Descriptions ARE Internal Representations of the World

Jane Goodall observed a remarkable example of the latter principle. For chimpanzees in the Gombe reserve, food is usually scarce. The chimps forage around a large territory for food. Dr. Goodall noted that chimpanzees would leave one area, journey for several days, and arrive at a particular tree just at the moment that it bore fruit. They would feed from the tree for a week or two, then not visit it for another year, when it once again blossomed out and produced fruit.

To perform this feat, chimpanzees had to remember the location of the various trees in their territory, remember the time of the year that the tree bore fruit, and plan a route of many miles from their current locale to the tree. None of these activities would be possible unless the chimpanzees were able to internalize the world, to construct a description of their environment.

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