Listen to a part of lecture in a psychology class

请听一段心理学课堂讲座

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

教授：我们上节课讲了关于心智的理论。有人能总结一下吗?珍妮丝?

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?

学生：这和一种能力有关，嗯，是不是就像意识到人们可以有不同的观点，我们不一定都相信同样的事情?

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.

教授：是的。心智理论这个术语指的是一种认知能力，就是可以认识到其他人所具备的知识、想法和观点可能与我们自己不同。

So, we say that people have a theory of mind, because we recognize that other people may have different beliefs than we do.

所以，我们说人们有心智理论是因为我们意识到其他人可能和我们有不同的信仰。

It may sound trivial but newborn infants don't seem to have it.

这听起来可能微不足道，但新生儿似乎没有这种能力。

It seems to develop in children somewhere between the ages of three and five.

这种能力似乎在3到5岁之间的儿童中才会发育。

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.

拥有心智理论的一个结果是，我们能识别他人的动机，有时还能预测他们在特定情况下会做什么。

But the question for us, is whether animals have a theory of mind.

但我们的问题是，动物是否有心理理论。

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..

研究人员在与猴子这样的灵长类动物打交道时，发现猴子也可能具备这种心智能力。这主要是因为猴子是群居的社会动物，所以它们肯定会从理解动机的这种能力中受益，从而预测其他猴子的行为。举例例子。

Student: That's..

学生：这是

Professor: Excuse me?

教授：怎么了？

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

学生：抱歉，但是这种假设说得通的前提是动物是有观点的。

Professor: Right, of course. Yeah, we are assuming that. We're inferring beliefs from behavior.

教授：是的，我们假设如此。我们从行为来推断想法。

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.

他们这样做是有原因的，不仅仅是出于本能，而是因为他们有一定的知识，并推理出特定的行动路线是有益的。

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.

有一种证据可以证明人具有心智，就是人的欺骗行为，因为意图欺骗某人就需要知道他们可能和你有不同的信念。

Well, researchers who were observing a group of vervet monkeys in west Africa discovered just this type of behavior in vervets.

研究人员在西非观察一群长尾猴时发现了长尾黑颚猴具备这种行为。

Now, vervets live in social groups. And occasionally a new member will try to join an established group.

长尾黑颚猴生活在社会群体中。偶尔也会有新成员试图加入一个已建立的团体。

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.

研究人员注意到，每当有新的雄性试图加入这个族群时，团队中一只地位较低的雄性成员就会习惯性地发出错误的警报，称有一只豹正在接近族群。

When the low-ranking monkey did this all the group members and the new comer would immediately retreat into the trees to safety.

当地位较低的猴子这样做时，所有的族群成员和新来的猴子会立即撤退到安全的树林中。

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.

很明显，作为一个地位较低的雄性成员，它对这个新的男性成员没什么兴趣。几乎可以肯定，这个新成员的级别会超过它。

And this tactic did stop that from happening.

而这种欺骗行为确实阻止了这种情况的发生。

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?

学生：也就是说，这个猴子知道并没有豹子来但相信其他猴子会认为有豹子，并意识到其他猴子会有和他不同的想法，是这样吗？

Professor: Right. We inferred the monkey had a belief from its behavior.

教授：是的。我们从猴子的行为推断到它有认知，有观点。

The researchers interpreted the vervet's behavior to mean that it had an understanding of other vervets' mind and how they react.

研究人员将长尾蛇的行为解释为，它了解其他长尾蛇的思维以及它们讲如何反应。

However, this monkey's behavior after issuing the false alarm call makes this interpretation somewhat less likely.

然而，这只猴子在发出假警报后的行为使得这种解释也不太对了。

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.

在假警报发出后，,当所有其他的猴子爬上树,我们的朋友，这只低等级的猴子，从自己的树爬下来, 并越过想加入到这个群体的外来者的树，并再次发出假警报,也许是为了确保这个外来者确实得到了这个信息。

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.

问题是，如果它真的有心智，它就会意识到从树上爬下来，其实就是在向其他猴子表明它知道周围没有豹子。

So maybe the alarm call doesn't show that this particular monkey had a theory of mind.

所以，也许警报这个证据并不能说明这只猴子有心智。

Maybe he simply learned to associate his false alarm call with the action of monkeys retreating into the trees.

也许他只是学会了把假警报和猴子退到树林里的动作联系起来。

Maybe he had learned to provoke a reaction without really understanding what motivated the other monkeys' behavior.

也许他在没有真正理解其他猴子行为动机的情况下学会了如何激发起这种反应。

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

学生：那么我们如何知道哪种解释是正确的呢?

Professor: Good question. That's often an issue with observational studies.

教授：好问题。这通常是观察性研究存在的问题。

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.

他们提出的证据，就像这个例子，我们喜欢这个例子，那么相信动物具备心智的研究者就会根据这个观察来支持他们的观点。

But those who doubt it can always find an alternative interpretation for what was observed.

但那些怀疑这种理论的人，总能找到对所观察到的东西的另一种解释。

So is there some other methodology, lab experimentation for example, that's more objective?

有没有其他更客观的方法，比如实验室实验?

That would produce more objective evidence about this?

能提供更客观的证据吗?