Nissani Moti
Departmetn of Interdisciplinary Studies, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA.
J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process. 2006 Jan;32(1):91-6. doi: 10.1037/0097-7403.32.1.91.
Two experiments addressed contradictory claims about causal reasoning in elephants. In Experiment 1, 4 Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) were pretrained to remove a lid from the top of a bucket and retrieve a food reward. Subsequently, in the first 5 critical trials, when the lid was placed alongside the bucket and no longer obstructed access to the reward, each elephant continued to remove the lid before retrieving the reward. Experiment 2, which involved 11 additional elephants and variations of the original design, yielded similarly counterintuitive observations. Although the results are open to alternative interpretations, they appear more consistent with associative learning than with causal reasoning. Future applications of Fabrean methodologies (J. H. Fabre, 1915) to animal cognition are proposed.
两项实验探讨了关于大象因果推理的相互矛盾的观点。在实验1中，4头亚洲象（印度象）经过预训练，学会从桶顶取下盖子并获取食物奖励。随后，在最初的5次关键试验中，当盖子被放在桶旁边且不再阻碍获取奖励时，每头大象在获取奖励之前仍继续取下盖子。实验2涉及另外11头大象以及对原始设计的变体，也得出了类似的反直觉观察结果。尽管这些结果可以有其他解释，但它们似乎更符合联想学习而非因果推理。本文提出了将法布尔方法（J. H. 法布尔，1915）应用于动物认知的未来设想。
