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Infants and Apes Remember Things Similarly
婴儿和猿采用相似的记事方式

Infants and apes apparently adopt the same tactics for remembering where things are, but as children develop their strategies change, a new study shows.
一项新的研究显示，婴儿和猿显然是采用同样的策略来记住事物在哪儿，但是儿童会发展这些策略，使之得到改变。

The findings might reveal in part how the minds of our distant ancestors shifted gears to embark on the road toward humanity. 这些发现或许会部分得揭示这个问题：我们的远祖是怎样改弦更张踏上了通往人类的进化之路的。

There are two basic strategies animals use to remember where things are. Either they remember a thing's features, such as whether it was a banana, or they remember its place in space, such as left.
动物们通常采用两种基本的策略来记住事物在哪儿，一种是记住事物的特征，比如它是否是个香蕉。另一种就是记住它在空间中所处的位置，比如在左边。

All animals scientists have tested seem to employ both strategies. However, if experiments are rigged such that animals had to choose between the tactics, some species, such as chickens and toads, prefer a feature-based strategy. Others, such as fish and dogs, favor a place-based strategy.
科学家通过试验表明所有的动物似乎两种策略都会采用。然而一些操纵性的试验使得动物二者必选其一时，一些物种如鸡和蟾蜍更倾向于选择基于特征的策略，而另一些如鱼和狗则更青睐基于位置的策略。

Researcher Daniel Haun at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and his colleagues investigated orangutans, gorillas, bonobos, chimpanzees and humans. They wanted to see whether humanity and its closest relatives all adopted the same strategies for remembering where things are. Any changes in strategy between species or within species would shed light on how they all evolved.
在德国莱比锡Max Planck研究所进行进化人类学研究的学者Daniel Haun和他的同事们研究了猩猩，大猩猩，倭黑猩猩，黑猩猩和人。他们想知道人类和他们最近的亲戚是否都采用同样的记事策略。种间或种内在策略上的任何改变是否能说清楚它们是怎样进化而来的。

At the Leipzig Zoo, the scientists hid rewards such as grapes, banana slices or toy animals under either a hollow piece of wood, an imitation bird's nest or an artificial hollow rock.
在莱比锡动物园科学家把一些奖赏比如葡萄，香蕉片或者玩具动物藏在一片中空的木头，一个鸟巢的纺织品下面或一个人工中空的石头下面。

At times, the rewards were concealed under the same object they were hidden beneath previously, whose place had changed. A feature-based strategy would best find these coveted items.
有时这些奖赏被藏在同一个掩饰物下面，但位置有所变换。这种情况下基于特征的策略能很快的发现这些奖赏。

At other times, the rewards were hidden at the same place they were concealed before, but under a different object. A place-based strategy would best discover these items.
另一些时候，这些奖赏被藏在同一个位置但掩饰物不同，这时利用基于位置的策略最好。

When human infants are a year old, they favor place-based strategies like all the other great ape species do. This suggests human and ape brains start out the same, at least when it comes to remembering where things are. The most recent common ancestors between humans and all the other great apes date back to about 15 million years ago, suggesting this common preference has been part of our brain structures since at least then.
当人类婴儿一岁的时候，他们和其它大型猿种一样偏爱基于位置的策略。这提示人类和猿的大脑是从同一祖先进化而来的，至少就记事策略而言是这样，人类和所有其它巨型猿种最近的共同祖先可以追溯到1500万年以前，至少从那时起，这个共同的偏向性选择就已经成了我们脑结构的一部分了。

However, three-year-old children preferred a feature-based strategy. The researchers noted this shift in strategy coincided with a period when humans are first drawn into social life and acquire skills such as spoken language.
然而三岁大小的儿童则偏向于选择基于特征的策略。研究者提到这一时期人们开始进入社会生活并掌握了一些包括语言在内的能力。这个策略改变符合这一时期的情况。

In the future, Haun explained, he and his colleagues hope to discover whether developing brain areas, such as ones tied with language, are linked with changes in strategies for remembering.
Haun解释说，他和他的同事希望今后能发现某些大脑区域，如负责语言功能的区域的发育是否与记事策略的改变有关。

The scientists reported their findings in the Sept. 5 issue of the journal Current Biology.
今年9月5日的Current Biology发表了科学家们的发现。


编辑：bluelove