60秒科学:Fish Capable of Judgment Calls

Fish Capable of Judgment¹ Calls
In a report in the journal Behavioral Ecology, fish learned from watching other fish find food and comparing their success rates. Cynthia Graber reports.

[The following is an exact transcript² of this podcast.]

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 plentiful³.
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.

—Cynthia Graber

 

1 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• 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 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 plentiful   

adj.富裕的，丰富的

参考例句：

• 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。