| A new study in the journal of Experimental Psychology suggested that it's not just humans that can tell the difference between languages. It turns out that rats can distinguish between Japanese and Dutch. That's what researchers at the Park Scientific De Barcelona found. When they trained rats to press a little lever in response to a specific language, some rats were given Japanese while others heard Dutch. When the rats later listened to both languages they ignored the unfamiliar one. Human babies can easily pick up on the distinctive rhythm of a language as they are learning to talk. Rats obviously don't use language. So this finding suggests that some of the skills that make human language possible probably evolved for other reasons. |
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