Thanks for the typo find—I read the whole thing several times and didn’t notice. Presumably the low level recognition of the word was overrided by the high level prior without triggering any alarms.
Cats have the same overall brain architecture as primates and humans, but smaller. Generally the payoff for learning increases with brain size and lifespan. The smaller the brain and the shorter the organism’s lifespan, the more evolution relies on complex innate reflexes.
One interesting (but cruel) experiment which illustrates this is decerebration.
See this article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Basically the larger the mammal’s brain, the more they depend on learned functionality in the new brain (cortex + cerebellum) .
Thanks for the typo find—I read the whole thing several times and didn’t notice. Presumably the low level recognition of the word was overrided by the high level prior without triggering any alarms.
Cats have the same overall brain architecture as primates and humans, but smaller. Generally the payoff for learning increases with brain size and lifespan. The smaller the brain and the shorter the organism’s lifespan, the more evolution relies on complex innate reflexes.
One interesting (but cruel) experiment which illustrates this is decerebration.
See this article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Basically the larger the mammal’s brain, the more they depend on learned functionality in the new brain (cortex + cerebellum) .