Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior (Hardcover)

~ (Author), (Author) "People who aren't autistic always ask me about the moment I realized I could understand the way animals think..." (more)
Key Phrases: hardwired instinctual behavior, animal genius, nonautistic people, Red Dog, Principles of Troubleshooting, Old World (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Philosophers and scientists have long wondered what goes on in the minds of animals, and this fascinating study gives a wealth of illuminating insights into that mystery. Grandin, an animal behavior expert specializing in the design of humane slaughter systems, is autistic, and she contends that animals resemble autistic people in that they think visually rather than linguistically and perceive the world as a jumble of mesmerizing details rather than a coherent whole. Animals—cows, say, on their way through a chute—are thus easily spooked by novelties that humans see as trivialities, such as high-pitched noises, drafts and dangling clothes. Other animals accomplish feats of obsessive concentration; squirrels really do remember where each acorn is buried. The portrait she paints of the mammalian mind is both alien and familiar; she shows that beasts are capable of sadistic cruelty, remorse, superstition and surprising discernment (in one experiment, pigeons were taught to distinguish between early period Picasso and Monet). Grandin (Thinking in Pictures) and Johnson (coauthor of Shadow Syndromes) deploy a simple, lucid style to synthesize a vast amount of research in neurology, cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology, supplementing it with Grandin's firsthand observations of animal behavior and her own experiences with autism, engaging anecdotes about how animals interact with each other and their masters, and tips on how to pick and train house pets. The result is a lively and absorbing look at the world from animals' point of view.
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From Scientific American

Temple Grandin has been known to crawl through slaughterhouses to get a sense of what the animals there are experiencing. An autistic woman who as a child was recommended for institutionalization, Grandin has managed not only to enter society’s mainstream but ultimately to become prominent in animal research. An associate professor at Colorado State University, she designs facilities used worldwide for humane handling of livestock. She also invented a "hug machine" (based on a cattle-holding chute) that calms autistic children. In Animals in Translation, co-authored with science writer Catherine Johnson, Grandin makes an intriguing argument that, psychologically, animals and autistic people have a great deal in common—and that both have mental abilities typically underestimated by normal people. The book is a valuable, if speculative, contribution to the discussion of both autism and animal intelligence, two subjects on which there is little scientific consensus. Autistics, in Grandin’s view, represent a "way station" between average people, with all their verbal and conceptual abilities, and animals. In touring animal facilities, Grandin often spots details—a rattling chain, say, or a fluttering piece of cloth—that disturb the animals but have been overlooked by the people in charge. She also draws on psychological studies to show how oblivious humans can be to their surroundings. Ordinary humans seem to be less detail-oriented than animals and autistics. Grandin argues that animals have formidable cognitive capabilities, albeit specialized ones, whereas humans are cognitive generalists. Dogs are smell experts, birds are migration specialists, and so on. In her view, some animals have a form of genius—much as autistic savants can perform feats of memory and calculation far beyond the abilities of average people. Some dogs, for example, can predict when their owner is about to have a seizure. Delving into animal emotion, aggression and suffering, Grandin gives tips that may be useful for caretakers of pets and farm animals. She also notes that humans seem to need, and thrive on, the proximity of animals. Indeed, she states provocatively, in the process of becoming human we gave up something primal, and being around animals helps us get a measure of that back.

Kenneth Silber

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1 edition (December 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743247698
• ISBN-13: 978-0743247696
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (168 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #279,844 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

161 of 170 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and delightful read, January 21, 2005

By	Kara Bay "bookarts" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews

I savored every moment of reading this book. Grandin has an enthusiasm for her subject that she combines with endless quantities of fascinating research and observations about animals. The book isn't exactly what I expected - I thought it would focus more on her own interactions with animals. However, because the book is so engagingly written and the information is so interesting, the difference between what I expected and what I got didn't diminish my enjoyment in the least.

Grandin does a much better job of making the scientific information more interesting and less dry than in her previous book, Thinking in Pictures, which contained long passages about medications that could be used to treat autistic people. I found that book to be much more uneven. Animals in Translation, however, held on to my attention from the first page to the last. While she also includes a generous amount of scientific information in this book, it is all so interesting and sometimes surprising, that I was never bored. If you have pets or are simply interested in animals and/or biology, this is a must-read.

54 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A novel look at animal behavior, but with room for improvement., August 27, 2006

By	Monika "equestrienne_23" (Davis, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior (Paperback)

What author Temple Grandin has attempted to do here is to use her own experiences as an autistic person to gain insight into the way animals perceive and react to the world around them. She explains that autism seems to impair the ability of the neocortex, or frontal lobes of the brain, to obtain and process information, and that animals likewise have less well-developed frontal lobes than normal humans do. Her theory is that the impairment of an autistic person's brain, in essence, makes them far closer to other animals than to non-autistic humans in how they view the world. As a result, Grandin has largely been able to help people better relate to their pets, and also to design more humane slaughterhouse equipment and more effective auditing procedures for slaughter facilities.

The book starts off well, with Grandin offering many insights that show that, in some ways, she really does have a better understanding of animal perception and thought than "normal" humans. Her principle examples revolve around the fact that animals, like autistic people, are detail-oriented. Their inability to generalize and see the "big picture" often leads to fixations on small things that the average person would not notice. Grandin illustrates this with stories from her inspections of meat plants, where something as simple as an abrupt change in lighting, or a reflection on a puddle - things which have entirely escaped the plant operators' notice - have been causing cattle to balk and refuse to go where they are being directed. She goes on to explain exactly why these details, which don't seem like much of a reason to be afraid, are so disturbing to the animals. Her observations, while not things that would immediately jump out at most people, make a lot of sense once she has explained them. Grandin also includes a useful checklist of things to look for when trying to determine what may be frightening an animal.

However, there are also some not-so-positive aspects to the book. In many places Grandin deviates from her theme of using autism to understand animals, and starts making speculations that not only have no connection to autism, but which seem to have little to back them up at all beyond the author's own opinions. She uses phrases like "statistics have shown" but then fails to elaborate on these supposedly evidential statistics, giving no information on who collected the information, when the study was done, or how large of a sample was used. This particularly comes into play when she discusses pit bulls - a topic she turns to repeatedly throughout the book. Grandin makes no attempt to hide her great distaste for pit bulls (she does not specify whether she is referring to American Pit Bull Terriers in particular, or all of the various breeds that fall under the generic "pit bull" label) and also Rottweilers, German Shepherds, and Chows.

In addition, Grandin puts forth some opinions on dog training that range from strange to absurd. Two things in particular caught my attention. First, she strongly advocates the outdated "alpha" theory for establishing dominance over one's dog. And secondly, I found myself greatly puzzled when she posed her theory that leash laws result in undersocialized dogs. She goes on to reminisce about how, when she was a child, dogs in her neighborhood were allowed to roam free, and that there were rarely any fights. Perhaps this was the case in her neighborhood, but in most places allowing one's dogs to roam free without supervision poses many risks. And leash laws in no way prevent a dog from being well socialized - they just require that a dog owner take an active role in introducing their pets to other animals and humans.

Finally, I was slightly dismayed with Grandin's writing style itself, though I'm not sure whether this is just a lack of writing skill, or a by-product of her autism. Grandin is obviously well-educated and experienced, but the text felt more like a junior high research report with a lot of scientific words thrown in. She often uses the same phrases repetitively, and also uses juvenalized terms for some things. However, the author does admit that written language does not come naturally to her, and that she often draws on a collection of "stock phrases" to communicate, which is what makes me wonder if this aspect of the writing is actually due to the nature of her autism. However, she also makes the mistake of repeatedly using terms like "I believe" or "my opinion is" when putting forth her theories. While these theories obviously ARE her ideas, making statements of the "I think" variety in scientific writing makes the arguments sound weaker, especially when she fails to back up her claims with research or other evidence. Many times she simply concludes an argument with the statement "and I can prove it!" but then fails to go on to give actual proof.

On the whole, the book is a bit of a mixed bag. Though my previous three paragraphs focused on things I found disappointing, I do not mean to give the impression that Grandin's work is all bad. It's certainly not. She does have a lot of good insights, and when she backs up her assertions with specific evidence, her ideas are quite fascinating. I particularly enjoyed the beginning of the book, where she explains the differences in detail-perception between animals, autistic people, and non-autistic people, and also the sections devoted to animal language / communication, and the co-evolution of dogs and humans. In the end I would probably still recommend Grandin's book to readers, with the provision that one should take a slightly hesitant approach in deciding which of her arguments should be readily accepted, and which need further proof.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars New Insights, The Same Old Same-Old, Or Both?, August 14, 2005

By	Lee Charles Kelley "dog trainer/mystery novelist" (New York City) - See all my reviews

Let me just say up front that this is a wonderful book in many ways, and offers a unique, and in most cases, accurate view of animal consciousness. My own area of expertise is canine behavior, so I was really looking forward to Temple Grandin's perspective on that. She's absolutely right when she says that animals are specifically geared toward perceiving vivid sensory details rather than the way the human brain tends to automatically generalize things and gather such details into conceptual, symbolic, or "meaningful" chunks.

I hope all dog owners will read this book and finally realize that their dogs are both "smarter" and not quite as smart as they thought they were. I tell my dog training clients that dogs are natural-born geniuses at pattern recognition--which goes beyond the sense of smell, by the way, which Grandin focuses on, and includes visual data (body language) and aural input (vocalizations)--but that they're innately incapable of symbolic, conceptual, or linguistic thought processes.

So imagine my disappointment when instead of continuing to break new ground, Grandin and her co-author trot out the washed-up alpha theory* with most, if not all, of its attendant fallacies firmly in place. Just where I was hoping to get her unique perspective on something truly important (at least to me and the dogs I train), her insight fails her and she falls back on old, outdated, and thoroughly discredited research.

This is maddening since her views on aggression are semi-accurate (most aggression in dogs IS based on fear). But how can she believe in this myth of alpha, especially since she's put forth the position that animals aren't capable of symbolic and conceptual thinking, and for the alpha theory to be true it would require dogs and wolves to be able to think this way?

Let me make another thing clear: dogs are not inherently dangerous! They are genetically programmed to want to attain a state of harmony with other dogs and with people. It's what they live for. In fact, this is what the pack instinct is really about since it's what enables canids to hunt large prey, by working together in group harmony. The primary thing that makes dogs dangerous is the way they've been mistreated by people who've been brainwashed about having to be the dog's pack leader, which has been woefully misused in many cases as an excuse to hurt, scare, intimidate, and punish these innately loving and sweet-natured animals... (whew! -- glad I got that off my chest...)

Anyway, that's why I'm only giving this book three stars. Grandin has done good work, at least partially. We should all be thankful for her insights and her unique perspective. Just ignore most of what she says about canine social behavior.

*Wolf experts don't even like to use the word alpha anymore because, as Dr. L. David Mech puts it, "it falsely implies a hierarchical system in which each wolf assumes a place in a linear pecking order," (Canadian Journal of Zoology, 2002).