Incredible primate cognitive abilities

General Forums Off-topic Chat
1

I was just astonished by some cognitive abilities we have in human gender, and probably share with some ape species…

I’ve just tried to reach a friend of mine by phone, but I got his answering machine. During his welcome message, I could HEAR him SMILE!
Not that it has never happened to me, but I’ve just realized it’s a funny ability to know a facial expression from a voice…
It has to deal, of course, with habits and experience, habit of hearing people speak, etc… But I find it stunning.
Like copying a body pose just after watching somebody do it. Like… when an child up to 6-7 yo learns to speak without having grammatical lessons…

We are some big learning machines… And that’s great from the point of view that we are all a bunch of bio-electro-chemical factories.

Er…
Never mind, just my after lunch deliria… :smiley:

2

I go to the same coffee shop everyday before work. One girl there has gotten so used to me that she can tell what I want by the way I walk into the place. I’m guessing it’s the way I walk, or my expession, or maybe just a sundry of physical things I do, but she’s 100% accurate and starts to get what I want before even asking sometimes. My jaw dropped when one day I decided to try and fake her out by wanting something I’ve never tried. She just looked at me and asked, “Undecided?”. It’s a wonderful life.

3

Everyone i’ve met often knows who I am just by looking at me, they know my voice and everything. Like when I bike over to my haircut appointment the lady that does it recognizes me in an instant.