A Californian sea lion called Rio has astonished her trainers and may shake up the world of animal science after remembering a c

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问题    A Californian sea lion called Rio has astonished her trainers and may shake up the world of animal science after remembering a complicated trick for 10 years without ever practicing, researchers say. Shown cards with designs on them, Rio at 16 — a good age for a sea lion in captivity — picked out matching pairs without hesitation, in return for a fish. She first learned to recognize pairs when she was six, but spent the next ten years learning new tasks, without a single reminder of this older one. Scientists have done little research into the long-term memory of animals, and many assumed it is relatively limited. But researchers said Rio’s astonishing response may force a re-think of how animal minds function. "It was mind-boggling. We thought she would lose something because she was not expected to any of this material for ten years, " Ron Schusterman, one of the two scientists who trained Rio, told reporters in an interview. As well as shaking up what biologists think about long-term animal memory, Schusterman said their results are also important because they help prove animals can think even though they cannot express their thoughts in language and may give clues to how language developed in human beings.

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答案研究人员称,一只名为里奥的加州海狮仍记得10年不曾练习的复杂戏法,这让她的训练者十分震惊,或许也震动了动物科学界。当在海狮面前摆出带图案的卡片时,16岁的里奥——处于最佳年龄的人工驯养海狮——毫不犹豫地挑出了配对,作为回报她得到了一条鱼。里奥在6岁时第一次学习识别配对,但在之后的十年里都是在学习新的技能,再未重复这项旧技能。科学家们在动物长期记忆方面的研究很少,许多人认为动物的记忆相对有限。但研究人员表示,里奥惊人的反应可能会促使人们重新思考动物的思维功能。训练里奥的两位科学家之一罗恩-舒斯特曼在接受采访时告诉记者, “这真是令人难以置信。我们以为她会失去某些记忆,因为已经十年没要求她识别这类卡片了。”这项实验也动摇了生物学家对动物长期记忆的认知。舒斯特曼说这个实验结果很重要,因为它帮助证明了动物能够思考,尽管它们不能用语言表达自己的想法;而且可以为人类语言的发展方式提供线索。

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