ABSTRACT
Our ability to abstract general solutions from specific problems influences our ability to reason through problems, arrive at the proper solutions, and communicate our thoughts. Few would debate that humans are superior to other animals in these skills of abstracting and reasoning. Indeed, debate has centered around whether or not animals have the ability to learn abstract solutions—called abstract concepts—and, if so, which animal species have this ability. Possibly because animals have so much difficulty learning concepts, language has been suggested as a necessary condition for abstract concept learning (Premack, 1978, 1983a, 1983b; Rumbaugh, Savage-Rumbaugh, & Hegel, 1987; Rumbaugh, Savage-Rumbaugh, & Pate, 1988). The logic here is that with artificial language the animal (usually a chimpanzee) has a syntactical structure with which to code, process, reminisce, and reason toward general problem solutions.
… abstract code is a recent development, found only in primates, … language training increases the animal’s facility with the abstract code; it does not instill the code—as probably no training could—but if the species has the code to start with, the [language] training enhances the animal’s ability to use it. [Premack, 1983b, p. 132]
