Dragoncrest Cliffs Seal of approval

I think it may also have to do with imprinting on food? Like cats, if they have not grown up, eating dry food, they won't touch it. We people are pretty much the same. We eat, what we are taught to eat. And are very suspicious of stuff that we do not know.

All studies of animal cognitivie capabilities have one very serious flaw - humans measure the intelligence of other animals against their own. They think of themselves as a benchmark, the one's at the top. In reality, intelligence is a relative thing. You can not really compare it between species, because the context of the conditions and environment they live in require different manners of thinking and problem-solving. 

Take a desert woodrat, for example. It will probably not solve secrets of the universe. It has no interest in global economics or politics. It won't engage itself with philosophy. Not very intelligent in the human world, is it? But then place the human in the desert and wait and see, how that math, physics, IQ, grand thoughts and ideas, superior mind helps them survive entirely on their own. It is very likely that they would not thrive for long in a place desert woodrat calls its home. Who is more intelligent?

Same here. Tiden did not speak the common tongue of the aliens. By the same token, they did not speak his language either. Was he more stupid than the other? He did not reply, just inhaled and exhaled and continued to stare at the furry fish.