Cool vid, must share. I really think it’s an extraordinary display of training and mimicking than a display of self-awareness and elephant artistic interpretation. I am saying this based on the incredibly ‘human’ way of emphasis on lines and curves and the flower at the end. But… ultimately who knows… it might be a combination of both. Elephants are incredibly smart and beside humans, apes, and dolphins, they are the only animals to pass the self-recognition mirror test (there is a good paper by Plotnik et al discussing this), in this case I’d be curious to know to what extent elephant actually identifies its drawing as a symbolic representation of something (rather than lines that it has learned to trace).
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Mar212008
Evolutionary mechanisms have made organisms dependent on feedback from their environment as a way of coping and adapting to their surroundings. Similarly, human beings depend on feedback, in the form of positive or negative reinforcement, as a way of coping in their social environments and maintaining psychological homeostasis.
Maslow’s A Theory of Human Motivation established self-esteem, or the internal perception of self-worth, as fundamental to self-actualization [1]. Later, Nathaniel Brandon’s A Psychology of Self Esteem made a strong association between self-esteem and psychological well-being. He recognized positive reinforcement as necessary to promoting self-esteem in children [2].
Consequently, parents and educators began placing greater emphasis on praise as a way of boosting self-esteem and greater achievement. The advocates of positive behavioral reinforcement consider praise to be an effective means by which to strengthen a behavior, and provide external support and validation to children [3].
However, in the mid-80s critics began to suggest that praise was in fact harmful to children. One of the strong proponents of this movement, Alfie Kohn, has argued that praise can make “praise junkies” out of children and lead to reduced achievements [4].
While positive reinforcement is a necessary feedback mechanism for children, generic praise can undermine self-esteem and be detrimental to achievement. Such praise can disseminate the false notion that achievement is based on immutable internal parameters; reduce mastery and autonomy in achievements; and promote the internalization of failure and avoidance of challenges.
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