Table of Contents
Passage
A Learning theory is rooted in the work of Ivan Pavlov, the famous scientist who discovered and documented the principles governing how animals (humans included) learn in the 1900s. Two basic kinds of learning or conditioning occur, one of which is famously known as the classical condition. Classical conditioning happens when an animal learns to associate a neutral stimulus (signal) with a stimulus that has intrinsic meaning based on how closely in time the two stimuli are presented. The classic example of classical conditioning is a dog’s ability to associate the sound of a bell (something that originally has no meaning to the dog) with the presentation of food (something that has a lot of meaning for the dog) a few moments later. Dogs are able to learn the association between bell and food, and will salivate immediately after hearing the bell once this connection has been made. Years of learning research have led to the creation of a highly precise learning theory that can be used to understand and predict how and under what circumstances most any animal will learn, including human beings, and eventually help people figure out how to change their behaviors.
B Role models are a popular notion for guiding child development, but in recent years very interesting research has been done on learning by example in other animals. If the subject of animal learning is taught very much in terms of classical or operant conditioning, it places too much emphasis on how we allow animals to learn and not enough on how they are equipped to learn. To teach a course of mine I have been dipping profitably into a very interesting and accessible compilation of papers on social learning in mammals, including chimps and human children, edked by Heyes and Galef.
C The research reported in one paper started with a school field trip to Israel to a pine forest where many pine cones were discovered, stripped to the central core. So the investigation started with no weighty theoretical intent, but was directed at finding out what was eating the nutritious pine seeds and how they managed to get them out of the cones. The culprit proved to be the versatile and athletic black rat (Rattus rattus) and the technique was to bite each cone scale off at its base, in sequence from base to tip following the spiral growth pattern of the cone.
D Urban black rats were found to lack the skill and were unable to learn it even if housed with experiences cone strippers. However, infants of urban mothers cross fostered to stripper mothers acquired the skill, whereas infants of stripper mothers fostered by an urban mother could not. Clearly the skill had to be learned from the mother. Further elegant experiments showed that naive adults could develop the skill if they were provided with cones from which the first complete spiral of scales had been removed, rather like our new photocopier which you can word out how to use once someone has shown you how to switch it on. In case of rats, the youngsters take cones away from the mother when she is still feeding on them, allowing them to acquire the complete stripping skill.
E A good example of adaptive bearing we might conclude, but let’s see the economies. This was determined by measuring oxygen uptake of a rat stripping a cone in a metabolic chamber to calculate energetic cost and comparing it with the benefit of the pine seeds measured by calorimeter. The cost proved to be less than 10% of the energetic value of the cone. An acceptable profit margin.
F A paper in 1996 Animal Behavior by Bednekoff and Balda provides a different view of the adaptiveness of social learning. It concerns the seed catching behavior of Clark’s nutcracker (Nucifraga Columbiana) and the Mexican jay (Aphelocoma ultramarine). The former is a specialist, catching 30,000 or so seeds in scattered locations that it will recover over the months of winter, the Mexican jay will also cache food but is much less dependent upon this than the nutcracker. The two species also differ in their social structure, the nutcracker being rather solitary while the jay forages in social groups.
G The experiment is to discover not just whether a bird can remember where it hid a seed but also if it can remember where it saw another bird hide a seed. The design is slightly comical with a cacher bird wandering about a room with lots of holes in the floor hiding food in some of the holes, while watched by an observer bird perched in a cage. Two days later cahers and observers are tested for their discovery rate against an estimated random performance. In the role of cacher, not only nutcracker but also the less specialized jay performed above chance; more surprisingly, however, jay observers were as successful as jay cachers whereas nutcracker observers did no better than chance. It seems that, whereas the nutcracker is highly adapted at remembering where it hid its own seeds, the social living Mexican jay is more adept at remembering, and so exploiting, the caches of others.
Questions
Questions 1-4 Reading Passage 1 has seven paragraphs A-G Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
1 A comparison between rats’ learning and human learning
2 A reference to the earliest study in animal learning
3 The discovery of who stripped the pine cone
4 A description of a cost-effectiveness experiment
Questions 5-8 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1. In boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet write
TRUE if the sataement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
5 The field trip to Israel was to investigate how black rats learn to strip pine cones.
6 The pine cones were stripped from bottom to top by black rats.
7 It can be learned from other relevant experiences to use a photocopier.
8 Stripping the pine cones is an instinct of the black rats.
Questions 9-13 Complete the summary below using words from the box. Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.
While the Nutcracker is more able to cache seed, the Jay relies 9 ……………………… on caching food and is thus less specialized in this ability, but more 10 ……………………… . To study their behavior of caching and finding their caches, an experiment was designed and carried out to test these two birds for their ability to remember where they hid the seeds. In the experiment, the cacher bird hid seeds in the ground while the other 11 ……………………… . As a result, the Nutcracker and the Mexican Jay showed different performance in the role of 12 ……………………… at finding the seeds—the observing 13 ……………………… didn’t do as well as its counterpart.
A less
B more
C solitary
D social
E cacher
F observer
G remembered
H watched
I Jay
J Nutcracker
Answers
Below are the answers, key words, synonyms and full explanations for the IELTS Reading passage Learning By Examples (Passage 1, Questions 1–13).
Questions 1–4: Which paragraph contains the following information? (A–G)
1. A comparison between rats’ learning and human learning
Answer: D
Key words: rather like our new photocopier which you can work out how to use
Synonyms: rats vs humans = “naive adults could develop the skill if they were provided with cones … rather like our new photocopier which you can work out how to use once someone has shown you”
Explanation: Paragraph D compares rats learning to strip cones with humans learning to use a photocopier.
2. A reference to the earliest study in animal learning
Answer: A
Key words: Ivan Pavlov; discovered the principles … in the 1900s
Synonyms: earliest study = “Learning theory is rooted in the work of Ivan Pavlov … who discovered and documented the principles … in the 1900s”
Explanation: Paragraph A refers to Pavlov’s pioneering learning research.
3. The discovery of who stripped the pine cone
Answer: C
Key words: The culprit proved to be the black rat
Synonyms: who stripped the cone = “The culprit proved to be the versatile and athletic black rat (Rattus rattus)”
Explanation: Paragraph C identifies the black rat as the cone-stripper.
4. A description of a cost-effectiveness experiment
Answer: E
Key words: oxygen uptake; energetic cost; benefit measured by calorimeter; profit margin
Synonyms: cost-effectiveness = “measuring oxygen uptake … to calculate energetic cost and comparing it with the benefit … The cost proved to be less than 10%”
Explanation: Paragraph E weighs the energy cost against the food benefit of stripping cones.
Questions 5–8: True / False / Not Given
5. The field trip to Israel was to investigate how black rats learn to strip pine cones.
Answer: FALSE
Key words: no weighty theoretical intent; finding out what was eating the pine seeds
Synonyms: not about how rats learn = “the investigation started with no weighty theoretical intent, but was directed at finding out what was eating the nutritious pine seeds”
Explanation: Paragraph C: the trip aimed to find out what ate the seeds, not how rats learn — so the statement is false.
6. The pine cones were stripped from bottom to top by black rats.
Answer: TRUE
Key words: bite each cone scale off at its base, in sequence from base to tip
Synonyms: bottom to top = “the technique was to bite each cone scale off at its base, in sequence from base to tip”
Explanation: Paragraph C: rats work from base (bottom) to tip (top).
7. It can be learned from other relevant experiences to use a photocopier.
Answer: TRUE
Key words: work out how to use once someone has shown you how to switch it on
Synonyms: learn from a helpful starting point = “rather like our new photocopier which you can work out how to use once someone has shown you how to switch it on”
Explanation: Paragraph D says you can figure a photocopier out once given a starting point, i.e. learn from a related cue.
8. Stripping the pine cones is an instinct of the black rats.
Answer: FALSE
Key words: Clearly the skill had to be learned from the mother
Synonyms: not instinct = “Clearly the skill had to be learned from the mother”
Explanation: Paragraph D shows the skill is learned, not instinctive → FALSE.
Questions 9–13: Summary Completion (from the box)
9. … the Jay relies ……… on caching food …
Answer: less
Key words: much less dependent upon this than the Nutcracker
Synonyms: relies less = “the Mexican Jay will also cache food but is much less dependent upon this than the Nutcracker”
Explanation: Paragraph F: the Jay depends less on caching.
10. … but more ……… .
Answer: social
Key words: the Jay forages in social groups
Synonyms: more social = “the Nutcracker being rather solitary while the Jay forages in social groups”
Explanation: Paragraph F: the Jay is more social than the solitary Nutcracker.
11. … the cacher bird hid seeds in the ground while the other ……… .
Answer: watched
Key words: while watched by an observer bird perched in a cage
Synonyms: the other watched = “hiding food in some of the holes, while watched by an observer bird perched in a cage”
Explanation: Paragraph G: an observer bird watched the cacher hide the seeds.
12. … showed different performance in the role of ……… at finding the seeds …
Answer: observer
Key words: jay observers … nutcracker observers did no better than chance
Synonyms: role of observer = “jay observers were as successful as jay cachers whereas nutcracker observers did no better than chance”
Explanation: Paragraph G: the difference showed up in the observer role.
13. … the observing ……… didn’t do as well as its counterpart.
Answer: Nutcracker
Key words: nutcracker observers did no better than chance
Synonyms: observing … did worse = “nutcracker observers did no better than chance”
Explanation: Paragraph G: the observing Nutcracker performed worse than the observing Jay.
Answer Key (Quick Reference)
| Q | Answer | Q | Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | D | 8 | FALSE |
| 2 | A | 9 | less |
| 3 | C | 10 | social |
| 4 | E | 11 | watched |
| 5 | FALSE | 12 | observer |
| 6 | TRUE | 13 | Nutcracker |
| 7 | TRUE |
