 27

people commonly attempt to bargain with nature, through prayer, through sacrifice or ritual persuasion

Question 28

What does Humphrey compare to conversations between a mother and child, suggesting that these things have a close, structural similarity?

Answer 28

speak of a conversation between a gardener and his roses or a farmer and his corn

Question 29

Humphrey says transactions are what?

Answer 29

something which people seek out actively and will force on nature whenever they are able

Question 30

What is Humphrey’s hypothesis?

Answer 30

there is a positive correlation across species between ‘social complexity’ and ‘individual intelligence’

Question 31

What is blocking the ability to test Humphrey’s hypothesis?

Answer 31

do not have agreed definitions or agreed ways of measure social complexity or individual intelligence

Question 32

what does Humphrey say we need to test his hypothesis?

Answer 32

a laboratory test of social skill–a test which ought, if I am right, to double as a test of ‘high-level intelligence’

Question 33

What could be the social partner Humphrey says we can use to test his hypothesis?

Answer 33

a kind of ‘social-robot’ that is programmed online from a computer to behave in a pseudo social way

Question 34

What does Humphrey like about his definition of intelligence?

Answer 34

embraces everything from simple associative learning to syllogistic reasoning

Question 35

What does Humphrey mean when he says ‘practical invention’?

Answer 35

invention is used broadly to mean acts of intelligent discovery by which an animal comes up with new ways of doing things

Question 36

What problem does Humphrey have with the intelligence tests being used in most species?

Answer 36

test of knowledge rather than imaginiaitve reasoning

Question 37

What does Humphrey mean when he discusses the “affluent savage” ?

Answer 37

man and gorillas lead simple existences: eat, sleep and play

affluent savage seems to have established a modus vivendi in which he could afford to be not only physically but intellectually lazy

Question 38

Once a society has reached a certain level of complexity, then what?

Answer 38

new internal pressures must arise which act to increase its complexity still further

Question 39

Who are an animal’s intellectual adversaries?

Answer 39

members of his own breeding community

-any trait which increases the ability to outwit his fellows will soon spread through the gene pool

Question 40

What is the savage mind according to Humphrey?

Answer 40

highly rational structures of kinship, totemism, myth and religion with characteristic primitive societies

Question 41

What must a man know when going out to solve a social problem?

Answer 41

1. know that the situation is unlikely to remain stable

2. development will have a certain logic to it

Question 42

While there have been many discussion of how people out to think, there has not been many discussion of how people ______ think

Answer 42

do

Question 43

What is Humphrey’s central thesis?

Answer 43

there should be a positive correlation between social complexity and individual intelligence

Question 44

What is Humphrey’s concluding argument?

Answer 44

the higher intellectual faculties of primates have evolved as an adaptation to the complexities of social living