Chapter 15: Learning Behaviour (2)
Why are people human?
How are humans different from other animals?
The most common answers, such as "the invention of tools", "the use of fire", and "the emergence of language", have led to the distinction between humans and other living beings, and they have become highly intelligent beings on their own. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info
But while these answers are simple and easy to understand, they fail to be too sketchy.
As a result, it is easy to make such associations.
Since fire is the determining factor, could some kind of life evolve this ability to take the place of humans?
When it comes to making and using tools, orangutans, macaques, and crows can also be used, so why should we be different?
In terms of language, I heard that killer whales are quite developed......
When I think about the end, it's easy to think that it's too shameless for us humans to think so highly of ourselves.
But from the perspective of animal behavior, Levi personally feels that this doubt about himself is pure imagination.
Claiming to be a highly intelligent creature is not human arrogance at all, but really no one can fight.
Even to other creatures, it is not too much to say, "I'm not targeting anyone, everyone here is spicy chicken".
Because human beings are so different.
Fire, language, tools, these answers are actually failures in the point of "knowing what it is, but not knowing why it is".
It only talks about fire, language, and tools in general terms as the hallmarks that distinguish us from other creatures, but does not explain "why humans invented tools", "why they can use fire", and "why such a complex language has emerged".
What is involved behind it is the learning behavior in the biological sense.
The learning mentioned here is the process of adapting to the behavior of animals with the help of individual life experiences and experiences. Generally speaking, when an animal changes in a specific stimulus and is different from the past, it can be considered a kind of learning.
It corresponds to the concept of instinct.
The latter is easier to understand and can be defined as some innate behavioral tendencies. Instinct emerges through countless generations of natural selection evolution and is imprinted in the genes of living beings.
In a popular phrase, this is an acquired, an innate.
The spider's ability to weave webs is something that he naturally understands.
Bees are born with a tendency to seek out flowers to collect honey, and another of their natural skills is to weave their own hives out of beeswax. These hives are hexagonal in shape and exactly the same size, making them impeccable even when examined with a strict geometric eye.
Similarly, the ability of nest weavers to weave huge nests is also understood by birth without learning. Relying on a few simple fixed behaviors, these little birds move like machines to create breathtaking creations.
All of this can be said to be the instinct of these creatures, which is the legacy left to them by countless generations of natural selection.
Unlike innate instinct, acquired learning ability depends on the efforts of individual organisms. They need to gain experience step by step during their development.
For example, the lion develops to six months before it can prey on some small animals, and it takes two years to fully grow. For them, only during this long period of time can they learn to simulate the various movements and predatory behaviors of adult beasts in order to master the corresponding hunting skills.
For many organisms with a long lifespan and a high brain capacity, learning behavior is very important. Through this ability, they can rapidly improve their ability to adapt to the environment.
As the second piece of metal says, the monkeys on the islands learned the skill of smashing shells with rocks, which was equivalent to a new source of food for them. This increases their survivability on this island by several orders of magnitude.
Human instincts may not be much higher than those of other animals. But when it comes to learning behavior, it leaves other animals behind.
Because in terms of learning ability, human beings have evolved to a whole new dimension.
But even after acknowledging the connection between the two pieces of metal, Levi was still lucky.
Under the influence of this psychology, he rummaged through the tiles on the ground again, and finally found the last piece of metal hidden in it.
Ignoring the gaze of others, Levi couldn't wait to sort out the piece of metal. Then, with wide eyes, he looked up, trying to notice something different.
After about a dozen seconds, Levi's entire body was shaking.
If it's just one, it can be explained by coincidence.
Both are related, and it's not impossible to have an accident out of a thousand miles.
But when it comes to this third one, it's still related to it, and besides, it's not about it, Levi feels that this is talking nonsense with his eyes open.
That's right, at this moment he was extremely sure that what these three pieces of metal were talking about was indeed what he thought.
Because of this page, even the classic conditioned reflex came out.
For the most part, this piece of metal is still a nautical anecdote.
There are two things in it.
The first was the experience of a precious parrot on a ship.
The bird was kept in a huge cage and kept in a well-guarded cabin along with other precious cargo. It is raised by a special person, but due to the need for prevention, the keeper can only deliver specific food and water to it once a day. And before transporting, the guards had to open the heavy chain lock in front of the hatch for him. After the parrot came ashore and sold it to a noblewoman, it had a very peculiar behavior for a long time - whenever it heard a sound similar to a chain, it would automatically fly to the place where it was in a cage to get food.
The second thing that corresponds to it is an experience of raising flowers.
I mentioned a flower born in the desert. In the evening, the flowers close their leaves and shrink into a ball. In the daytime, when exposed to sunlight, it will automatically bloom. This habit is constant, even in mild places.
Interestingly, if you put it in the house, even if it's not night, just cover it with black and make it dark around it, and the nocturnal flower will turn into a flower bulb. At night, it is still in full bloom in the midst of brilliant lights.
So, someone did an experiment on it according to what was above.
That is, every time you put a black curtain around the night ball, you should first shake the bell at it. After more than ten days of experimentation, I took the bell to rattle it again to see if it would be like the bird. As a result, this experiment was carried out for several years, until the end of the life of the nocturnal flower, and it closed its flowers and leaves without learning to hear the sound of bells.
The above is so clear and clear, and a very special comparison is given, Levi feels that he doesn't see the problem anymore, he is really a fool.
This parrot smells and eats, which is basically a copy of the experiment of the dog madman Pabrov - the dog and saliva, so standard that he almost doubts his own eyes, and the classical conditioned reflex is a very important part of learning behavior.
The emergence of this theory has set off a revolutionary movement in biology and psychology.