In a report in the journal Behavioral Ecology, fish learned from watching other fish find food and comparing their success rates.
發表在《行為生態學》(Behavioral Ecology)雜志上的一項研究報告稱,魚學習尋找食物的方式是通過觀察其它魚以及比較它們的成功率。
Fish Capable of Judgment Calls
There's plenty of evidence that animals learn from one another. But until now, it was thought that only humans make judgment calls, such as "that woman seems to be finding more food than that other guy, and she's eating more than I am, so I'll follow her." This ability to selectively follow such cues shows sophisticated social learning.
Now, scientists say they've found the first animal example of this behavior in a common fish, the nine-spined stickleback. Two-hundred-seventy fish were study subjects. The researchers gave some of the fish access to one feeder stocked with lots of worms and one that didn't. So the fish learned which feeder was best.
Then the fish watched other fish eat, but the feeders were switched. From their own experience the sticklebacks had learned that feeder A gave more worms, but by watching, they could see that feeder B was now more plentiful.
And when going back for seconds, they relied on social cues, not their own experiences, and headed over to B. The study is in the journal Behavioral Ecology. Another study demonstrating that the idea of the absolute uniqueness of human intelligence may be a bit…fishy.
魚也有判斷能力
有大量證據表明動物能互相學習。但是直到目前為止,人們認為只有人類可以下判斷,比如說這樣的話,"那個女人似乎比別的家伙能找到更多的食物,她比我吃得更多,因此我要跟著她。"這種有選擇性地跟著線索的能力表明了一種復雜的社會學習能力。
目前科學家們說他們第一次在普通的九葉穿柳魚身上找到了動物的這種行為。研究人員研究了270條九葉穿柳魚。研究者們讓一些魚接近一個裝滿許多蟲子的飼料箱和一個沒有蟲子的飼料箱,因此這些魚知道哪個飼料箱是最好的食物來源。
然后讓這些魚看著其它魚進食,但是飼料箱調換了位置。九葉穿柳魚根據自己的經驗知道飼料箱A有更多的蟲子,但是飼料箱調換了位置之后,它們能發現飼料箱B現在的蟲子更多。
當這些魚再回去找食的時候,它們不是依賴它們自身的經驗,而是依賴周圍的社會線索,直接奔到B飼料箱。該項研究發表在《行為生態學》(Behavioral Ecology)雜志上。另外一項研究表明,認為人類智慧是絕對獨一無二的觀點可能有點令人懷疑了。
Vocabulary:
Ecology:生態學
Cue:線索
Sophisticated:復雜的;巧妙的;世故的
Nine-spined stickleback:九葉穿柳魚
Absolute:絕對的
Unique:獨特的
Intelligence:智能;智慧
Fishy:可疑的