When asked if they talk to their pets, a whopping sixty-seven percent of pet owners admitted to conversing with their pets. The general assumption is that the critters can understand and feel emotion towards their owners in return. However, although many nonhuman animals have similar human traits and can mimic human actions, their register of consciousness is too low, therefore they don't have the ability to communicate with humans. For years the question of whether animals can actually understand a spoken language has been tossed around in many different environments. Whether it be in a world renowned science lab or in a high school debate class, the question has remained a source of heated argument. The topic is based around a simply complex …show more content…
A rat is instinctively drawn toward the dark and dwells in it most of its life. This is one of its survival techniques. In the cage, however, the rat is shocked by the darkness, therefore it abandons its natural avoidance of light, embracing it as a new habitat instead. One could assume that the rat is suddenly afraid of the darkness, which would also tie into the assumption that nonhuman animals obtain the ability to feel emotions. John Watson, who is noted as the father of behaviorism, took a different approach to the animal-human argument. Instead of studying the consciousness of the organisms, he studied their behaviors. He, along with many other behaviorist, believed that studying nonhuman animal emotions was pointless because it is unmeasurable. They instead would examine the cause and effect relationships of the behaviors of organisms. For an example of their work, they would observe the behavior of a dog that was just punished. If it's effect from being punished was to cower in the corner, they would insist that this was only a mere expression of a triggered stimulus. Simply put, the dog was exhibiting a natural instinct, just as the rat would typically journey to the dark side of the cage. Peter Milner and James Olds are credited as the founders of the brain rewards system in 1954. The brain rewards system proved to be the reason nonhuman animals, rats in their case, could be trained to preform certain tasks. Almost like the rat in the half lit cage, Milner and Olds would put rats in cages and train them to push certain levers. As a reward for the accomplishment, the rats would be given a piece of food. The same is true going back to the sitting dog. Dogs will not learn to sit unless they're rewarded with a treat. Dogs have the ability to associate the word "sit" with the action followed by a reward. However, the dog doesn't sit just out of respect for its owner.