To flee or not to flee: surviving on incomplete information

即使是低等动物，比如我们将要研究的澳大利亚招潮蟹，也能在复杂的情况下做出正确的决定。他们积极获取信息，并充分利用这些信息，以确保他们眼前的安全和长期的收益。动物在进化过程中得到了精雕细琢的磨砺，如果能理解是什么使它们如此能干，我们将受益匪浅：在理论层面上，我们可以了解良好决策的有效规则；在实践层面上，我们可能能够设计出更灵活、更健壮、更聪明的机器。除了在这个更广泛的背景下有用之外，我们的研究结果也将有助于对动物认知设计的一种新的和“复杂的”欣赏。

Even lowly animals, like the Australian fiddler crabs we will be investigating, are surprisingly competent in making the right decisions in complex situations. They actively acquire information and make good use of it to assure their immediate safety and their long term gains. Animals are exquisitely honed by evolution and we would benefit greatly by understanding what makes them so competent: on a theoretical level, we may learn about efficient rules of good decision making and on a practical level, we may be able to design more flexible, robust and clever machines. Besides being useful in this wider context, the results of our research will thus also contribute to a new and 'sophisticated' appreciation of the cognitive design of animal.