1.
动物的social
learning
Social learning in animals is said to occur when direct or indirect social interaction
facilitates the acquisition of a novel behavior.
It usually takes the form of an experienced animal (the demonstrator) performing a behavior such that
the naïve animal (the observer) subsequently expresses the same behavior sooner,
or more completely, than it would have otherwise. One example of social learning
is the acquisition of preferences for novel foods. Some experiments have suggested
that among mammals, social learning facilitates the identification of beneficial food items,
but that among birds, social learning helps animals avoid toxic substances.
For example, one study showed that when red-wing blackbirds observed others consuming a colored food (30)
or a food in a distinctly marked container and then becoming ill, they subsequently avoided food associated
with that color (35) or container.
Another experiment showed that house sparrows consumed less red food after they observed others eating (40) red food
that was treated so as to be noxious.
Studies on non-avian species have not produced similar results, leading researchers to speculate that avian social
learning may be fundamentally different from that of mammals. But Sherwin's recent (50) experiments with domestic hens do not support
the notion that avian social learning necessarily facilitates aversion to novel (55)
foods that are noxious or toxic. Even when demonstrator hens reacted with obvious
disgust to a specific food, via vigorous head (60) shaking and bill wiping,
there was no evidence that observers subsequently avoided eating that food.
Sherwin's research team speculated that ecological or social constraints during the
evolution of this species might have resulted in there being little benefit
from the social learning of atability, for instance, selective pressures for this mode of
learning would be reduced if the birds rarely encountered noxious or toxic food or rarely
interacted after eating such food, or if the consequences of ingestion were minimal. (80)
In a related experiment the same researchers showed that if observer hens watched
demonstrator hens react favorably to food of a particular color, then observer hens ate more
food of that color than they ate of food of other colors.
These results confirmed that avian species can develop preferences for palatable food through social learning.
28-3: The primary purpose of the passage is to discuss
the
A: techniques
used in certain experiments on social learning in birds
B: reasons for the differences between social
learning in birds and in mammals
C: question of how social learning manifests itself in
birds
D: basis for a
widespread belief about a difference in behavior between birds and mammals
E: possible
reasons why birds may or may not learn from each other in a particular way
谢谢大家
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发表于 2006-9-14 21:43:00
