Whether Animals have a Theory of Mind托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

Whether Animals have a Theory of Mind托福听力原文翻译及问题答案，今天中国教育在线就来为大家分析这个问题。

一、Whether Animals have a Theory of Mind托福听力原文：

Professor:So we talked last time about theory of mind.Can someone summarize what that refers to?Janice?

Student:It has to do with an ability to,well,isn't it like realizing that people can have different beliefs,that we don't all necessarily believe the same things?

Professor:Right.The term theory of mind refers to a cognitive ability which is the ability to,it's recognizing that other people have knowledge,ideas,beliefs that may be different from our own.

So,we say that people have a theory of mind,because we recognize that other people may have different beliefs than we do.It may sound trivial but newborn infants don't seem to have it.It seems to develop in children somewhere between the ages of three and five.A consequence of having a theory of mind is that we recognize other people's motivations and can sometimes predict what they'll do in certain situations.But the question for us,is whether animals have a theory of mind.

Researchers who deal with primates like monkeys tend to accept the likelihood that monkeys have a theory of mind,particularly because they are social animals and live in groups,so they'd certainly benefit from the ability to understand motivations,to predict the behavior of other monkeys.So,for example..

Student:That's..

Professor:Excuse me?

Student:Sorry,but that's assuming it makes sense to say that animals have beliefs.

Professor:Right,of course.Yeah,we are assuming that.We're inferring beliefs from behavior.They act one way for a reason,not just from instinct,but because they have certain knowledge and have reasoned that a particular course of action would be beneficial.

One type of evidence that humans have a theory of mind is behavior like deception because intending to deceive someone requires knowing that they could have different beliefs than you do.

Well,researchers who were observing a group of vervet monkeys in west Africa discovered just this type of behavior in vervets.Now,vervets live in social groups.And occasionally a new member will try to join an established group.Well,the researchers noticed that every time a new male would try to join the group,one particular low-ranking male member of the group habitually made a false alarm call that a leopard was approaching the group.When the low-ranking monkey did this all the group members and the new comer would immediately retreat into the trees to safety.

Obviously,being a low-ranked male,our friend has little interest in seeing a new male member,who will,would almost certainly outrank him join the group.And this tactic did stop that from happening.

Student:So the idea is that the monkey knew there was no leopard but believed that the other monkeys would think there was a leopard,realized that the others would have a different belief than he had?

Professor:Right.We inferred the monkey had a belief from its behavior.The researchers interpreted the vervet's behavior to mean that it had an understanding of other vervets'mind and how they react.However,this monkey's behavior after issuing the false alarm call makes this interpretation somewhat less likely.

After the alarm call,when all of the other monkeys have climbed up into the trees,our friend then came down from his own tree,crossed over to the tree of the intruder,the one who wanted to join the group,and issued the false alarm call again,perhaps to make sure the intruder really got the message.

The problem is,if he really did have a theory of mind,he would have realized that climbing down from his tree would show the others that he was aware there was no leopard around.So maybe the alarm call doesn't show that this particular monkey had a theory of mind.

Maybe he simply learned to associate his false alarm call with the action of monkeys retreating into the trees.Maybe he had learned to provoke a reaction without really understanding what motivated the other monkeys'behavior.

Student:So how do we know which interpretation is right?

Professor:Good question.That's often an issue with observational studies.They produce evidence that's,well,like in this case,people who start out believing that animals have a theory of mind can always pick observations that best support their case.But those who doubt it can always find an alternative interpretation for what was observed.So is there some other methodology,lab experimentation for example,that's more objective?That would produce more objective evidence about this?

二、Whether Animals have a Theory of Mind托福听力中文翻译：

教授：上次我们讨论了心理理论。有人能总结一下它指的是什么吗？珍妮丝？

学生：这与一种能力有关，嗯，这不就像认识到人们可以有不同的信仰，我们不一定都相信相同的东西吗？

教授：对。“心智理论”一词指的是一种认知能力，即认识到他人拥有与我们不同的知识、想法和信念的能力。

所以，我们说人们有一种心理理论，因为我们认识到其他人可能有不同于我们的信仰。这听起来可能微不足道，但新生儿似乎没有。它似乎在三到五岁的儿童中发展。拥有心理理论的一个结果是，我们认识到其他人的动机，有时可以预测他们在某些情况下会做什么。但对我们来说，问题是动物是否有心理理论。

研究灵长类动物如猴子的研究人员倾向于接受猴子有心理理论的可能性，特别是因为它们是群居动物，所以它们肯定会受益于理解动机、预测其他猴子行为的能力。例如。。

学生：那是。。

教授：打扰一下？

学生：对不起，但这是假设说动物有信仰是有道理的。

教授：对，当然。是的，我们是这样假设的。我们从行为中推断信念。他们以一种方式行动是有原因的，不仅仅是出于本能，而是因为他们有一定的知识，并且认为特定的行动方案是有益的。

人类有心理理论的一种证据是类似欺骗的行为，因为想要欺骗某人需要知道他们可能有不同于你的信仰。

研究人员在西非观察了一群狐猴，发现了狐猴的这种行为。现在，维维特人生活在社会群体中。偶尔一个新成员会尝试加入一个已建立的团体。研究人员注意到，每当一只新的雄性动物试图加入这个群体时，这个群体中的一个级别较低的雄性成员就会习惯性地发出一个假警报，说有一只豹子正在接近这个群体。当低级别的猴子这样做时，所有的小组成员和新来的人都会立即撤退到树上安全。

显然，作为一个低级别的男性，我们的朋友对看到一个新的男性成员没有兴趣，他几乎肯定会超过他加入这个团队。这种策略确实阻止了这种情况的发生。

学生：所以这个想法是猴子知道没有豹子，但相信其他猴子会认为有豹子，意识到其他猴子会有与他不同的信仰？

教授：对。我们从猴子的行为推断出它有信仰。研究人员解释说，维维特的行为意味着它了解了其他维维特人的思想以及他们的反应。然而，这只猴子在发出假警报后的行为使得这种解释不太可能。

警报响起后，当所有其他猴子都爬到树上时，我们的朋友从自己的树上下来，走到入侵者的树上，也就是想加入团队的那棵树上，再次发出假警报，也许是为了确保入侵者真的收到了信息。

问题是，如果他真的有思想理论，他会意识到从树上爬下来会让其他人知道他知道周围没有豹子。所以，也许警报并没有显示这只猴子有一种思维理论。

也许他只是学会了把他的假警报声和猴子躲到树里的动作联系起来。也许他已经学会了在没有真正理解其他猴子行为动机的情况下引发反应。

学生：那么我们怎么知道哪种解释是正确的呢？

教授：好问题。这通常是观察性研究的一个问题。他们提供的证据表明，就像在这个案例中，那些一开始相信动物有思维理论的人总是可以选择最能支持他们观点的观察结果。但那些对此持怀疑态度的人总能找到另一种解释。那么有没有其他更客观的方法，比如实验室实验？这会产生更客观的证据吗？

三、Whether Animals have a Theory of Mind托福听力问题：

Q1:What is the lecture mainly about?

A.Whether an animal’s ability to understand alarm calls should be considered a cognitive ability

B.Different ways of defining the term“theory of mind”

C.Whether animals possess a particular cognitive ability exhibited by humans

D.The relative effectiveness of different methods of detecting a theory of mind in animals

Q2:According to the professor,what type of behavior in animals suggests they have a theory of mind?

A.Acting in a misleading way

B.Running in response to an alarm call

C.Acting in ways that are inconsistent

D.Displaying aggression toward intruders

Q3:What did researchers think the real purpose was for the low-ranking vervet’s alarm call?

A.To scare off a possible predator

B.To raise its social standing in the group

C.To announce the presence of a predator

D.To prevent a new member from joining the group

Q4:What behavior of a vervet monkey suggested that it might NOT have a theory of mind?

A.It issued an alarm call.

B.It reacted to another monkey’s alarm call.

C.It repeated an alarm call.

D.It climbed down from a tree after an alarm call.

Q5:What does the professor imply about observational studies of animals?

A.They are typically more objective than other methodologies.

B.They often provide evidence that can support different interpretations.

C.They are easier to conduct than experimental tests.

D.They require independent researchers to verify the original observations.

Q6:Based on the discussion,what cognitive ability might children over the age of five have that vervet monkeys might not have?

A.The ability to recognize that other individuals might have different beliefs

B.The ability to recognize behavior that is a response to fear

C.The ability to understand multiple meanings of an alarm call

D.The ability to understand social relationships

四、Whether Animals have a Theory of Mind托福听力答案：

A1:正确答案：C

A2:正确答案：A

A3:正确答案：D

A4:正确答案：D

A5:正确答案：B

A6:正确答案：A

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