I have always thought of zombies as dumb brutes. Minimal intelligence, and most of that residual memory.
I may have to revise that opinion. Last night I watched the first half of Night of the Living Dead with my daughter, as well as the AMC Webisodes for Walking Dead.
In the Webisodes a zombie retains enough memory to make its way home, not a huge feat, but still smarter than walkers had seemed to be.
In NotLD the cemetery zombie tries the door handles on Barbara and Johny's car, then picks up a large rock to smash the window so it can crawl inside. Later zombies pick up rocks and use them to smash headlights of Ben's truck.
Later Romero movies further develop zombie intelligence and memory.
Return of the Living Dead features zombies that can talk.
This raises the question of smart zombies vs stupid zombies. Are they shambling, mindless husks, or are they capable of reason and learning?
Thoughts?