Some animal behaviorists argue that certain animals can remember past events, 0 }: O. ]! _ q( s: q: }! Q# A
anticipate future ones, make plans and choices, and coordinate activities within a
; G- F& y7 N! q% H0 mgroup. These scientists, however, are cautious about the extent to which animals can
" G" `! z4 n$ c- d2 _2 G6 N$ hbe credited with conscious processing. ' K0 p4 F$ H- {9 x" A3 A
(5) Explanations of animal behavior that leave out any sort of consciousness at all! Q0 \2 p: a' G3 B+ x S% v
and ascribe actions entirely to instinct leave many questions unanswered. One
1 m3 t n% B7 z, O5 A$ Wexample of such unexplained behavior: Honeybees communicate the sources of $ D: q; [6 x9 C0 c% `8 }# M W
nectar to one another by doing a dance in a figure-eight pattern. The orientation of 6 [8 P, Z" }- E+ k. T4 W& c* I
the dance conveys the position of the food relative to the sun's position in the sky, ' E) T& s1 T2 r1 B9 f
(10)and the speed of the dance tells how far the food source is from the hive. Most ' V+ I5 R3 S7 E) k
researchers assume that the ability to perform and encode the dance is innate and 6 v$ M2 S, j* ?6 N7 g' g
shows no special intelligence. But in one study, when experimenters kept changing
- H- U0 E) V2 P# N2 ~$ T, \8 {the site of the food source, each time moving the food 25 percent farther from the
; ]# f8 y# F+ z, S# a+ gprevious site, foraging honeybees began to anticipate where the food source would 7 U2 D7 E% s; E. ?+ V
(15) appear next. When the researchers arrived at the new location, they would find the
1 X" n2 p' x+ Sbees circling the spot, waiting for their food. No one has yet explained how bees,
+ e4 s* u$ b% I" o" T5 o: ewhose brains weigh four ten-thousandths of an ounce, could have inferred the ; _& o8 a2 E2 m
location of the new site. - G9 m( R' {% N8 F
Other behaviors that may indicate some cognition include tool use. Many
% H/ E+ ?# g7 t6 x9 [1 X(20)animals, like the otter who uses a stone to crack mussel shells, are capable of using + P' [! B1 |/ Z4 i. q8 e; t' q4 v
objects in the natural environment as rudimentary tools. One researcher has found 9 d- l/ c n7 E2 E4 L
that mother chimpanzees occasionally show their young how to use tools to open + T1 w( P/ L" i' C# l# S5 q& q
hard nuts. In one study, chimpanzees compared two pairs of food wells containing
9 C% g2 t) ]8 U6 fchocolate chips. One pair might contain, say, five chips and three chips, the other # X& ^3 E2 \7 |5 J5 h2 _# ^+ E
(25)our chips and three chips. Allowed to choose which pair they wanted, the ) V6 R6 S) q; C: t
chimpanzees almost always chose the one with the higher total, showing some sort
. _, A# u, M$ I5 B7 ?of summing ability. Other chimpanzees have learned to use numerals to label
/ O2 N# t* r/ s* N2 N0 E1 b9 @2 R9 iquantities of items and do simple sums. |
发表于 2012-8-14 22:34:35
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