Learning By Examples IELTS Reading Answers
Learning By Examples IELTS Reading Answers is a passage on a learning theory developed by Ivan Pavlov. This is an important passage for IELTS reading and 13 questions are given here. The question types are:
- Matching the information with the paragraph
- True/false
- Complete the summary
Learning By Examples IELTS Reading Answers is an important passage with a complex set of IELTS reading questions and IELTS reading sample papers with explanations help the candidates to improve their reading skills. The source of this passage is How To Learn About Teaching.
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Section 1
Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions
Learning By Examples IELTS Reading Answers
- Learning theory is rooted in the work of Ivan Pavlov, the famous scientist who discover and document 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 behaviours.
- 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, edited by Heyes and Galef.
- 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) 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.
- 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 work out how to use once someone has shown you how to switch it on. In the 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.
- 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 the energetic cost and comparing it with the benefit of the pine seeds measured by the calorimeter. The cost proved to be less than 10% of the energetic value of the cone. An acceptable profit margin.
- A paper in 1996 Animal Behavior by Bednekoff and Balda provides a different view of the adaptiveness of social learning. It concerns the seed caching behaviour 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.
- 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 cachers 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.
Section 2
Solution With Explanation
Questions 1-4
Reading Passage 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.
- a comparison between rats learning and human learning
Answer: D
Explanation: This is a correct answer as Para D explains the relationship of how the rats learned the skills from their mother. The comparison of the learning between the rats and the human beings is shown very explicitly to compare the method of learning methods. According to the information in Paragraph D, the pattern of learning is basically the same and the difference is in the method of learning.
Supporting sentence: 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 work out how to use once someone has shown you how to switch it on. In the 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.
Keywords: black rats, urban mothers, stripper mothers
Location in the passage: Paragraph D
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- a reference to the earliest study in animal learning
Answer: A
Explanation: It was Ivan Pavlov who worked on the Learning Theory of animals which are described in this paragraph. The previous studies to understand the learning of different species are very helpful. In the first paragraph, references are seen to the old researches on animal learning. The learning of animals has given a hint on the learning pattern of human beings.
Supporting sentence: Learning theory is rooted in the work of Ivan Pavlov, the famous scientist who discover and document 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.
Keywords: Ivan Pavlov, in the 1900s, Classical conditioning
Location in the passage: Paragraph A
- the discovery of who stripped the pine cone
Answer: C
Explanation: It was the Black Rat who stole the pine cones and that is described in the answered paragraph. In this paragraph, it is mentioned that after a thorough investigation when the pine-cone was found stripped. Later the versatile and athletic black rat (Rattus) black rat (Rattus) was proved to be the main culprit. The pattern of growth was noticed at this investigation that proved the technique of bite.
Supporting sentence: 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) 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.
Keywords: culprit, versatile and athletic black rat (Rattus)
Location in the passage: Paragraph C
- a description of a cost-effectiveness experiment
Answer: E
Explanation: Paragraph C is all about the cost-effectiveness of the experiment. It was determined after measuring oxygen uptakes of the rat stripping that cone inside the metabolic chamber. It helped in calculating the energetic cost of this activity. Along with this, it helps in comparing the energy and benefit of the pine seeds in a calorimeter. The cost of this was less than 10% of the cone’s energetic value and it was a profit.
Supporting sentence: This was determined by measuring oxygen uptake of a rat stripping a cone in a metabolic chamber to calculate the energetic cost and comparing it with the benefit of the pine seeds measured by the calorimeter. The cost proved to be less than 10% of the energetic value of the cone. An acceptable profit margin.
Keywords: less than 10%, energetic value of the cone, acceptable profit margin
Location in the passage: Paragraph E
Questions 5-8 - Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet write
- TRUE, if the statement agrees with the information
- FALSE, if the statement contradicts the information
- NOT GIVEN, if there is no information on this
- The field trip to Israel was to investigate how black rats learn to strip pine cones.
Answer: False
Explanation: The field trip was merely to visit a pine forest and there the discovery of the pine cones took place – thereby, making this statement incorrect. In the passage, it is now were given that the field trip had a purpose to visit a pine forest and that is the place where the discovery of the pine cones took place.
Supporting sentence: 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.
Keywords: school field trip to Israel, pine cones were discovered, weighty theoretical intent
Location in the passage: Paragraph C
- The pine cones were stripped from bottom to top by black rats.
Answer: True
Explanation: It was the black rat that stripped the pine cones from the bottom to the top making the answer selection correct. In the third paragraph of the reading passage, it is mentioned that the real culprit was the versatile and athletic black rat (Rattus). The technique used by this black rat was “base to tip” which means bottom to top. So, this statement clearly agrees with the passage.
Supporting sentence: The culprit proved to be the versatile and athletic black rat (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.
Keywords: base to tip, spiral growth pattern
Location in the passage: Paragraph C
- It can be learned from other relevant experiences to use a photocopier.
Answer: True
Explanation: Once shown by someone, the photocopier can be worked on perfectly. Therefore, it is true that it is possible to learn from other relevant experiences to use a photocopier. Towards the end of Paragraph D, it is mentioned that among the rats, the junior ones take cones away from their mothers during she is feeding on children. It allows them to have a proper grip on full-fledged stripping skills.
Supporting sentence: 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 work out how to use once someone has shown you how to switch it on. In the 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.
Keywords: first complete spiral of scales, new photocopier, how to switch it on
Location in the passage: Paragraph D
- Stripping the pine cones is an instinct of the black rats.
Answer: False
Explanation: This is not stated anywhere. It is not given anywhere in this entire reading passage that stripping the pine comes is an instinct of the black rats. Yes, it is indeed given that the black rat was the culprit identified in the investigation. But seeing the activities of one single black rat, it is not possible to distinguish the fact that it is an instinct of these black rats. It will be very generic.
Supporting sentence: 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 work out how to use once someone has shown you how to switch it on. In the 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.
Keywords: develop the skill, stripping skill
Location in the passage: Paragraph D
Questions 9 – 13 - Complete the summary below using words from the box.
| A | less | B | more | C | solitary | D | social |
| E | cacher | F | observer | G | remembered | H | watched |
| I | Jay | J | Nutcracker | - | - | - | - |
Write your answers in boxes 9– 13 on your answer sheet.
While the Nutcracker is more able to cache see, the Jay relies 9……………………on upon caching food and is thus less specialized in this ability, but more 10……………………. To study their behaviour 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.
Answer for 9 and 10: Less, Social
Explanation: According to the information given in paragraph F, the Nutcracker is much efficient in cache see. The Mexican Jay relies less on catching, rather it is more focused on its social being. The dependency on the nutcracker is less and the paper on animal behavior which was published in 1996 clarifies this fact and it is proven that the caching behavior of the nutcracker and the jay are regarding the seed mainly. But, the two species differed in social structures.
Supporting sentence: A paper in 1996 Animal Behavior by Bednekoff and Balda provides a different view of the adaptiveness of social learning. It concerns the seed caching behaviour 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.
Keywords: seed caching behaviour, differ in their social structure
Location in the passage: Paragraph F
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.
Answer for 11, 12 and 13: Watched, Observer and Nutcracker
Explanation: In the last paragraph of this reading passage, it is written that the cacher bird hid seeds in the ground while the other birds are watched over. Due to this, the Nutcracker and the Mexican Jay showed different performances in the role of an observer here at the time of searching the seeds. At the time of observing, the nutcracker or the Mexican Jay did not perform well.
Supporting sentence: Two days later cachers 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.
Keywords: cachers and observers are tested, random performance, jay observers were as successful, nutcracker observers did no better,
Location in the passage: Paragraph G.
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