35 Monkey Do

Would you send a monkey to do your shopping for you? Sounds pretty strange, doesn’t it? But monkeys can be trained to do some amazing things. Most people are aware that monkeys are one of nature’s brainiest beasts. Scientists have been studying the link between monkeys and people for a long time. They have designed experiments to test the monkey’s ability to perform simple human tasks.

In one test, a psychologist put two monkeys in cages that each other. Each cage contained a vending machine. One cage had a machine beside each other. The other had one that gave out food. Instead of real coins, each monkey was given a bag of black and white tokens. The black tokens worked only in the food machine. The white tokens worked in the machine with the water. In time, both animals were able to figure out which coin worked in which machine.

Then the test was made harder. The coins were taken away. The monkey with the water machine was not allowed to have any water for twenty-four hours. The food monkey was deprived of food. The next day, the water monkey was returned to the machine jokers, and the monkey with the food machine was given water monkeys. This time, though, the monkey with the food machine was given tokens that worked the food machine. What did the two hungry monkeys do? These smart creatures simply reached through the bars of their cages and traded tokens.

你会派一只猴子去帮你买东西吗？听起来很奇怪，不是吗？但猴子可以被训练来做一些惊人的事情。大多数人都知道猴子是自然界中最聪明的动物之一。科学家们长期研究猴子和人类之间的联系。他们设计了实验来测试猴子执行简单人类任务的能力。

在一项测试中，一位心理学家把两只猴子放在彼此能看到的笼子里。每个笼子里都有一台自动售货机。一个笼子的自动售货机在旁边，另一个则是出食物的。猴子们得到的不是真硬币，而是一袋黑白代币。黑色代币只能在食物机里用，白色代币只能在水机里用。最终，两只动物都能弄清楚哪种硬币在哪个机器里有效。

接着测试难度加大，硬币被拿走了。有水机的猴子被禁止喝水长达24小时，有食物机的猴子被剥夺食物。第二天，有水机的猴子回到机器旁，有食物机的猴子得到了水。不过这一次，有食物机的猴子得到的是能操作食物机的代币。这两只饥饿的猴子会怎么做呢？这些聪明的动物只是透过笼子的栏杆，交换了代币。