Part I
Professor: Ok, the next kind of animal behavior I want to talk about might be familiar to you. You may have seen, for example, a bird that’s in the middle of a mating ritual, and suddenly it stops and preens, you know, takes a few moments to straighten its feathers, and then returns to the mating ritual. This kind of behavior, this doing something that seems completely out of place, is what we call a ‘Displacement Activity’.
Displacement activities are activities that animal’s engaging in when they have conflicting drives. If we take our example from a minute ago, if the bird is afraid of its mate, it’s conflicted. It wants to mate but it’s also afraid and wants to run away.
So, instead, it starts grooming itself. So, the displacement activity, the grooming, the straightening of its feathers, seems to be an irrelevant behavior. So, what do you think another example of a displacement activity might be?
例如，您以前可能也见过，正在进行交配仪式中的一只鸟突然停下来开始整理自己的羽毛，整理了一会儿拉直羽毛，然后再重新回到交配仪式中。
1. ritual |ˈrɪtʃuəl|
noun. a series of actions that are always performed in the same way, especially as part of a religious ceremony 程序；仪规；礼节；（尤指）宗教仪式
E.g.: She objects to the ritual of organized religion.
她反对有组织宗教的仪规。
2. preen |pri:n|
verb. to clean itself or make its feathers smooth with its beak （用喙）整理羽毛
E.g.: Using his tongue, the parrot holds the small stone in place to preen his plumage.
鹦鹉用他的舌头把小石头固定在适当的位置，用来梳理他的羽毛。
3. out of place
not suitable for a particular situation 不得体；不适当
E.g.: I felt completely out of place among all these successful people.
夹在这些事业有成的人中间，我觉得格格不入。
4. displacement activity
behaviour in animals or humans that seems to have no connection with the situation in which it is performed, resulting from two conflicting urges 替换活动，替代活动。当动物经历两种或更多种冲突行为的强烈动机时，发生置换活动：所产生的置换活动通常与竞争动机无关。例如，当不确定是攻击对手还是逃离对手时，鸟类可能会啄食草皮。类似地，当人们不知道选择两个选项中的哪一个时，他们可能会挠挠头。
5. drive |draɪv|
noun. a strong natural need or desire 强烈的欲望、需求
E.g.: The need for food and water are basic drives for all living things.
对食物和水的需求是所有生物的基本需求。
6. groom |gru:m|
verb. to clean the fur or skin of another animal or itself （给自己或其他动物）理毛，梳毛
E.g.: The horses were exercised and groomed with special care.
这些马接受专门训练，鬃毛也得到精心梳理。
Part II
Student: How about an ananimal that, um, instead of fighting its enemy or running away, it attacks a plant or a bush?
Professor: That’s a really good suggestion, Karl. But that’s called ‘redirecting’. The animal is redirecting its behavior to another object, in this case, the plant or the bush. But that’s not an irrelevant or inappropriate behavior. The behavior makes sense. It’s appropriate under the circumstances. But what doesn’t make sense is the object the behavior‘s directed towards. Ok, who else? Carol?
Student: I think I read in another class about an experiment where an object that the animal was afraid of was put next to its food – next to the animal’s food. And the animal, it was conflicted between confronting the object and eating the food, so instead, it just fell asleep. Like that?
我想起我在另一堂课上读到过的一个实验，将某个动物害怕的物体放在它的食物旁边——离它食物很近。而那个动物，它在正面害怕的物体和吃食物之间发生冲突，所以它反而只是睡着了。
1. redirect |ˌri:dəˈrekt|
verb. If you redirect your energy, resources, or ability, you begin doing something different or trying to achieve something different 改变…的方向; 改变…的目标
E.g.: Controls were used to redistribute or redirect resources.
采用了管控措施来重新分配资源或改变其流向。
2. direct |dəˈrekt|
verb. to aim sth in a particular direction or at a particular person 把…对准（某方向或某人）
E.g.: The machine directs a powerful beam at the affected part of the body.
这种机器将很强的射线对准身体感染部位。
3. confront|kənˈfrʌnt|
verb. to face sb so that they cannot avoid seeing and hearing you, especially in an unfriendly or dangerous situation 面对；对抗；与（某人）对峙
E.g.: This was the first time he had confronted an armed robber.
这是他第一次面对一个武装劫匪。
Part III
Professor: That’s exactly what I mean. Displacement occurs because the animal’s got two conflicting drives – two competing urges, in this case, fear and hunger. And what happens is, they inhibit each other, they cancel each other out in a way, and a third seemingly irrelevant behavior surfaces through a process that we call ‘Disinhibition’.
Now in disinhibition, the basic idea is that two drives that seem to inhibit, to hold back, a third drive... well... they’re getting in a way of each other in a… in a conflict situation and somehow lose control, lose their inhibiting effect on that third behavior, which means that the third drive surfaces, it’s expressed in the animal’s behavior.
实际上发生的是这两种冲动会相互抑制，以某种方式相互抵消，然后第三种看似无关的行为通过我们称之为“抑制解除”的过程显露出来。
1. inhibit |ɪnˈhɪbɪt|
verb. to prevent sth from happening or make it happen more slowly or less frequently than normal 阻止；阻碍；抑制
E.g.: A lack of oxygen may inhibit brain development in the unborn child.
缺氧可能阻碍胎儿的大脑发育。
2. cancel each other out
if two or more things cancel out or one cancels out the other, they are equally important but have an opposite effect on a situation so that the situation does not change 抵消；对消
E.g.: The advantages and disadvantages would appear to cancel each other out.
看来是利弊参半。
3. surface|ˈsɜ:fɪs|
verb.to suddenly appear or become obvious after having been hidden for a while （隐藏或被掩盖一段时间后）露面，重新出现，显露，被披露
E.g.: Doubts began to surface.
人们开始怀疑起来。
4. get in the way of
to prevent sb from doing sth; to prevent sth from happening 挡…的路；妨碍
E.g.: He wouldn't allow emotions to get in the way of him doing his job.
他不会让情绪妨碍自己的工作。
Part IV
Now, these displacement activities can include feeding, drinking, grooming, even sleeping. These are what we call ‘Comfort Behavior’. So why do you think displacement activities are so often comfort behaviors, such as grooming?
Student: Maybe because it’s easy for them to do? I mean, grooming is like one of the most accessible things an animal can do. It’s something they do all the time, and they have the stimulus right there on the outside of their bodies in order to do the grooming, or if food is right in front of them. Basically, they don’t have to think very much about those behaviors.
Student: Professor, isn’t it possible that animals groom because they’ve got messed up a little from fighting or mating? I mean if a bird’s feathers get ruffled or an animal’s fur, maybe it’s not so strange for them to stop and tidy themselves up at that point.
我的意思是，梳理毛发是动物最容易做到的事情之一。他们平常就一直梳毛，便于进行梳理的刺激物就在它们的身体表面，亦或是摆在他们面前的食物。基本上，他们不必过多考虑这些行为。
1. comfort behavior
Comfort behaviours in animals are activities that help maintain the pelage, feathers, integument or musculoskeletal system and increase the physical comfort of the animal. 动物的舒适行为是有助于保持皮毛、羽毛、外皮或肌肉骨骼系统并增加动物身体舒适度的活动。
E.g.: Atoms of hydrogen are fused to make helium.
氢原子可熔合成氦。
2. accessible |əkˈsesəbl|
adj. If something is accessible to people, they can easily use it or obtain it. 易使用的;易得到的
E.g.: This device helps make virtual reality a more usable and accessible technology.
这一装置有助于使虚拟现实成为更可用、更便利的技术。
3. ruffle|'mɒləsk|
verb. to disturb the smooth surface of sth, so that it is not even 弄皱；弄乱；使不平整
E.g.: She ruffled his hair affectionately.
她情意绵绵地拨弄着他的头发。
Part V
Professor: That’s another possible reason although it doesn’t necessarily explain other behaviors such as eating, drinking or sleeping. What’s interesting is that studies have been done that suggest that the animal’s environment may play a part in determining what kind of behavior it displays.
For example, there’s a bird, the ‘wood thrush’, anyway, when the ‘wood thrush’ is in an attack-escape conflict, that is, it’s caught between the two urges to escape from or to attack an enemy, if it’s sitting on a horizontal branch, it’ll wipe its beak on its perch. If it’s sitting on a vertical branch, it’ll groom its breast feathers. The immediate environment of the bird, its immediate, um, its relationship to its immediate environment seems to play apart in which behavior will display.
有趣的是有些已经完成的研究表明，动物所处的环境可能在决定动物本身表现出什么样的行为方面发挥了作用。
1. thrush 画眉, lark 百灵, pigeon 鸽, eagle 雕, hawk 鹰, peacock 孔雀, quail 鹌鹑, ostrich 鸵鸟, seagull 海鸥, cuckoo 杜鹃, crow 乌鸦, swallow 燕, swift 雨燕, sparrow 麻雀, nightingale 夜莺, canary 金丝雀, owl 猫头鹰, penguin 企鹅
2. horizontal |ˌhɒrɪˈzɒntl|
adj. flat and level; going across and parallel to the ground rather than going up and down 水平的；与地面平行的；横的
E.g.: Swing the club back until it is horizontal.
将球杆向后挥至水平位置。
3. vertical|ˈvɜ:tɪkl|
adj. going straight up or down from a level surface or from top to bottom in a picture, etc. 竖的；垂直的；直立的
E.g.: The cliff was almost vertical.
那悬崖几乎是笔陡的。
4. perch |pɜ:tʃ|
noun. a place where a bird rests, especially a branch or bar for this purpose, for example in a bird's cage （鸟的）栖息处，栖木
E.g.: The bird flew down from its perch.
那只鸟从它栖息的树上飞下来。
