Some animal behaviorists argue that certain animals can remember past events,
' Q. z* J% J$ x4 I" w( [- ranticipate future ones, make plans and choices, and coordinate activities within a 6 p' M6 {9 o4 `" R6 S
group. These scientists, however, are cautious about the extent to which animals can
# V" ~7 E5 m/ g) S$ rbe credited with conscious processing. # m* _: }. f' u& N G" Q
(5) Explanations of animal behavior that leave out any sort of consciousness at all! \9 H+ L/ L" U0 C% c$ k/ p0 s! ?
and ascribe actions entirely to instinct leave many questions unanswered. One ; \- i8 }; [$ V- c# f, z2 M8 f. i& d
example of such unexplained behavior: Honeybees communicate the sources of
0 |; W/ ]) y X2 m! M" gnectar to one another by doing a dance in a figure-eight pattern. The orientation of 6 g! Y' p% Q6 F2 }3 z* v6 e
the dance conveys the position of the food relative to the sun's position in the sky, * q* X7 W) S. x
(10)and the speed of the dance tells how far the food source is from the hive. Most
) u8 \) W6 W8 e. s$ Aresearchers assume that the ability to perform and encode the dance is innate and
. A, `. }" d6 p( f5 P' gshows no special intelligence. But in one study, when experimenters kept changing 7 T" m1 ?* c0 t4 [
the site of the food source, each time moving the food 25 percent farther from the ' `; j# d/ e. _
previous site, foraging honeybees began to anticipate where the food source would ) x. G$ ^5 C: t% D6 o+ J0 [
(15) appear next. When the researchers arrived at the new location, they would find the : g j' |$ W! u( q0 e a
bees circling the spot, waiting for their food. No one has yet explained how bees, / {# m) _6 T0 e# u$ h& Y9 s. o9 S
whose brains weigh four ten-thousandths of an ounce, could have inferred the
! X& B- Y* B O) u+ Hlocation of the new site.
) X8 s: L: J( J6 S# cOther behaviors that may indicate some cognition include tool use. Many ! v6 L( ^# }% ^( m" I
(20)animals, like the otter who uses a stone to crack mussel shells, are capable of using 1 h+ X8 m4 r8 A5 K
objects in the natural environment as rudimentary tools. One researcher has found 4 X- s, O8 L1 n4 a+ G5 Q2 p0 s
that mother chimpanzees occasionally show their young how to use tools to open
# t% j4 k$ U; O3 O% d, shard nuts. In one study, chimpanzees compared two pairs of food wells containing 9 N5 C9 \5 o Y; L: n D
chocolate chips. One pair might contain, say, five chips and three chips, the other
$ U' P. a' ~4 ]$ `+ R' |6 X7 l; {: ~(25)our chips and three chips. Allowed to choose which pair they wanted, the 0 V) J/ f+ ~4 _
chimpanzees almost always chose the one with the higher total, showing some sort
; k; m+ h( o) r3 u3 O. Sof summing ability. Other chimpanzees have learned to use numerals to label 4 a J4 H5 P# `8 o0 U
quantities of items and do simple sums. |
发表于 2012-8-14 22:34:35
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