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I would say that animals have perceptions or even higher-order perceptions (HOP) but don't have thoughts or higher-order thoughts (HOT). A perception or thought is higher order when it takes another perception or thought as its object - such as you being aware of your thought or perception on a certain thing. Animals might have thoughts or perceptions then, but probably not higher order ones since they are basically functioning unconsciously if you were to compare them to humans.
You could say that animals don't really have 'conscious' thoughts since they don't think about what they are thinking about. They don't really have higher-level thoughts since they just have simplistic thoughts or thoughts that don't involve complex representations (or they don't make the representations complex).
For instance when someone thinks 'I just did this' then they are thinking more consciously about what they did and the thoughts that were involved. That enables further action or introspection that animals don't have.
Other propositions about the word are inferred, of course - and those related nodes are also activated.
So then words and concepts are actually very simple when you think about them as computationally processed. However, when someone 'infers' something it isn't simple at all. They are making a guess as to what that concept is like and how it might be like other concepts.
'Inferring' then is basically analyzing levels of emotional subtlety. You get an idea of an idea or concept and this idea triggers you to think more about it and guess or infer other properties related to it.
Is understanding that simple then? How much of this 'inferring and relating' process is emotional? someone could do mathematical calculations, which would involve activating networks like a computer does - but it wouldn't process the information exactly like a computer at all. The nodes connecting the mathematical equations would be emotional nodes or nodes with feeling and the consequences of feelings attached, not like a computer that is programmed with 1s and 0s.
Concepts are formed when unconscious feelings become linked to an object - this makes the object more able to be verbally described and conscious.
If animals formed concepts then they would be able to adapt their behavior in more creative fashions because they would be capable of more complex thought. The concepts they form are merely unconscious - A leads to B,, so don't do A - which is less sophisticated than a humans ability to manipulate concepts which goes something like 'maybe I can do this instead of that because of this or that reason'.
Concepts are complex mental representations - that is why they go into so many different categories - because each word or concept in life is related or belongs with other events, experiences and ideas.
My guess would be this might help explain how the mind functions - different areas of the brain are going to be more biased for certain types of experiences or concepts and when a concept is thought about that region of the brain gets more activated than the other regions of the brain the concept is less associated with. That also explains how brains can function without the organs being fully developed in a 'final' state - because a lot of the brain can still work just with less functionality.
Goldman, A (1993) 'Epistemic Folkways and Scientific Epistemology". In Goldman, A. (Ed) Readings in philosophy and cognitive science. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Kim, J. (2006) Philosophy of mind. Westview Press.
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