Metacognition托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

Metacognition托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

一、Metacognition托福听力原文：

NARRATOR:Listen to part of a lecture in a psychology class.MALE PROFESSOR:We've been talking about animal cognition—the study of animal intelligence.Now,much of the research in this area is motivated by the search for animal analogues,or parallels to human cognitive processes.And one of the processes we've been investigating is metacognition.What is metacognition?Well,it's being aware of what one knows or feels,um...having an awareness of one's state of mind.An-and making decisions about behavior based on what one knows.Researchers have long been interested in whether animals possess this capability,but—but couldn't test it because animals aren't able to report their feelings.

But recently one group of researchers found a way to solve this problem.They did studies with—with monkeys and dolphins that provide evidence that these animals have the ability to feel uncertainty,to feel unsure about something and,well,to know that they are uncertain.So how could these researchers figure out if an animal feels uncertainty?Well,it began with a study one of them did on a dolphin,who had been trained to recognize a particular high-pitched tone.The dolphin was taught to press one of two paddles depending on whether it heard the high tone or one that was lower.Food was a reward for a correct response.

But if the wrong paddle was pressed,the dolphin had to wait several seconds before it could try again.The task varied in difficulty according to the pitch of the second tone.The closer it came in pitch to the first one,the harder it became for the dolphin to correctly identify it as low.And the researcher noted that the dolphin is quite eager to press the paddle when it was sure of the answer,but exhibited hesitation during difficult trials.Next the researcher introduced a third option,a third paddle that would initiate a new trial,giving the dolphin the choice of passing on difficult trials.Once the dolphin figured out the result of pressing this new paddle,it did choose it frequently when the trial was difficult.The researcher took that as an indication that the animal wanted to pass because it didn't know the answer and knew it didn't know.But there was a problem.Other researchers protested that th-the opt-out response was simply a learned or conditioned response.You remember intro to psychology,right?In other words,by pressing the pass paddle,the dolphin avoided having to wait and hasten the possibility of a full reward by moving directly to the next trial.So the experiment didn't necessarily indicate that the dolphin had knowledge of its own uncertainty,just that it wanted to avoid negative consequences.So more recently,our researcher and his colleagues devised a new study,this time using monkeys.In this experiment,the monkeys had to identify certain patterns displayed on a computer screen.These patterns were analogous to the tones used in the dolphin study.

One type of pattern was of a specific density and was to be classified as dense,while the second type of pattern could vary in density,but was always less dense than the first one.And the monkeys'task was to identify this second type as sparse.So the denser the second type of pattern was,the more difficult the task became.

And as in a previous study,the monkeys were given a third choice that would allow them to pass on to a new trial.But unlike in the dolphin experiment,the monkeys had to complete four trials before they got any feedback.They didn't know if they responded correctly or incorrectly after each trial because there was no reward or punishment.At the end of four trials,feedback was given.The monkeys received a full reward for each correct response.

And a time-out during which a buzzer was sounded for each incorrect response.But the monkeys had no way to tell which reward or punishment was associated with which response.And they didn't get either reward or punishment for choosing the pass option,th-the uncertainty response.But nevertheless they still chose this option in the appropriate circumstances when the trial was particularly difficult.And this is evidence that it wasn't simply a conditioned response,because that response didn't guarantee a faster reward.So,what does all this tell us about animal consciousness or animals'awareness of themselves and their state of mind?Can we really know what's going on in the minds of animals?No.Of course not.But exploring the metacognitive capacity of animals could become an important criterion in highlighting the similarities and differences between human and animal minds.

二、Metacognition托福听力中文翻译：

旁白：听一堂心理学课上的部分讲座。教授：我们一直在谈论动物认知，即动物智力的研究。现在，这一领域的大部分研究都是出于对动物类似物的研究，或与人类认知过程相似的研究。我们一直在研究的过程之一是元认知。什么是元认知？嗯，它是意识到一个人所知道的或感觉到的，嗯……意识到自己的心理状态。以及根据自己所知道的做出行为决定。研究人员长期以来一直对动物是否具备这种能力感兴趣，但无法测试，因为动物无法报告自己的感受。

但最近一组研究人员找到了解决这个问题的方法。他们用猴子和海豚做了研究，提供了证据，证明这些动物有能力感到不确定性，对某些事情感到不确定，以及知道自己是不确定的。那么，这些研究人员如何弄清楚动物是否感到不确定？首先，他们中的一人对一只海豚进行了一项研究，这只海豚经过训练，能够识别特定的高音。海豚被教导如何按下两个桨中的一个，这取决于它听到的是高音还是低音。食物是对正确反应的奖励。

但如果按下了错误的桨，海豚必须等待几秒钟才能再次尝试。这项任务的难度根据第二声的音调而不同。它的音调越接近第一个，海豚就越难正确地识别它是低的。研究人员注意到，当海豚确定答案时，它非常渴望按下桨，但在艰难的试验中表现出犹豫。接下来，研究人员介绍了第三个选项，第三个桨将启动新的试验，让海豚有机会通过艰难的试验。一旦海豚知道了按下这个新桨的结果，它就会在试验困难时频繁地选择。研究人员认为，这表明动物想通过考试，因为它不知道答案，也知道自己不知道。其他研究人员抗议说，选择退出反应只是一种学习或条件反应。你还记得心理学导论吗？换言之，通过按下传递桨，海豚避免了等待，并通过直接进行下一次试验来加快获得全额奖励的可能性。因此，实验并不一定表明海豚知道自己的不确定性，只是希望避免负面后果。因此，最近，我们的研究人员和他的同事设计了一项新的研究，这一次使用猴子。在这个实验中，猴子必须识别计算机屏幕上显示的某些模式。这些模式与海豚研究中使用的音调类似。

一种类型的图案具有特定的密度，被分类为密集型，而第二种类型的模式密度可能不同，但总是比第一种模式密度低。猴子的任务是将第二种模式识别为稀疏型。因此，第二种模式越密集，任务就越困难。

和之前的一项研究一样，猴子们得到了第三种选择，这将允许他们进行新的试验。但与海豚实验不同的是，猴子们必须完成四次试验才能得到任何反馈。他们不知道每次审判后他们的反应是正确还是错误，因为没有奖励或惩罚。在四次审判结束时，他们都给出了反馈。每答对一次，猴子都会得到全额奖励。

还有一个暂停，在这个暂停期间，每一个错误的回答都会响起一个蜂鸣器。但猴子们无法分辨出哪种奖励或惩罚与哪种反应有关。而且他们没有因为选择传球选项而得到奖励或惩罚，这是不确定的反应。但尽管如此，他们还是在审判特别困难的适当情况下选择了这一选项。这是一个证据，证明这不仅仅是一种条件反应，因为这种反应并不能保证更快的回报。那么，所有这些都告诉我们动物意识或动物对自己的意识和他们的心理状态有什么？我们真的能知道动物们的想法吗？没有。当然没有。但探索动物的元认知能力可以成为突出人类和动物思维的异同的重要标准。

三、Metacognition托福听力问题：

Q1:1.What is the lecture mainly about?

A.The difference between cognition and metacognition

B.A study showing that dolphins have less cognitive capacity than monkeys

C.The effectiveness of using food as a reward in experiments with monkeys

D.Research that investigates whether animals are aware of feeling uncertainty

Q2:2.Why does the professor mention the inability of animals to report what they are thinking?

A.To emphasize that language learning is an ability unique to humans

B.To explain why researchers must be sensitive to nuances in animals'behavior

C.To point out a difficulty in testing for metacognition in animals

D.To show the need for advancements in the study of animal communication

Q3:3.In the dolphin study,how did the researcher make the dolphins’s task increasingly difficult?

A.By showing the dolphin two patterns that were similar in density

B.By playing two sounds that became progressively closer in pitch

C.By producing sounds that were just within the dolphins'range of hearing

D.By introducing a third paddle that ended on trial and began a new one

Q4:4.According to the professor,what objections did some researchers raise with regard to the dolphin study?

A.The study did not distinguish between learned and higher-level responses.

B.The dolphin was not rewarded consistently for pressing the third paddle.

C.Only one dolphin was used in the experiment.

D.The results could not be replicated in a later study.

Q5:5.What can be inferred from the results of the study in which monkeys did not receive immediate feedback?

A.The researchers based the study on an incorrect hypothesis.

B.Monkeys respond best to negative reinforcement.

C.Monkeys become confused when they do not receive rewards.

D.Monkeys probably have some degree of metacognitive ability.

Q6:6.Why does the professor say this?

A.To emphasize the importance of introductory courses.

B.To find out whether students have taken a psychology course.

C.To imply that students should be familiar with the concept she mentioned.

D.To indicate that she is going to review information from a psychology class.

四、Metacognition托福听力答案：

A1:正确答案：D

A2:正确答案：C

A3:正确答案：B

A4:正确答案：A

A5:正确答案：D

A6:正确答案：C

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