In a new experiment conducted by a team of neuroethologists from Kiel University in Germany, Caribbean box jellyfish (Tripedalia cystophora) were observed spotting and avoiding obstacles in their way despite their lack of a central brain. Head researcher Jan Bielecki hypothesized that the process of learning may not require a complex nervous system; in fact, learning capacity may simply be an inherent feature of nerve cells. These findings are the first evidence that jellyfish can mentally connect events and correct their behaviors, a discovery that could help scientists trace how animals evolved to learn.Which finding, if true, would most directly undermine Bielecki's hypothesis?Caribbean box jellyfish have been found to follow other marine creatures to navigate through particularly complex obstacles.eliminateOther species of jellyfish with similar nervous systems did not learn in a similar way when observed in a similar situation.eliminateCaribbean box jellyfish have a strong olfactory system within their tentacles, allowing them to "smell" particles in the water.eliminateOther species of jellyfish with more complex nervous systems have been documented avoiding obstacles in similar ways as the Caribbean box jellyfish.

Text 1Starfish, echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea, have a nervous system composed of individual nerves grouped into a structure called a ganglion. However, they do not have a defined central nervous system. Consequently, biologists believe that they pick up only limited sensory information from their surroundings and that most of their behavior is guided by their sense of smell.Text 2Since 2015, several studies of starfish behavior have indicated that contrary to prior hypotheses, most members of Asteroidea possess a range of senses. While little is known about the physiology behind these mechanisms, available data indicates that starfish possess a sense of touch in addition to their sense of smell. Some can sense gravity, and many can sense the direction of currents. Additionally, most species have eyes that play a prominent role in locating feeding grounds. While more study is needed, most researchers now believe many senses govern starfish behavior.Based on the texts, what would the author of Text 2 most likely say about Text 1’s characterization of Asteroidea’s sensory capabilities?The nervous systems of starfish are not complex enough to support the processing of sensory information.eliminateThe assertion that starfish rely mainly on smell is an oversimplification based on outdated assumptions.eliminateStarfish lack the organs necessary to gain sensory information from their surroundings.eliminateWhile starfish possess a sense of smell, this particular sense is unlikely to influence their behaviors.

DescriptionRead the passage carefully and pick the option whose answer best aligns with the passage.Cuttlefish are full of personality, as behavioral ecologist Alexandra Schnell found out while researching the cephalopod's potential to display self-control. . . . “Self-control is thought to be the cornerstone of intelligence, as it is an important prerequisite for complex decision-making and planning for the future,” says Schnell . . .[Schnell's] study used a modified version of the “marshmallow test” . . . During the original marshmallow test, psychologist Walter Mischel presented children between ages four and six with one marshmallow. He told them that if they waited 15 minutes and didn’t eat it, he would give them a second marshmallow. A long-term follow-up study showed that the children who waited for the second marshmallow had more success later in life. . . . The cuttlefish version of the experiment looked a lot different. The researchers worked with six cuttlefish under nine months old and presented them with seafood instead of sweets.(Preliminary experiments showed that cuttlefish’ favorite food is live grass shrimp, while raw prawns are so-so and Asian shore crab is nearly unacceptable.) Since the researchers couldn’t explain to the cuttlefish that they would need to wait for their shrimp, they trained them to recognize certain shapes that indicated when a food item would become available.The symbols were pasted on transparent drawers so that the cuttlefish could see the food that was stored inside. One drawer, labeled with a circle to mean “immediate,” held raw king prawn. Another drawer, labeled with a triangle to mean “delayed,” held live grass shrimp. During a control experiment, square labels meant “never.”“If their self-control is flexible and I hadn’t just trained them to wait in any context, you would expect the cuttlefish to take the immediate reward [in the control], even if it’s their second preference,” says Schnell . . . and that’s what they did. That showed the researchers that cuttlefish wouldn’t reject the prawns if it was the only food available. In the experimental trials, the cuttlefish didn’t jump on the prawns if the live grass shrimp were labeled with a triangle—many waited for the shrimp drawer to open up. Each time the cuttlefish showed it could wait, the researchers tacked another ten seconds onto the next round of waiting before releasing the shrimp. The longest that a cuttlefish waited was 130 seconds.Schnell [says] that the cuttlefish usually sat at the bottom of the tank and looked at the two food items while they waited, but sometimes, they would turn away from the king prawn “as if to distract themselves from the temptation of the immediate reward.” In past studies, humans, chimpanzees, parrots and dogs also tried to distract themselves while waiting for a reward.Not every species can use self-control, but most of the animals can share another trait in common: long, social lives. Cuttlefish, on the other hand, are solitary creatures that don’t form relationships even with mates or young. . . . “We don’t know if living in a social group is important for complex cognition unless we also show those abilities are lacking in less social species,” says . . . comparative psychologist Jennifer Vonk.In which one of the following scenarios would the cuttlefish’s behavior demonstrate self-control?Please select your Answer.Asian shore crabs and raw prawns are simultaneously released while a live grass shrimp drawer labeled with a triangle is placed in front of the cuttlefish, to be opened after one minute.raw prawns are released while a live grass shrimp drawer labeled with a square is placed in front of the cuttlefish.live grass shrimp are released while two raw prawn drawers labeled with a circle and a triangle respectively are placed in front of the cuttlefish; the triangle-labeled drawer is opened after 50 seconds.raw prawns are released while an Asian shore crab drawer labeled with a triangle is placed in front of the cuttlefish, to be opened after one minute.

Passage 1The intelligence of dolphins is well documented by science. Studies show that dolphins can understand signlanguage, solve puzzles, and use objects in their environment as tools. Scientists also believe that dolphinspossess a sophisticated language: numerous instances have been recorded in which possess transmittedinformation from one individual to another. A recent experiment proved that even recognize themselves ina mirror – something achieved by very few animals. This behavior tells us that dolphins are aware that theyhave individual personalities and indicates that their intelligence may be very close to our own.Passage 2Are dolphins unusually intelligent? Dolphins have large brains, but we know that large brain size alonedoes not determine what kind of intelligence a creature has. Some researchers have suggested that dolphinshave big brains because they need them – for sonar and sound processing and social interactions. Othershave argued that regardless of brain size, dolphins have an intelligence level somewhere between a dog anda chimpanzee. The fact is, we don’t know. Just as human intelligence is appropriate for human needs,dolphin intelligence is right for the dolphin’s way of life. Until we know more, all we can say is that dolphinintelligence is different.Which point of view do you agree with? Explain why by presenting an argument as learned from the lesson.

What do animals need in order to allow them to make decisions?Group of answer choicesMyelinated nervesDeterminationInformationA complex brain

HOW DO WE KNOW?FIG. 43.10To what extent are insects capable of learning?BACKGROUNDEuropean digger wasps, Philanthus triangulum, live in the sand. Thesewasps are sometimes called “bee wolves” because they hunt honeybees tofeed their developing young. After mating, each female digs a longburrow with a few chambers at the end where she lays her eggs. She thenforages for honeybees that she brings back to these chambers for herlarvae to eat. The wasp faces a navigational challenge: having capturedher prey, how can she find her way back to and recognize her nest? Aspart of his PhD studies in the early 1930s, Niko Tinbergen noticed thatwasps lingered briefly near a new nest before heading off to hunt; hehypothesized that they were learning local landmarks associated with thenest.HYPOTHESISWasps learn visual cues around their nests to help locate the nest upontheir return.2937METHODTinbergen recognized that a good test of the learning abilities of an insectshould take place in its natural environment. He combined his skills as anaturalist and as an experimentalist to devise an elegant demonstration ofthe way in which female wasps learn landmarks for navigation. He placeda ring of pine cones around the nest of a wasp (Fig. 43.10a); then, onceshe had left to hunt, he shifted them to a new location away from the nestentrance (Fig. 43.10b). If visual cues are key to the wasp’s ability to locatethe nest, the wasp should return to the displaced pine cone ring. Incontrast, if cues are, for example, olfactory, the wasp should returndirectly to the nest.2938RESULTSFemale digger wasps carried out a brief landmark-learning flight ondeparture from the nest. When the landmarks were displaced, the femalesreturned to the wrong location (Fig. 43.10b).CONCLUSIONFemale digger wasps learn and use local landmarks, such as theexperimental ring of pine cones, as cues to the nest location.SOURCE Tinbergen, N. 1958. Curious Naturalists. New York: Basic Books.This adaptive aspect of animal learning is also revealed by tasteaversion experiments, in which an animal typically learns to avoidcertain flavors associated with a negative outcome. Rats learn to avoidflavored water if consuming it is associated with nausea. However,they do not learn to avoid flavored water if it is associated with adifferent kind of negative reinforcement, such as a mild electric shock.This result indicates that rats can make some associations, but notothers. The ones they can learn are the biologically meaningful ones,those that favor survival. In the course of evolution, the rat’s ancestorsencountered poisoned food that resulted in nausea and the aversionresponse evolved. Until humans started doing experiments on them,however, rats had never encountered a meal that resulted in an electricshock. It is not surprising, then, that the ability to pair these twophenomena never evolved. These experiments also show that thespecific evolutionary history of the species in question matters whenanalyzing animal behavior.In addition to adaptive predispositions for what can be learned andnot learned, many species exhibit predispositions for when learning2939takes place. This is particularly evident in imprinting, a form oflearning typically seen in young animals in which they acquire acertain behavior in response to key experiences during a critical periodof development. In 1935, Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz madeimprinting famous by exploiting the observation that newly hatchedgoslings and ducklings rapidly learn to treat any sufficiently largemoving object they happen to see shortly after hatching as theirmother. Lorenz found that, if he was the first person the hatchlingssaw, they would follow him as though he were their mother (Fig.43.11).FIG. 43.11 Imprinting on (a) Konrad Lorenz and (b) an ultralight aircraft. Bymanipulating newly hatched birds’ first sight of a moving object, it is possible toinduce powerful attachments in the birds.This behavior is adaptive because the first being that a hatchlingusually sees is a parent; the resulting close parent–offspring associationensures that the parent can provide care and protection. This filialimprinting is most common in bird species whose offspring leave thenest and walk around while still young, such as ducklings. Bycomparison, filial imprinting is rare in species of birds whose youngstay in the nest until they are able to fly away.2940Experiments have shown that filial imprinting typically occursduring a specific, sensitive period in the animal’s life and that theresults are usually irreversible. After Lorenz’s baby ducks hadimprinted on him, they would not change their minds about who theirparent was even when presented with their real mother duck. Thetiming of the sensitive period varies from species to species. In somecliff-nesting sea birds, imprinting on auditory stimuli (such as the callof the parents) begins while the chick is still in the egg.