In a report in the journal Behavioral Ecology, fish learned from watching other fish find food and comparing their success rates.
发表在《行为生态学》(Behavioral Ecology)杂志上的一项研究报告称,鱼学习寻找食物的方式是通过观察其它鱼以及比较它们的成功率。
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.
鱼也有判断能力
有大量证据表明动物能互相学习。但是直到目前为止,人们认为只有人类可以下判断,比如说这样的话,"那个女人似乎比别的家伙能找到更多的食物,她比我吃得更多,因此我要跟着她。"这种有选择性地跟着线索的能力表明了一种复杂的社会学习能力。
目前科学家们说他们第一次在普通的九叶穿柳鱼身上找到了动物的这种行为。研究人员研究了270条九叶穿柳鱼。研究者们让一些鱼接近一个装满许多虫子的饲料箱和一个没有虫子的饲料箱,因此这些鱼知道哪个饲料箱是最好的食物来源。
然后让这些鱼看着其它鱼进食,但是饲料箱调换了位置。九叶穿柳鱼根据自己的经验知道饲料箱A有更多的虫子,但是饲料箱调换了位置之后,它们能发现饲料箱B现在的虫子更多。
当这些鱼再回去找食的时候,它们不是依赖它们自身的经验,而是依赖周围的社会线索,直接奔到B饲料箱。该项研究发表在《行为生态学》(Behavioral Ecology)杂志上。另外一项研究表明,认为人类智慧是绝对独一无二的观点可能有点令人怀疑了。
Vocabulary:
Ecology:生态学
Cue:线索
Sophisticated:复杂的;巧妙的;世故的
Nine-spined stickleback:九叶穿柳鱼
Absolute:绝对的
Unique:独特的
Intelligence:智能;智慧
Fishy:可疑的