时间:2018-12-24 作者:英语课 分类:Scientific American(六)月


英语课

This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute.


There’s plenty of evidence that animals learn from one another. But until now, it was thought that only humans make judgment 1 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 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 2. 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 3.


Thanks for the minute for Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Cynthia Graber.


 



1 judgment
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见
  • The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
  • He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。
2 plentiful
adj.富裕的,丰富的
  • Their family has a plentiful harvest this year.他们家今年又丰收了。
  • Rainfall is plentiful in the area.这个地区雨量充足。
3 fishy
adj. 值得怀疑的
  • It all sounds very fishy to me.所有这些在我听起来都很可疑。
  • There was definitely something fishy going on.肯定当时有可疑的事情在进行中。
标签: SSS stickleback