Some animal behaviorists argue that certain animals can remember past events, ( k$ d. v \ d: g, R% y9 k
anticipate future ones, make plans and choices, and coordinate activities within a
L/ ^. M! d; H: ^0 S3 ugroup. These scientists, however, are cautious about the extent to which animals can ( ]# m. c9 Q5 u0 ^ S) F B& F
be credited with conscious processing. 1 S/ [* K5 N R6 |+ c; R% W7 E Z9 W0 w
(5) Explanations of animal behavior that leave out any sort of consciousness at all
. |# r' e" F2 j: _9 O. ]and ascribe actions entirely to instinct leave many questions unanswered. One
/ W/ H! t5 F ]* V) n* Lexample of such unexplained behavior: Honeybees communicate the sources of
o( r# ^% D- _0 Anectar to one another by doing a dance in a figure-eight pattern. The orientation of
[; f& ?" g o4 ^; u6 rthe dance conveys the position of the food relative to the sun's position in the sky,
2 [( N/ p5 c; B2 G1 P. `7 L2 X$ L(10)and the speed of the dance tells how far the food source is from the hive. Most 3 D3 `; k/ z% m/ F" o1 c
researchers assume that the ability to perform and encode the dance is innate and 1 O: }$ s$ S5 \; p
shows no special intelligence. But in one study, when experimenters kept changing ; j; ]/ y: A8 L' o6 b3 P1 p) l3 Q) e
the site of the food source, each time moving the food 25 percent farther from the & ?8 e' ]8 O- Z; G: _& Z7 C6 b. ?
previous site, foraging honeybees began to anticipate where the food source would
9 u4 b4 T* ?! J/ |1 `: k1 T# u3 B0 v3 f' s(15) appear next. When the researchers arrived at the new location, they would find the 0 g% Q7 T: m( s2 Z
bees circling the spot, waiting for their food. No one has yet explained how bees,
! i4 m1 v7 }, K6 V8 G+ L4 |) J% \whose brains weigh four ten-thousandths of an ounce, could have inferred the ( h+ _8 g" |! ^% U" k
location of the new site. ) U0 I/ U$ @6 p# U
Other behaviors that may indicate some cognition include tool use. Many
& ~; s8 L( j1 c(20)animals, like the otter who uses a stone to crack mussel shells, are capable of using " f7 l% E6 N! W& d
objects in the natural environment as rudimentary tools. One researcher has found
! I) r. f! |8 s# [, Jthat mother chimpanzees occasionally show their young how to use tools to open
1 q1 y+ ?: A) Q. E9 Khard nuts. In one study, chimpanzees compared two pairs of food wells containing ( A v& X+ S5 x O# ?0 F/ R
chocolate chips. One pair might contain, say, five chips and three chips, the other # p* L8 K8 f/ }, ?
(25)our chips and three chips. Allowed to choose which pair they wanted, the ) d- f0 S' q- S$ l0 u0 V# J( m
chimpanzees almost always chose the one with the higher total, showing some sort 9 ~9 {2 y1 r/ ~
of summing ability. Other chimpanzees have learned to use numerals to label . {3 l9 A# g$ o1 a- J
quantities of items and do simple sums. |
发表于 2012-8-14 22:34:35
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