Animal thought exceeds language-of-thought

Behav Brain Sci. 2023 Sep 28:46:e279. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X23002017.

Abstract

Quilty-Dunn et al. claim that all complex infant and animal reasoning implicate language-of-thought hypothesis (LOTH)-like structures. We agree with the authors that the mental life of animals can be explained in representationalist terms, but we disagree with their idea that the complexity of mental representations is best explained by appealing to abstract concepts, and instead, we explain that it doesn't need to.