关于Agency Detection 的解释

今天有个学生说看文献的时候碰到一个问题，Agency Detection如何理解？我自己之前也没有接触过这个概念，于是便查了下。根据字面的翻译Agency Detection可以理解为「生物体检测」，但是这个在心理学中如何理解这个概念呢？

Wikipedia上给出的解释是：

Agent detection is the inclination for animals, including humans, to presume the purposeful intervention of a sentient or intelligent agent in situations that may or may not involve one.
所以，我理解Agent detection是指动物（包括人类）的一种倾向，即在一些无法确定情境下，我们会假定有生物体会存在，并果断地采取措施。这是一种进化上机制，有利于人类的生存。

It is believed that humans evolved agent detection as a survival strategy. In situations where one is unsure of the presence of an intelligent agent (such as an enemy or a predator), there is survival value in assuming its presence so that precautions can be taken. For example, if a human came across an indentation in the ground that might be a lion’s footprint, it is advantageous to err on the side of caution and assume that the lion is present.
人类将代理检测作为生存策略进化。 在不确定是否存在智能生物（如敌人或捕食者）的情况下，假设其存在并采取预防措施，有重要的生存价值。 例如，如果一个人遇到一个可能是狮子足迹的地方的压痕，那么错误地谨慎，即假定狮子在场，是有利于生存的。

这个 Blog 上给了一个具体的例子进行理解。

Imagine an early hominid in the grasslands of Africa. He hears a rustling in the bushes—is that a cheetah or just the wind? Should he run away or ignore it?
There are two kinds of errors. Suppose our friend thinks it’s a cheetah and runs away … but he’s wrong. This is a false positive. He’s crying wolf. There can be a cost to this—our timid hominid might have been frightened away from a water hole.
But consider the other error. The hominid might think it’s the wind in the tall grass … but he’s wrong. This is a false negative. The cost is obvious—he likely becomes a predator’s lunch.
Given the disproportionate consequences for guessing wrongly, natural selection seems to have selected for caution. As a result, early man may have developed a “hyperactive agency detection device”—an overactive tendency to see agency (that is, intelligence) in nature, even where there is none. The HADD may also be where we detect patterns in things—superstition, concluding that odd events are more than coincidence, or even conspiracy theories. If this gave early man the ideas of spirits of the dead and gods, this may help explain where early religion came from.

在文献阅读中，如果碰到不懂的词汇，可以先把全文看下，再去理解试试。